For years, I tried to become a better artist by making my work as realistic as I could. Despite a few minor successes, I found that approach to art incredibly frustrating and unfulfilling. I simply lack the skill or commitment to developing the skills, I have little drive or resolve, I am impatient, fundamentally lazy, and terribly undisciplined.
So I gave up those dreams of becoming an artist, and allowed myself instead to doodle and scribble as I have always done. I used to scribble fairies, dancing figures and curlicues on exam papers and essays, in school text books and in letters (we wrote back then). Now I scribble in my diary, on the end pages of books, in book margins, in my dream journal, in small art books that I carry around. I scribble little figures, dream images, images I see in carpet patterns, in clusters of leaves, in stains on the wall, decorative squiggles at the ends of journal entries, emotional responses.... anything.
My art these days is mostly scribbles - a more thought-out drawing now and then, but mostly rapidly drawn, spontaneous scribbly drawings through which I express parts of my experience and inner life for which I don't have words. Then try to make sense of what I have drawn.
I find this a very satisfying way to draw, a direct communication from inner self to hand to paper. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but anyone can do it, and it can be an excellent way for a person to discover his or her creativity.
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