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| First Drawing |
On June 26, 2010, I took a seat behind a drafting table in my
first drawing class. I had wanted to learn how to draw, but it wasn’t until
that summer that I got the courage to take a class.
For the next two hours I struggled to draw a box. I went
through several pages, just trying to get my lines straight and my eraser was
well used by the end of the session. However, in the end, I completed the drawing,
though I wondered whether or not I should continue.
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| Achievement |
This feeling that I should quit continued to plague me over
the next several weeks as I struggled in class. My sketches looked nothing like
the other students and on more than one occasion I was tempted to pack my bag and
walk out in the middle of class. Yet, despite my frustrations I stuck it out.
During the fourth class, we had to draw a model of a hand.
As usual, I struggled to get every line just right, but at the end of the class
I looked at what was on my paper and I could not believe that I had done that.
Since that first class, I have taken three more drawing
classes and I recently started attending figure drawing meetups to practice.
Each time I work on a drawing, I begin to understand what I need to do to improve
my picture.
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| Improvement |
For example, last night I spent twenty minutes working on a
portrait and in the end, I was disappointed with the results. As I stared at
the finish piece, I heard my instructor remind me to concentrate on shadows. Deciding
to listen to the voice in my head, I concentrated on part of the model (instead
of the entire model) and worked with the shadows. When I finished, I saw improvement
that had me sitting in the space with a huge grin on my face.
And, as I look through my pictures, I’m glad that I did not
quit when things were tough.
