In an effort to boost my creativity and to take life a little less seriously, I recently signed up for an on line drawing class called “Silly 5” offered by Carla Sonheim, author of Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists.

She uses classes like this to sort of trick people into learning how to draw. Although the assignments are to do silly things like drawing your feet without looking at them or to draw elephants hanging on trees instead of leaves, you are learning to observe more closely and improving your eye hand coordination without even thinking about it. If only exercise, dieting and improving your writing could be so easy…

In doing the exercises, I realized that one of my problems with drawing is also a common problem with writing. I want the picture to be perfect. I want to know where each line should go. I want to know what colors will be put where. I want to know all of what’s going to be included before I get started.
But that’s not how good art work or good stories go. You may have a sense of where you are headed. You may have an idea of what you want to accomplish. You can have an outline, just as you can sketch out the elements of the picture. But it’s okay, and in fact recommended, to get started without being entirely sure of how you will add depth and color.
It’s sort of like having a map or written directions, but understanding that you will need to make adjustments when you actually take the trip. Maybe you find that a street has been closed down or that your map instructs you to go up a wrong way. Maybe you see a Blue Jay in a tree down the street in the opposite direction and you want to get a closer look.
Another thing about drawing is that a picture can look pretty boring and sometimes downright ugly on its way to being beautiful. Same thing with writing. This is where practice and skill come in. This isn’t about raw talent. It’s about learning tips and tricks to take something that is dull and lifeless and to add some color or some more lines or some layers until it pops off the page.
So, if you don’t know exactly where something is going, don’t feel intimidated – it’s normal. Do not let it stop you from getting started.