Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Indulging Your Guilty Pleasure


In the sudden free time I found myself in this past month, I've been pushing myself to try new forms of art, different subjects, different mediums, and overall, trying to grow as an artist. But after some of my experiments went awry and I sat frustrated staring at my bin full of supplies, I decided to reach for my pencil again and turn back to something simple and familiar; my guilty pleasure. And if you haven't guessed, or haven't been privy to my artwork over the years, my guilty pleasure has always been. . . dragons.

I'll admit. . . as I pushed into the 'professional' illustration field, I became more and more embarrassed at my sometimes childish need to venture back into drawing things like dragons and monsters. After all they aren't all that 'high brow' as far as artistic expression goes. But as I dug into my drawing, finding myself lost in and loving the simple act of sketching, I realized just how therapeutic and creatively freeing it is to simply draw something I wanted to draw, for no other reason than that. That's when I realized that as an artist, there are many times when you just have to say screw it, I want to draw something and no one can stop me. Having the confidence in yourself to create something for no ones benefit but your own, I believe, makes you a stronger artist.

So I encourage, heck I challenge all of you artists out there, to indulge yourselves. Draw whatever it is YOU want to draw. Spend some time, just you and your favorite subject and/or medium, and get reacquainted with your guilty pleasure. I think you'll find it ignites some sparks you may have forgotten were there.

And with that, I hope everyone has a happy holiday season :)
Kata

6 comments:

  1. I have this reminder on the giant whiteboard next to my desk in my office that says simply this: practice creativity. The point is to not let everyone else box in your ideas, because whatever it is that gets your creative juices flowing will benefit EVERY part of your art, not just the stuff everybody else will see. I say go for it :)

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  2. Well said Chris! And you should check out the book: Caffeine for the Creative Mind. It's awesome and full of silly exercises that get the brain working. Saved my Thesis ;)

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  3. Keep it up, Kat. Whatever keeps your pencil going.

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  4. I looked that book up, it looks really interesting. Sadly it's not available on kindle, I guess I'll have to use paper again ...

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