SPIDEY | "Dig Your Heels In"

Whatsup everybody,

Whenever I do a show of any kind I ultimately decide at some point to do a little sketching between commission requests, sales and conversations. Which many times, as it will undoubtedly get busy again, leads to works-in-progress. Spidey over here being one of those. I thought it might be cool to post a progress pic of this piece in action and do a little chatting about it.

While working on this one in particular one of the things I noticed from people was their surprise in the various sketch lines. Those previous decisions I moved away from, yet are still visible on the page (yeah, they're pretty much all over the place).  This has to do with the process where I was trying the drawing method I approached the comic, Last Caress, with - using only pen, ink and whiteout pen or white acrylic paint. Pencils, graphite and erasers were off limits and heavily against the law.

This does a couple things. At first it creates hesitation since your next move isn't so easily discarded. In fact it's kind of staring you in the face as you think about the next one. Whiteout pens are great but as you can see they don't always eliminate every trace (which I rather dig honestly). However, once you're over this hump and can move freely without so much consideration to what remnants are being left behind it creates a great sense of liberation.

The most interesting thing to see for me as an artist was that of the perspective of some on-lookers to this process where they were able to see all those previous decisions. Though they enjoyed watching & checking out the drawing as I made it they were surprised to see all the visible sketching that went into it, which isn't always the case of course. Some are quicker than others. From their perspective though these sketches (or as I refer to them, discarded decisions) they placed in the category of "mistake". Understandable of course at first glance but an interesting observation nonetheless. Which got me thinking. The funny thing, and perhaps surprising to some, is that these are actually the furthest things from, what appears on the surface to be, mistakes. In reality all of these decisions lead up to an ultimate outcome.  In the same way you may try on a number of different pairs of shoes, gaging the comfort and appearance, before ultimately settling on the pair you buy. Those earlier pairs aren't mistakes. You're just trying them on for size. Same kind of thing.

This is a big sticking point young up-and-coming artists have that can likely hold them back. Confusing trying on a pair of less-than-appealing "shoes" with making a mistake. In our case, sketching something they may not be entirely happy with, which then leads to the process of beating oneself up, putting the pen down and walking away. I've seen and heard about this a lot.  This isn't a mistake however, it's merely the process of learning. Remember, each choice and each action teaches you what the next should be. So be stubborn, be persistant. Dig your heels in and make your stand. Embrace those decisions, acknowledge and commit to making new ones and focus on those. This is your most powerful tool. Knowing this also happens to make the process more fun. And who doesn't want more fun, right?

Thanks, hope this is helpful and I'll talk with you soon.

- D

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