Thursday, September 29, 2011

Letting Go of Perfect

Last week's assignment in the online class called Supplies Me that I am currently taking with Jane Davenport (who answers to the nickname of "Danger") required us to use watercolours and coloured pencils, to draw a figure with legs (or "lolly legs" as Jane calls them) and to include the words, "there once was a girl who..."

Here's what I came up with:

"There once was a girl who knew she would have to let go of perfect if she wanted to play with Danger."

I am really pushing against my resistance in this class, whether it is using supplies that I am not comfortable with, or drawing figures and faces or just being brave enough to share the results with others.  It's nerve-racking and challenging and fun and exciting all at the same time.  The videos Jane posts for instruction are pretty amazing.  She films herself creating her drawings so we can see exactly what she does.  Sometimes she talks us through it, step by step, and sometimes is all at fast speed so we can see the finished result quickly and easily.  This week she's on vacation in Bali with her husband, who is there to surf while she draws and paints on the beach - lucky for us, she has posted new videos so we can see where they're staying and pretend we are travelling along with her while learning at the same time.  It's also a catch up week, so we can spend time going over the lessons from the first three weeks.

Stay tuned for next week, which focuses on pens and markers.  In the meantime, I'm going back to draw some more faces - as you may have noticed in yesterday's drawing, I still haven't quite mastered doing noses.  Not that they have to be perfect, but they could definitely be better.

2 comments:

kate mckinnon said...

Hey, I think what you are doing is really cool. As someone who is drawing-challenged herself, I am proud of you and impressed with your progress. Loved the face you posted yesterday.

Anonymous said...

Two of my favorite words, from Tim Holtz: embrace imperfection.