My only reason is that it makes me happy. I enjoy planning, creating, changing while doing, using materials, experimenting with combinations of materials, learning something new every day. I do not sell or advertise or show to many. It is my time, my therapy. It is how I process the world. When I don't create something it seems I am missing something in my life. So, I just create to fill the "me space". Simple.
I love the way you write. It is so honest and inspiring. I think my reason for making art is I enjoy how it takes me out of the world for a while. I like to watch something appear on the page. Although I'm often dissatisfied with the result on the day I made a piece, a day or two later when I look at it again, I often find it has improved with the passing of time. When even time can't help, I often try adding another medium, more detail, a bit of gold, a little 3-D paint. It's a fun process because it's a no-lose situation. I already don't like the piece, chances are more likely that I'll like it more with the extra attention to detail, and if not....time to put it in the bin!
Thank you, your reasons and how you lay they down are relatable in many areas. I'm learning to draw without talent, I just want my journal to be more creative.
Because of your encouragement, I started a "drawing a day" for the whole month of September, which is also my birthday month. We went on a long road trip for the first part of the month and I found it challenging to still to it but I have so far and I'm trying very hard not to be my usual perfectionist self and just let whatever comes, come. Thank you for this article! So happy I found you.
This article is quite poignant to me. I have given up commissions, I find it a drain. But now after not drawing for so long I struggle with all those traditional demons telling me I’m no good and what’s the point.
Keep up these posts Danny, they are important. We need more like you and Amie McNee to keep pushing us.
I love colour! I makes me happy, tingly....when I already am, and when I'm not.....I love dabbling, and coming back again and again, bitty-bits, and seeing something that hadn't occurred to me before. It's just fun.
I started drawing 5 years ago when I retired. I have always wanted to draw but i have noticed there are certain things that I can admire that other artists do that i give up on. I hate to get fussy, I like to draw and keep going. I don't want to be bogged down by exact lines. This brings me to the point, is there something wrong with that or am I just giving up because I am lazy? I sometimes draw with you on Thursdays and think "this is terrible, I should give up now". I keep going and maybe the next morning I look at what I did and I say " Wow, I kind of like that". I want to learn how to shade to give my work more personality. I love your work. It has personality, but I can't seem to get there. I can't let go. I did your Thursday class with cats, and you were struggling with that too. You seemed to loosen up eventually but I never seem to. I am not complaining I am realizing what I do and how I work. You know what I mean? Thanks for always encouraging me. I have to say that when I watch the Thursday draw with me and there is no JJ I am very sad. She certainly adds a lot to your back and forth. What a great team.
Recently I have tried to ressurect my art and draw again: after one and a half paintings I still feel half dead, the motive of selling isn't strong in me either.
So I guess the only reason to continue is the one you described in the article: just to create.
Hi Danny, I love reading your thoughts - the main reason I draw everyday is to leave a visual diary for my son to see himself grow up from my eyes: sketches of him as a visual diary with dates and times of him in various antics, drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, watching his iPad, eating, swimming, jumping etc. When I’m gone, he will feel my love for him through the sketchbooks and he won’t be alone anymore.
I think about this often and wonder. I believe what makes me draw is that I don't understand the world until I draw it, and I don't what I'm thinking - or rather, what I'm feeling underneath the thoughts I'm consciously aware of. Doodly drawings are often a revelation, and observational ones are an education.
Another lovely essay, Sir Danny. I started drawing again just under a year ago… and my word, I’m really enjoying it. It doesn’t matter what it is – a cake, sacks of potatoes, a strange orange president… it doesn’t matter to me. Whether I’m creating art, I don’t know… I think of something and, in a ‘childlike’ way, I just get on with it and see what comes of it. Is the result any good… no, and sometimes yes. But ‘so what’ – I’ve had a laugh. I enjoy it so much that I happily put off drawing commissions…
My only reason is that it makes me happy. I enjoy planning, creating, changing while doing, using materials, experimenting with combinations of materials, learning something new every day. I do not sell or advertise or show to many. It is my time, my therapy. It is how I process the world. When I don't create something it seems I am missing something in my life. So, I just create to fill the "me space". Simple.
