Sometimes You Have to Make 100 BAD Drawings To Get 1 GOOD One
(Earlier this year, a publisher asked me if I'd be interested in writing a book on art. As we discussed it... they asked me to "give it a try" and this is one of two tests I did. I don't consider myself a writer, really, so this is just "in my own voice". I wound up turning down the offer... but would love to know your thoughts on this. Thanks)
Drawing something good. Something you like. It’s… elusive. Especially when you’re just starting out.
But, here’s the thing. You have good art in you. I promise. You just have to get to it and it’s stuck under a bunch of bad art. Really bad art.
When I was younger, I would draw every day. Filling up sketchbooks with doodles and sketches and I hated ALL of them.
Page 01: Crap
Page 02: Crap
Page 03: Crap
Page 04: Worse than Crap
Page 05: What even is that?
Page 06: Ugh
And it was just downhill from there…
But… somewhere around like page 100… I made something that… “wasn’t crap”. I actually didn’t hate it.
And that gave me courage to keep going. That one drawing made it all worth it. I was cured. I was now an expert. All of my art would be great from now on.
Oh… if only.
The next drawing was worse than any other drawing before it.
How??? I just made ART! like 5 minutes before that. I got all the bad drawings out! How did my art just go from Van Gogh to Van NO???
Honestly? I… got lucky. That one good drawing? Total fluke. Dumb luck. Sheer Happenstance.
Doing 100 drawings didn’t suddenly make me an expert. It couldn’t.
Have you ever heard of the saying “If a million monkeys type on a million typewriters for a million years, they’ll eventually write Shakespeare”?
I was those monkeys and that drawing was my Shakespeare.
I just pooped out enough bad art that eventually sheer luck was going to mean I may make something really good.
And I’m TOTALLY okay with that. I was 11. I’m not a prodigy. I don’t have any special gifts. But what I did have was… a taste for how making good art felt.
Seeing that one good drawing made me want more. Like my first time tasting chocolate ice cream. I was hooked.
So, I made 100 more bad drawings. Maybe more. And, guess what? ANOTHER great drawing emerged!
Another Shakespeare from this 11 year old monkey!!!! Huzzah!
From then on… I knew that all I had to do was keep banging away at that typewriter (I’m still on the million monkey thing… bear with me) and I would get rewarded with another masterpiece.
Week after week. Month after month. I would fill up my sketchbooks with the most horrific, amateurish, incomprehensible art… and, sure enough, 1 of every 100 drawings would not suck.
I would show it to my mom and she would say “Oh! That’s wonderful!” and when she tried to turn the pages to see more, I would quickly SNATCH it out of her hands and run back into the shadows like Gollum hiding his “Precious” from prying eyes.
I dare not let her see the monstrosities that came before the work of genius.
And… this went on. For years. Predictably. Rhythmically.
Until, one day… my 75th drawing was really good.
How? It was 25 drawings early! That’s not how it was supposed to work. That wasn’t the plan.
But there it was. A really amazing drawing of a spaceship I came up with out of my head. It had lasers and a cockpit and wings and…It was glorious. And it was totally unexpected.
Maybe NOW I was an expert and I no longer needed to make bad art? Would today be the day I would only make masterpieces?
I quickly turned the page and began to draw what would soon be my second greatest work of art and… NOPE.
Still crap.
Hm. But… something was different. It was still crap. But… it wasn’t as “crappy” as the other crap.
I grabbed my previous sketchbooks and looked at the bad drawings from previous years and… guess what? My older bad drawings were WORSE than my newer bad drawings!
Apparently, the more I drew… the better my BAD drawings got too.
Okay. So. I drew 75 more “not as crappy” bad drawings and… predictably… I made another great drawing!
I was… IMPROVING.
This went on for years. I went to high school. Then art school. I hated MOST of my art… but as I practiced… the number of BAD art I had to make to get to the GOOD art got lower and lower. Soon it was 50 bad pieces for 1 good one. Then 25. Then 10.
It took decades when I noticed… I liked my art more often than not.
It was a complete surprise. I was in my 40’s when this happened. I was SO conditioned to just accept I was going to hate my art that I hadn’t noticed that I had made 5 paintings that didn’t suck. IN A ROW!!!
Unheard of!
But, there it was. 5 good paintings. One right after the other.
The 6th one was complete trash. Tossed it in the garbage.
But, the 7th one? I liked. And the 8th. And the 9th.
I’m now 54 and I know I still have SO much bad art in me. I can feel it. Always ready to pop up and ruin my day.
But, I “pooped out” so much bad art over the years that I’m not really worried about those pop up bad art surprises. I know it’s just temporary.
