Tonight I flipped through (and actually read) a book that I had gotten out from the library. It's called,
Drawing Lab: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun. And, sure enough, they really do look like they would be fun! I'm not sure if I'll try to remember them, write them down, or check for a cheap-o copy of the book on Half.com or Amazon after it's been out a while longer, but I'll probably be trying to go through these in the near future.
I can definitely attest to the fact that when you commit to doing something for a certain amount of time, you get better. In the first college class I took (I did some while in high school), English 101, we had to journal every day. I enjoyed it, for the most part. But, sometimes, I didn't want to write. I did it anyway.
Last fall, as a family-wide self improvement project, I drew every day. I swear, most of the things I drew were things that I could see from the spot where I like to sit. But, I did it, anyway. (And actually like some of the things I drew, too.)
Lately, I've been thinking that I would like to do another drawing project. Not because I'm overly artistic, although I do like artsy things... and I definitely like certain crafts. But, drawing is a way of reflecting how your mind "sees" things, and that's becoming increasingly interesting to me.
There's this lady who comes in the library, who's inspired me to try drawing a little more often. I don't know her story, but I know that she's in the library almost every time I'm working. She usually sits at a table, spreads out her colored pencils, and draws. Sometimes she uses stencils and sometimes she just draws things that she "just thought up."
She's gotten so she makes a point of showing me her drawings, and I've gotten so I really enjoy seeing her drawings. She uses colored pencils and colored paper. Sometimes repetition of shapes is used, to create a design... and sometimes it's a drawing of a person in a certain setting. They aren't necessarily "realistic" looking, but they represent something - what she "just came up with," while sitting in the library. Sometimes she plans her execution, and sometimes, she just adds things as they come. I don't know if she always feels like coming to the library and drawing, but she always seems to be content in doing that. And, I, for one, benefit from seeing her work.
I don't know what she does with her pictures, but I hope she shares them with other people. And I hope she saves them, somewhere. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is art... and inspiration. While some of the more perfectly executed and presented pieces of artwork that are procured for display at the library fail to become noteworthy (in my eyes), seeing one patron's unpretentious - maybe even raw - art is inspiring. For that, I hope they're being tucked away, for something.
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