Man Im Frustrated...

[mike@af]

I dont know what the deal is lately, but for the past month, or two I have not been able to draw for shit. My brother could draw better with his foot. Not to mention, lately, I can not even envision the proportions and such on the paper. I'd post pictures but I get so frustrated I quit not even 2minutes in.

What the hell?

Its like I have forgotten how to draw in perspective...and man is it annoying. I have filled a trashcan full of paper, and the school trashcans in my Drafting room are large.

Sadly, I cant even draw using the box method anymore.

Please dont tell me that all my drawing skill is just fading away, if thats happening, Im fucked...or maybe Im just "tense" for some reason when I go to draw?

[HighOctaneNOSUser]

I dunno, but I know what you mean. I haven't really been able to draw for shiat lately! It's F'in annoying! I can see it on the paper, so I guess I am a little bit better off....But I have been trying to do some airsoft posters for the MAA, but I jsut can't do it!

PS, Mike, have you heard of airsoft? It is a good way to relieve stress, even though I am too young to play it. But, it's expensive...

PM me if you really care to hear what I have to say about it. You'll like mit if you like paintballing. It won't hurt my feelings if you don't care what i have to say.

[asaenz]

Gosh Mike, I don't know. I mean I have messed up tons of works but never lost my skill.

The only thing I could think if is going back to basics, drawing soda cans, boxes of cereal, or boring plants. Have you considered some retraining; I hate to say it but reading an in-depth book on drawing.

The problem has to lie in your mind. I don't want t get all weird and Mr. Miyagi on you.

But I know in the martial art realm a lot of emphasis is placed on the mind. Martial arts and visual arts are very similar when it comes to the mind.

Oh, another thing you have to ask your self do you want to spend energy on developing your artwork, I mean you have modeling skills. I once wanted to do everything including building models, but I had to decide what I wanted to be an expert in so I chose visual arts instead. You see when you work on other stuff you take away resources that could be developed and used on something else, in economics we call this opportunity costs.

Take care man; let me know if you want my book idea. Ask your self what you want to be an expert in? Ask yourself what your passion is, is it art, models, being a playa? Remember we only have so many hrs in the day.

Take care

al

[mike@af]

Originally Posted by asaenz

Gosh Mike, I don't know. I mean I have messed up tons of works but never lost my skill.

The only thing I could think if is going back to basics, drawing soda cans, boxes of cereal, or boring plants. Have you considered some retraining; I hate to say it but reading an in-depth book on drawing.

The problem has to lie in your mind. I don't want t get all weird and Mr. Miyagi on you.

But I know in the martial art realm a lot of emphasis is placed on the mind. Martial arts and visual arts are very similar when it comes to the mind.

Oh, another thing you have to ask your self do you want to spend energy on developing your artwork, I mean you have modeling skills. I once wanted to do everything including building models, but I had to decide what I wanted to be an expert in so I chose visual arts instead. You see when you work on other stuff you take away resources that could be developed and used on something else, in economics we call this opportunity costs.

Take care man; let me know if you want my book idea. Ask your self what you want to be an expert in? Ask yourself what your passion is, is it art, models, being a playa? Remember we only have so many hrs in the day.

Take care

al

Good to hear from you Al. I think I might have to go to basics...and I need to retrain quick, I have a huge meeting with several Art Colleges November 27.

Sadly, I want to be an expert in everything...well everything that deals with hot rod design. Hot rod design involves both modeling, and the designing on paper. Over the summer I was busting out 2, 3 rough sketches a day. Now Im doing 1, maybe 2 sketches a month if Im lucky.

I can still do some reference, but not well. I drew up an old 67 Stang last week, rough, proportions were off, but looked halfway decent.

So I guess my largest problem is taking what I visualize, and transferring it to paper. If only I could hook up a printer to my brain.

Any more ideas?

[BuLLDoGG]

not realy mike, u r not loosing ur skillz
wha u should do get some rest and then try bit by bit, i didnt draw for very long time now and scared to think with what i'll come up if i'll try to draw something

[lemorris]

Sounds like your meeting is messing with you.

Art is mostly mental anyway. We all posses the same ability.

Try not to forget that it's fun, and you enjoy it. It is hard work, but it's what you like doin so enjoy it.

Life is brutal and uncaring for the most part. Your art space is where you balance things out. Blocks for artists and writers are very common. This is not the last time it's going to happen to you.

