Thursday, March 27, 2014

My first love...


I love to draw. Let me say it again... I love to draw. As you can see from the photo above, I have a decent stack of would-be illustrations from the 2+ years I dedicated to becoming a children's illustrator. Every time I look at them, as small voice inside me screams, and I wonder where I would be had I not stopped. But, I digress.

Without getting too long and drawn out (no pun intended), let me say that I know who I am now. I am an artist--not a bookstore owner, or a baker, or a pastor, or a teacher, etc, etc... I am an artist. I have sat too long thinking that my calling was something else, and whatever I was meant to do would happen soon. But the truth is, anything worth doing takes practice; it takes time! I could never get that through my head for a long time. No creative person is born ready to paint the Mona Lisa. Stuff like that comes after much practice, and failure. Failure is one of the best tools for improvement. My problem was I kept comparing my work to others, getting discouraged, and then losing the confidence I had when I started. No more...

My goal in returning to my first love and to this blog is not the pursuit of childrens illustration, but to just draw. Dust of my tools, and just draw. I miss it.
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That is my goal for the next year. Just draw. No agenda, no portfolio, no rules.What happens on March 27, 2015. God only knows that.

2 comments:

Joyce Ann Martin said...

Welcome back, Tom! I was pleasantly surprised to find your post in my news feed this morning. I'm excited to see drawings from you again as you draw just for you...and to answer that irresistible artistic pull, of course! :)

Tom Barrett said...

Thanks, Joyce. Good to be back.