Hard Things

It sounds obvious if I say it out loud, but lately it has really been hitting me how you need to be practicing specific skills to improve at them. Even typing that out feels ridiculous, but let me explain.

I have been drawing most of my life. There have been periods of time when I drew a lot, almost every day, for up to a year at a time. I remember being frustrated and complaining that I wasn't becoming any better, but just faster at producing poor drawings.

It makes sense, though. That's the only skill I was using. I was drawing on autopilot: I didn't incorporate new techniques, I wasn't using references, and I wasn't incresaing the level of detail on anything. It's no wonder that my mechanical skill was the only thing improving. That isn't a bad thing inherently, but it's important to understand what your work is achieving, and I was failing at that.

With that, I am drawing again. I have been doing more studies. More things that I don't really want to do, because I'm scared of how hard they are. Something I have had to tell myself lately is that, just because it's hard doesn't mean it's impossible. And also, being skilled doesn't mean that it has to feel easy, it means that you get comfortable with doing the hard stuff. I'm sure the hard stuff does get easier as you progress, but I think that only comes after developing comfort in the difficulty.

Anyway, I think this new line of thinking has been working for me. So, I'm going to stick to it.

Just wanted to provide that update!