Drawing doesn’t have to be good

Last year I decided to practice drawing, and quickly gave up. This year I got tempted again, but didn’t want to start, then quickly stop again.

In some of the leadership training I’ve done, we talk about asking why 5 times to get to the root cause of something. I decided to use the model and figure out why I don’t keep drawing.

Why did you stop drawing? I got bored.

Why did you get bored? The drawings were too basic.

Why were the drawings too basic? I was trying to learn traditional drawing techniques.

Why were you trying to learn traditional drawing? It seemed the right place to start.

Why do you think it’s the right place to start? Because that’s what we learned at art school.

And there I have it. I have been trying to re-learn using traditional drawing methods, without being in the class environment with the support of the tutor etc. Yet there’s no reason why I can’t just draw however I want, for the fun of it. I’ve started doing that, without worrying if it is right, and I’m enjoying it. There are two examples below.

On Bsky someone I followed posted this, and I have copied it because it speaks to me –

I will draw, even if it’s bad.
I will draw, even if it’s challenging.
I will draw, even if it’s been done before.
I will draw, even if it’s imperfect.
I will draw, even if someone else is better.
I will draw, even if I have much to learn.

I will draw because it’s fun.
Because I’m human.