I love the way you write. It is so honest and inspiring. I think my reason for making art is I enjoy how it takes me out of the world for a while. I like to watch something appear on the page. Although I'm often dissatisfied with the result on the day I made a piece, a day or two later when I look at it again, I often find it has improved with the passing of time. When even time can't help, I often try adding another medium, more detail, a bit of gold, a little 3-D paint. It's a fun process because it's a no-lose situation. I already don't like the piece, chances are more likely that I'll like it more with the extra attention to detail, and if not....time to put it in the bin!
Thank you, your reasons and how you lay they down are relatable in many areas. I'm learning to draw without talent, I just want my journal to be more creative.
Thank you for sharing this. It really resonated with me. Your essays are SO reassuring and I love reading them 👏👏
Because of your encouragement, I started a "drawing a day" for the whole month of September, which is also my birthday month. We went on a long road trip for the first part of the month and I found it challenging to still to it but I have so far and I'm trying very hard not to be my usual perfectionist self and just let whatever comes, come. Thank you for this article! So happy I found you.
This morning I thought, too late, of starting a personal challenge I'd call “Septempera.” Maybe next year!
This article is quite poignant to me. I have given up commissions, I find it a drain. But now after not drawing for so long I struggle with all those traditional demons telling me I’m no good and what’s the point.
Keep up these posts Danny, they are important. We need more like you and Amie McNee to keep pushing us.
I love colour! I makes me happy, tingly....when I already am, and when I'm not.....I love dabbling, and coming back again and again, bitty-bits, and seeing something that hadn't occurred to me before. It's just fun.
Often, I do art to calm anxiety. Art gets me out of my head.
I started drawing 5 years ago when I retired. I have always wanted to draw but i have noticed there are certain things that I can admire that other artists do that i give up on. I hate to get fussy, I like to draw and keep going. I don't want to be bogged down by exact lines. This brings me to the point, is there something wrong with that or am I just giving up because I am lazy? I sometimes draw with you on Thursdays and think "this is terrible, I should give up now". I keep going and maybe the next morning I look at what I did and I say " Wow, I kind of like that". I want to learn how to shade to give my work more personality. I love your work. It has personality, but I can't seem to get there. I can't let go. I did your Thursday class with cats, and you were struggling with that too. You seemed to loosen up eventually but I never seem to. I am not complaining I am realizing what I do and how I work. You know what I mean? Thanks for always encouraging me. I have to say that when I watch the Thursday draw with me and there is no JJ I am very sad. She certainly adds a lot to your back and forth. What a great team.
Recently I have tried to ressurect my art and draw again: after one and a half paintings I still feel half dead, the motive of selling isn't strong in me either.
So I guess the only reason to continue is the one you described in the article: just to create.
Hi Danny, I love reading your thoughts - the main reason I draw everyday is to leave a visual diary for my son to see himself grow up from my eyes: sketches of him as a visual diary with dates and times of him in various antics, drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, watching his iPad, eating, swimming, jumping etc. When I’m gone, he will feel my love for him through the sketchbooks and he won’t be alone anymore.
I think about this often and wonder. I believe what makes me draw is that I don't understand the world until I draw it, and I don't what I'm thinking - or rather, what I'm feeling underneath the thoughts I'm consciously aware of. Doodly drawings are often a revelation, and observational ones are an education.
Another lovely essay, Sir Danny. I started drawing again just under a year ago… and my word, I’m really enjoying it. It doesn’t matter what it is – a cake, sacks of potatoes, a strange orange president… it doesn’t matter to me. Whether I’m creating art, I don’t know… I think of something and, in a ‘childlike’ way, I just get on with it and see what comes of it. Is the result any good… no, and sometimes yes. But ‘so what’ – I’ve had a laugh. I enjoy it so much that I happily put off drawing commissions…
I needed this, this week. I’ve been feeling lost in busyness.
love this Danny!