People always ask me what I do with my artwork. Do I sell it? No. I do not. Sometimes if someone comes for a visit and they say how much they love my art, I tell them to pick something out and take it. Otherwise it just ends up in a pile or a binder. I like it that way. No pressure.
I enjoy your essays/writings. you have a nice way of looking at yourself something that we all do. perhaps artists "see" things a lot. it shows when you are talking to other artists and people. you feel good when a drawing comes together it is satisfying. I get annoyed with myself when I haven't been doing some "work" on a painting that I have up in my studio. and then it comes together and I am happy with it. I have a husband who is a carpenter and a blacksmith and is very particular about any of the work he does. we do what one one call of back and forth-in about whatever we are "working" on. I say "work" however it is an enjoyment most of the time.
Danny, your essay popped up on my phone as I just finished my own draft, talking about how you inspired me to start a visual journal and draw every day.
Your words echo my thoughts too … I once made a public declaration to be creative every day for a year, posting the results on Instagram.
At first I felt alive and free, excited and bursting with possibility.
Once the 365th day wrapped up, I didn’t pick up a paintbrush a decade!
Seems like anytime we crowd our creative genius with too much structure, it wants to run away.
Thank you, Danny. Your essays are one of the things that keep my drawing, sketching, making marks on paper, in a book, with various implements. It was Betty Edwards began it for me, I don't know how many years ago? maybe 2008? But you re-awakened the spark after it was long gone. That was on 31st January 2024 and I've been drawing most of the time since. Like you say, there are lulls but they pass and I come back, because there's something satisfying about making marks on paper without using words, without having to write descriptions. Just the date and my moniker in most cases. Sometimes I add where the sketch was copied from, or where the place in the sketch is. Sometimes I add which implement I used, but that's generally it. No need for more. Yesterday I began reading (yes! reading!) Betty Edwards latest version of The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. My book is an older version. There's new stuff in there and it made me want to do those exercises again. I keep wanting to do Draw With Me again but never seem to remember on Thursday Evenings. I did do some neat sketches, with implements I haven't used in a while the last time I joined in. I think I was late getting to the party though and watched it the day after. It felt like the real deal but there was just something missing, the Live Banter! It's to add your ten penneth or laugh at someone else's or ask questions when you don't quite get it. I'll just have to get myself a reminder and join in next week. Thanks for reminding me what excuses I dream up. "My wife is sat opposite, I can't draw when she's there", is my favourite. "She doesn't appreciate my drawings, so what's the point?", is another. It's all ego, as you say. Anyway, enough of my prattle. Thanks again, Danny. See you online soon,
People always ask me what I do with my artwork. Do I sell it? No. I do not. Sometimes if someone comes for a visit and they say how much they love my art, I tell them to pick something out and take it. Otherwise it just ends up in a pile or a binder. I like it that way. No pressure.
I enjoy your essays/writings. you have a nice way of looking at yourself something that we all do. perhaps artists "see" things a lot. it shows when you are talking to other artists and people. you feel good when a drawing comes together it is satisfying. I get annoyed with myself when I haven't been doing some "work" on a painting that I have up in my studio. and then it comes together and I am happy with it. I have a husband who is a carpenter and a blacksmith and is very particular about any of the work he does. we do what one one call of back and forth-in about whatever we are "working" on. I say "work" however it is an enjoyment most of the time.
Danny, your essay popped up on my phone as I just finished my own draft, talking about how you inspired me to start a visual journal and draw every day.
Your words echo my thoughts too … I once made a public declaration to be creative every day for a year, posting the results on Instagram.
At first I felt alive and free, excited and bursting with possibility.
Once the 365th day wrapped up, I didn’t pick up a paintbrush a decade!
Seems like anytime we crowd our creative genius with too much structure, it wants to run away.
Thank you, Danny. Your essays are one of the things that keep my drawing, sketching, making marks on paper, in a book, with various implements. It was Betty Edwards began it for me, I don't know how many years ago? maybe 2008? But you re-awakened the spark after it was long gone. That was on 31st January 2024 and I've been drawing most of the time since. Like you say, there are lulls but they pass and I come back, because there's something satisfying about making marks on paper without using words, without having to write descriptions. Just the date and my moniker in most cases. Sometimes I add where the sketch was copied from, or where the place in the sketch is. Sometimes I add which implement I used, but that's generally it. No need for more. Yesterday I began reading (yes! reading!) Betty Edwards latest version of The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. My book is an older version. There's new stuff in there and it made me want to do those exercises again. I keep wanting to do Draw With Me again but never seem to remember on Thursday Evenings. I did do some neat sketches, with implements I haven't used in a while the last time I joined in. I think I was late getting to the party though and watched it the day after. It felt like the real deal but there was just something missing, the Live Banter! It's to add your ten penneth or laugh at someone else's or ask questions when you don't quite get it. I'll just have to get myself a reminder and join in next week. Thanks for reminding me what excuses I dream up. "My wife is sat opposite, I can't draw when she's there", is my favourite. "She doesn't appreciate my drawings, so what's the point?", is another. It's all ego, as you say. Anyway, enough of my prattle. Thanks again, Danny. See you online soon,
Nigel Crooks