Process (5) Don't draw every day

Unless you want to of course

Commissioned by Erik Hoel for The Intrinsic Perspective

I admire dedication to a craft. Dedication, diligence, attention, for hours, days, years, doing and learning, this is what is required to master a craft. Sounds simple. Maybe too simple. Just do these things and you will achieve mastery. But it is hard to do these things in pursuit of mastery. It is an elusive goal which seems to recede into the horizon the more you push towards it.

My mum read me a story, ‘The far away castle’. It was about a young boy who set out to find his fortune only to find a magic castle that he could never reach. He hacked through thick forests, battled dragons, climbed mountains, swam across great rivers, but he could never close the gap between him and the castle. It was only when he stopped chasing that the castle came to him. He met his wife, built a home, raised a family, and without noticing, in time they had built their own castle.

It’s an old, well tread story with a fairly obvious message. I took it to heart when I was little and it has shaped the way I have pursued anything in my life. I have spent time, years sometimes, trying very hard to be good at things, to achieve a goal, to be better. But I have always had an ability to walk away when I needed to, to stop and pay attention to the reality around me.

I am very lucky to have been able pursue something I love while paying close attention to life, to the present, to the things that matter to me, my family. The thing I seek is not some far away illusion. It is right here. But that realisation did not come on its own, magically. I had to spend time chasing down dreams, sometimes the wrong ones, before I could eventually stop and notice what it is that really matters to me. Time spent chasing, delivers the wisdom required to stop.

I don’t draw every day. Life gets in the way most of the time. Sometimes I don’t like drawing. It is frustrating and difficult and the blank page taunts me into submission. But there are other times when I can sit for hours, focussed on one thing and never realise the time. It is inspiration perhaps, a deadline, something that has sharpened my attention to this one thing. It is not furious but it is a constant flow. And I usually come out satisfied that I have at least tried.

Aiming for mastery by setting yourself an unachievable standard may lead to disappointment. If you can draw every day and maintain your focus on that goal, I commend you. Well done. You are on your way to achieve mastery of a craft. But what will you do with that mastery if you neglect life? What is the point? Maybe there is no point. Just being good at drawing may be enough of a point for you. If it is, great, you’ve cracked it. But, I would suggest, that if you stop to pay attention to life, forgive yourself for losing focus, entertain the idea that doing nothing for a moment is a good thing, you will probably be rewarded. I might also suggest that anyone telling you that mastery is achievable in three simple steps, perhaps on a popular streaming platform, is probably lying. It is not simple. It is hard. I have not mastered my own art form and I have been doing it for fucking ages. Since I was old enough to hold a pencil.

When I was young, I enjoyed it when people complimented me for my talent for art. ‘You’re so talented’ they would say, ‘I wish I could draw like that.’ It felt good. I wasn’t very good at anything else and the attention made me feel valued. It filled something that was missing inside. It wasn’t until I was much older, after attaining some self-worth, that I realised my talent was not an intrinsic part of me. It wasn’t even a talent. Sure, maybe I have some genetic advantages like good spatial awareness, visual memory and an ability to focus. But the skill came from a lot of work. I worked at it for hours, days, years. It was not just handed to me for free. I put the time in and it paid off but it was not a good way to find value in myself. I found this out hard when I went to art college and the tutors there did not value skill.

Creating a piece of art, no matter how high or low brow, is not just about skill, it is about decisions. Assuming you have an original idea, something to write about, something to draw, a concept, a desire, maybe you are just inspired, the physical skill in your craft is only a small component towards the final outcome. I recommend getting good at drawing, if only to decide later that you don’t want to draw that way. It gives you a choice. But if you make the mistake of believing that every piece needs to be well drawn, you may be falling for an ego trap. It does not need to be well drawn. It needs to be whatever it is. Put work in sure, but take work out if it is irrelevant. Art is not to prove your ability, art is to communicate truly with other humans.

As a natural nihilist, I come to the same idea periodically throughout my life; it’s all a waste of time. All we can do is distract ourselves from the inevitable truth. The trick is to waste your time on something you love. To distract yourself with something beautiful. So draw every day if you want. Or don’t.

I end with a quote.

“We seem to spend every day devising more and more ingenious ways of wasting time, I'm sick of it! I'm sick of Table Golf! I'm sick of Tiddlywinks Showjumping! I'm sick of stretching a pair of tights across the room and playing Durex Volleyball!”

Dave Lister - Three million years into deep space