I like my art now. And that’s because I got MOST of the bad art out of me and into those old sketchbooks.
I know it may seem daunting doing 100 bad drawings just to get to 1 good one. But… if you love that feeling of making that one GOOD piece of art… you need to be patient and get the bad ones out. They’re blocking the good ones. Keeping them deep inside you.
So, crack open that sketchbook. Poop out those bad pieces of art and never look back.
You’ll thank me in like 40 years or so. I promise.
(Oh. And sorry for all the poop references. I’m still that 11 year old when it comes to humor)
Poop.
677 notes
·
View notes
Hobby Ideas 🎨💻🎵🧁🪴
💰 Hobbies to Make Money:
Freelance Writing
Photography
Graphic Design
Web Development
Online Selling (e.g., Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Shopify)
Blogging
Stock Trading
Real Estate Investing
Affiliate Marketing
Freelance Consulting
💪 Fitness Hobbies:
Running
Yoga
Weightlifting
Cycling
Swimming
Martial Arts
CrossFit
Hiking
Rock Climbing
Dance (e.g., Zumba, Hip-hop)
☀️ Outdoor Hobbies:
Camping
Fishing
Birdwatching
Gardening
Geocaching
Kayaking
Mountain Biking
Backpacking
Stargazing
Horseback Riding
💻 Technology Hobbies:
Programming
Robotics
3D Printing
Virtual Reality (VR) Gaming
Home Automation
Drone Flying
Cybersecurity
App Development
Electronics DIY
PC Building
🎵 Music Hobbies:
Playing an Instrument (e.g., Guitar, Piano)
Singing
DJing
Music Production
Songwriting
Music Recording
Karaoke
Music Theory
Joining a Band or Choir
Vinyl Collecting
📚 Brainy Hobbies:
Chess
Sudoku
Crossword Puzzles
Board Games
Reading
Learning a New Language
Brain Teasers
Logic Puzzles
Math and Mathematical Puzzles
Astronomy
✨ Other Hobbies:
Cooking and Baking
Painting and Drawing
Pottery and Ceramics
Woodworking
Knitting or Crocheting
DIY Home Improvement
Model Building (e.g., model trains, airplanes)
Collecting (e.g., stamps, coins, vintage items)
Volunteer Work
Meditation and Mindfulness
703 notes
·
View notes
hobbies
a hobby is an activity done for enjoyment, often in someone's spare time. hobbies aren't primarily pursued for financial gain or profit, although you can earn from a hobby.
fun fact: the name hobby originated from the small toy, a 'hobbyhorse'.
there are some general guidelines as to how many hobbies a person should have. it is good to have 2-5 hobbies, with 2-3 that you stick to semi-regularly. your hobbies should range across these four areas: physical, cerebral, creative, and community.
now, here are some idea's:
♡ reading
♡ martial arts
♡ jewellery making
♡ cooking or baking
♡ outdoor activities
♡ puzzles
♡ music
♡ painting and drawing
♡ geocaching
♡ fermentation
♡ bee-keeping
♡ gardening
♡ scrapbooking
♡ blogging
♡ birdwatching
♡ dancing
♡ singing
♡ calligraphy
♡ archery
♡ rock climbing
♡ coding
♡ sewing
♡ mentoring
♡ volunteering
♡ photography
♡ writing
♡ hiking
♡ cycling
remember that you can try as many hobbies as you please,, and that hobbies are meant to make you feel joy and peace.
❤️ nene
248 notes
·
View notes
✲ ₊₊ ❲ 🃏 ❳ ❛matching bios ideas ! . . . ₊₊ 🐳 ྉྉ
🐳 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
﹙★﹚look how they shine for you. . .
. . .and all the things that you do. ౨ৎ
and I shouldn't cry, but I love it, star b★y. . . !
. . .i just want to see you shine
'cause I know you are a st★r, girl !
call me babydoll. . . ι 🧸
. . .come break down these walls. 🧸 彡
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --🐳
if you liked it, like the post and republish it! thanks!:))<3
235 notes
·
View notes
I was thinking about that OC post.
I'm terrible at judging my own work. Literally everything I've ever made I have a thousand criticisms of.
But, also, strangers at cons have walked up to me and told me how moved they were by something I wrote. And it will inevitably be something I felt like I failed at executing fully.
But it doesn't matter. Because it meant something to them. I shared something and they loved it, even if I didn't.
Don't be embarrassed. Share what you've created with the world.
Let it live in more heads than just your own.
Give them a life beyond yourself.
97 notes
·
View notes