The kind of art I aspire to takes patience. Precision.
The hardest part isn’t the sketching. And technique can be learned, practiced, and improved.
But patience, particularly with myself, is not my greatest virtue.
Tempus fugit.
Clock #Inktober #Inktober2018
Holly Jahangiri
Holly Jahangiri is the author of Trockle, illustrated by Jordan Vinyard; A Puppy, Not a Guppy, illustrated by Ryan Shaw; and the newest release: A New Leaf for Lyle, illustrated by Carrie Salazar.
She draws inspiration from her family, from her own childhood adventures (some of which only happened in her overactive imagination), and from readers both young and young-at-heart. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, J.J., whose love and encouragement make writing books twice the fun.
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Amazing!
Love the frogs and the nibs.
I wondered if anyone would notice the little customizations! I’m glad you like it, Rasheed.
I’m glad you’re getting into art! It’s looking good, keep it up Holly! It does take patience. I’ve learned that for me it requires a reward function to keep up the motivation. My reward is to actually see an improvement from a previous version. That requires me to take photos and put them in powerpoint, so I can see the progression of the work. Seeing a painting getting better motivates me. I also realize how much the early phases of a painting are not anywhere being as final as I may have first thought. Here’s an example of a recent painting, with the photo image at the top. I’m not sure if this HTML link will work, if not I’ll reply with a different type link.
It works! 🙂
But since I think you’ve not commented here with that email address before, your comment was held in moderation till now. Pssst…if you’re someone I know, and are whitelisted here, you can even leave one or two HTML links in the body of the comment, you’re that special! (If you try to leave more than 2 at a time, you’ll probably get to sit in the hall with the bouncer till I can wave your comment in again – but that’s okay, too. He’s been instructed to be nice and bring you coffee and cookies.)
I agree and think your motivational reward function is a good one. I long ago discovered that I don’t write “just to please myself.” (Someone once called that “mental masturbation” – sounds so naughty, but I think it’s apt.) I write for an audience, and I write to communicate thoughts to them, but I love to hear theirs in return. I think, though, that happens only after you have a certain amount of confidence, or a really healthy degree of knowing what kinds of feedback are constructive vs. just nice to hear vs. only meant to tear down and eviscerate. The first is useful and helps us to improve, if we don’t let it crush us. The second is balm for the wounds of the first. The third is useless nastiness – and when you’re our age, you know it’s not usually personal. There are just some people who feed on the misery of others and love to dish it out.
I’m only posting these because (a) it keeps me accountable in my goal of doing one sketch daily (win, lose, or draw); (b) it shows aspiring artists/writers that they needn’t live in terror of putting their art/writing out there – that it won’t kill them to be less than perfect and able to laugh at themselves (or that maybe others sometimes see more in their efforts than they do, and they’re not that bad, after all); and (c) well, what I wrote in that other post, about destroying all my “napkin art.” It was mean of ME, not of the people who thought enough of it to tape it to a deli kitchen wall.
As we discussed on Facebook, it’s hard to “fix” an ink drawing. I’m doing pencil underneath, but that’s just a really rough guide. If I screw up, and I do, then it’s stuck that way till I start from scratch. Digital ink is “allowed” per Inktober rules, but that doesn’t really provide the same challenges.
Besides, how do you think I got to where I write my best work in a first draft? The PAIN of having to rewrite it all, longhand, in blue-black ink, in fifth grade. Oh, I have not forgotten…