This drawing is coming along smoothly. There's going to be an awful lot of black to draw at the bottom, though, with the man's black suit and the woman's black shawl.Yesterday a friend saw my Angel portrait and said, "I wish I could draw like that." He asked for some tips on a drawing he was making for a friend, so I told him a technique I use that helps me draw lines in the right places.
"Too much work," he said.
Lazy bum, I thought indignantly. What did you expect? Art takes time! Luckily I realized my own hypocrisy more quickly than I usually do. How many times do I say, "I wish I could...but it's too much work." I wish I could play the piano, but it's too much work. I wish I had a flat stomach, but it's too much work. I wish I could read Japanese better, but it's too much work. I was basically the charcoal pencil calling the graphite pencil black.
For some reason, drawing is just too fun for me to feel like it's work, at least most of the time. The time spent drawing just flies by.
Do you have anything that is fun to you but seems like too much work to other people?
I like to climb big hills. Of course it's work- a very pure form of it. But that's part of the exhilaration- overcoming languor, lethargy, laziness and yes, gravity, with determination, strength and discipline. The real battle is won or lost before I even begin, and takes the form of a decision- am I going to make myself do this, or am I going to take a nap? If I choose to snooze, I lose.
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