At work we have a little action figure body with a pod from a tree for a head. His name is bean head. He sits on a starfish my mother-in-law gave me. When things get tough we tell each other to do what he does. Just ride the starfish. It'll work itself out.

Ride the starfish.

lolol

-Lemorris

[mike@af]

Do I also have to cut my head off for a tree sack?

[lemorris]

If it helps...sure.

[bonzelite]

mike, you may have 'writer's block.' this is anxiety created out of fear. al makes a good point about martial arts. the mental cultivation of drawing is essentially the same principle as martial arts. it comes from within then is executed, with skill, externally.

if your ambition within overshoots your actual skill, this can create a gigantic problem for the artist. the artist may feel "inadequate." and this creates fear. and this can emotionally shut one down.

i have had such a problem and battle with it constantly still today. i deal with it by setting up a lifestyle whereby i am forced, often against my will, to draw. once i loosen up, which can vary between an hour or eight hours, i am on fire and can conquer anything.

see the paper as an expendable employee that you can fire, only to replaced by another blank sheet of paper. this way, when you toss out messed up drawings, they are not needed employees anyway, and you are ever closer to finding the one to really fill the job. disempower the fear, empower yourself.

embarrassment for not drawing well stifles drawing any further: this can create inadequacy fear and "blockage" from self-directed anger --laugh at it. dispell "them." --->'look, THEY are tearing my work apart." -- so what; tell them to f*k off. and then laugh at your own work if need be, and get back on the path --- this is a journey and it takes years. and one individual drawing, flubbed up, is not sacred. a thousand are not. so throw them out. start over a million times. cop the attitude: who cares. the paradox in this is that you will draw better than ever when you ACTUALLY do this. if you really attain to this mental state, you will be a changed man.

i know at least some of what i say is within your ballpark, as it must be because it happens to me, and i am an artist. and these principles are ancient and as universal as yin and yang. it appears that you have too much yin, female/ death energy, attached to you. excite the chi and usher in the male/ yang inciting forces.

[mike@af]

I think you hit it dead on.

Im comparing myself to Artists like Thom Taylor for instance. I look at some of his designs, and when I dont draw something that looks half as good, I get really pissed.

I can see the design in my head, as if it were on paper, but the moment the lead/ink touches the paper all is gone.

Also, I almost feel pressured to draw well. My friends know me as an artist, so whenever I make a bad drawing I feel I let not only myself down, but them as well.

So are you saying for me to "free my mind" in a sense by just getting a pad and scratching at it until I've loosened up to really draw?

[HighOctaneNOSUser]

Yeah, I think that is a good course of action, for you and me both, mike...In fact, I think you should go shoot another golf pencil to relieve stress (The rest of y'all don't know what I mean, but Mike does =D)

[bonzelite]

yes, mike, remember it takes me sometimes seven or eight hours to really 'loosen up.' and by then, the job is nearly done!

for example, i have looked back on recent drawings, for clients particularly, and have cringed myself into a knot over how awful they look to me. but under the gun, with my level of sleep or food or whatever on that day, the drawings will reflect my inner self. likewise, i will surprise myself at how well i performed under such awful conditions, and the drawings reflect a 'changed' man. many jobs have changed me as a man and as an artist and i am henceforth never the same again. this is the time when one has an "aha" moment. and this keeps me in the game and confident, even if the "aha" is a long time coming.

consider drawing like hunting for a female: if you are actively looking and you appear needy, tense, buckled down, intimidated, no girl in town will give you the time of day; if you have "abundance," do not give off a needy air, basically don't give two F*ks if you get it or not, women will hit on you --you will be empowered.

drawing is the same.

[mike@af]

Ahh....very good similie.

[HighOctaneNOSUser]

Who, me? Or Bonz? Ahh, get away from me, your not real, Your all not real! ahh!

Sorry, I need coffee, or sleep, or both. I think sleep, then coffee. Yup yup...

[bonzelite]

mike, this is OT, but how in the hell do you have over 200,000 posts? that is unfathomable.

al, on the martial arts thing, i graduated to orange last saturday in kung-fu. this is the first intermediate level beyond beginner. thought i'd mention it, as it parallels drawing. old skool kung-fu never used color levels, but it has been contemporized. moreover, i face the same dilemma in that training, as my skill is FAR lacking relative to my ambition. i've barely started. and to be "black" is merely the beginning.

any mastery of an art form will span the entire lifetime of the individual and, perhaps, beyond the grave.