Anyone else noticing a theme here? Ze Frank: "If you want to be a writer, you should be writing... not tomorrow, but TODAY." Austin Kleon - "Shut up and write the book." Noah Bradley - "If you want to make art then you need to MAKE ART." Martha Graham - "JUST DO IT."
And just so you know, I talk a big game like I follow this rule inherently and just churn out drawings like clockwork, but it's amazing to me how still, sometimes one of the hardest things to get myself to do is sit down and just fucking draw. These past couple days especially I've been plagued by negative thoughts throughout the process, I haven't turned out a single thing I like, my hand seems to have an entirely different agenda than my brain, and it's frustrating and depressing and annoying and hard! I'd rather just watch TV or do ANYTHING else that doesn't require me to think and feel so much! But goddamn it I'm going to keep doing it even if it keeps being frustrating and depressing and annoying and hard! Does that make me a masochist?
© Gina Florio 2013
Hi Gina. Got hit (again) by the same problem not too long ago. Hitting a wall used to sidetrack me for months (and years). Now that I'm older here's what I did:
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I heard that voice, telling me how all my work is shit, I said to myself you know what? I am right, my work is shit! It must be my calling: I will now start focusing on making really crappy artwork.
So I started drawing hands, boxes and books that look nothing like hands boxes and books. If you can imagine a really shitty drawings, mine were much worse :)
The inner critic learned his lesson. I don't hear much from him anymore. He got what he wanted (bad drawings) and I got what I wanted (lots of new drawings)
I take the same approach on days when I don't have the energy to draw at all, I make marks that belong on asylum walls.
Nobody will ever see my bad drawings, so who cares what and how I draw :)