I cringe at what I'm about to do. I'm about to post some old drawings of mine that I find absolutely awful. But it's for the greater good. So here goes...
Yesterday I mentioned that I often fear ruining a sketchbook page by doing a bad drawing. That's true. However, the degree to which I push past that fear is directly related to the speed of my own growth and progress.
For example, the top two pages posted here are from an old sketchbook of mine in October of 1999. The very top page is literally the first time I grabbed a pen and decided to try my hand at sketching people in public. Yikes! Those drawings are horrible and I even knew it at the time. The second page is even worse and that was almost a week later.
I was very, very diligent though. I was determined to improve and I blasted through that sketchbook, working my tail off to improve this particular skill. The third page above was created after about a month of practice being out and about sketching people. It's certainly no masterpiece but I think it demonstrates a pretty solid improvement. Certainly not bad for about 30 days worth of practice.
The major lesson I take away from looking through that old sketchbook is that growth is impossible without a willingness to fail. That's a critical lesson for me and I've noticed that it applies to a whole lot more than drawing.
Do bad drawings. Hundreds of them. Take risks. Fall on your face. Embarrass yourself. Fill sketchbook pages with drawings that make you cringe and over time your progress will be astounding.
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