I met a group of artists this week who are honing in on their weakest skills in order to force each other to work on them, no matter how painful it is.
It’s easy to work on the things you’re good at, and much easier to give up and forget when you don’t succeed on the first try.
So, what do you suck at? Is there a reason? Would you ever try to improve?
I’m really bad at drawing and music. I’d love to improve both, but with drawing I haven’t put in any time and music I’m too self conscious to practice in our living situation.
That’s tough. You couldn’t just practice with a phone app (with both) and headphones?
Phone screens are really awful for drawing for me. I could use notebooks! I have no real excuse there. With music I want to play instruments again but where I live has lots of roomies and thin walls. I most want to pick up the saxophone again and there actually exist electronic saxophones where you can hook up earbuds but they’re so incredibly far out of my price range!
That sucks. I can relate, I had to sell my electric drum kit for rent during covid. My melodica helped get me through it.
And yeah, sketchbook it up. No one can judge what you don’t show them. Alternatively - I go to a free, super positive sketch club once a week to motivate me to draw more.
Check out auction sites for one of those electronic woodwinds. People buy them, never use them, then dump them for cheap. You can probably find one that’s nearly brand new, maybe even with the box, for a fraction of the original cost.
Thank you so much for the suggestion! At risk of sounding naive, what kinds of sites do you think would be best for me to visit?
I suck at doing full color rendering, painting landscapes and elaborate scenes. I’m best when working in grayscale and quick sketching.
I tend to get bored finishing involved pieces because I enjoy the foundational part of the process the most, so I get the “accomplished” feeling early and then struggle with the rest, or abandon the project all together…I lack stamina.
Probably because of my all consuming need for instant gratification. (๑_๑//)
The colour is my favorite part, drawing is the struggle to get there.
Painting/ Drawing.
I’m a musician, and a pretty good writer, having made a living doing both at one time or another. I love doing both, but I understand them on a deep, fundamental level, so any mystery and magic is long gone.
But I still view visual arts as nearly miraculous, because I can’t do it at all. I’ve tried to draw, and it’s always horribly embarrassing.
So long ago, I made the conscious decision to avoid doing visual art myself, and maintain that mystery of the process. I love going to art museums in whatever city I happen to be in, and I know enough about the basics of all arts, but visual arts specifically, that I can appreciate the works from an artistic perspective, but still be amazed by them from a casual viewer perspective.
I could probably train myself to draw or paint fairly well, but I’m not going to do that, and spend my time writing and making music instead. Appreciating Painting/Drawing as a fan will remain the way I can still maintain a magical connection with The Arts.
Appreciating the magic of other people’s talents is a great juxtaposition to fomo. I try to do everything and master nothing because learning new things is my drug of choice. I sometimes envy folks who stick to one thing until they’re phenomenal.
