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Thursday, September 20, 2018

Rough Sketch

One of my great disappointments in life is that I can't draw. I'd love to pick up a sketch pad and some pencils and make beautiful drawings. Maybe if I spent time practicing I'd reach a point where I was adequate and not embarrassing, but while I'd like to draw, I don't have a burning passion for it. Not like writing.

As a kid, when I'd try to draw and fail, I'd give up and go do something else, but when I wrote something and it wasn't exactly how I wanted it, I revised and reworked, and wrote some more. This is the difference, I think, between a passion and an interest.

I've tried coloring books because it allows some color creativity if not actual drawing, but I found this exceedingly boring and gave up quickly.

Of course, this lack of talent doesn't mean I've given up and I frequently have to talk myself out of buying art supplies. Most of the time I'm pretty good about doing it because I know I'll end up with an unused collection if I don't. Recently, I failed. I bought a color pencil set, a regular pencil set, and two sketchbooks.

I had them sitting in my office, next to the computer, and while I was writing, I had this idea. Let me draw a map! I'm working on a scene toward the end of my book and there's a lot to keep straight as far as character/plot/action/etc. and the layout of the land was one more factor to monitor.

Like I said, I can't draw well, but I didn't need an artist's rendering, just a rough sketch of what is where. So I opened my pencil case and made an extremely rudimentary drawing. It might be ugly, but it helped me with what I needed it for. I'm calling it a win.