103. notice beauty in your art

in a past blog post I talked about how sketching is like carving with light.

Today I was drawing skin on a man’s face and noticed there is a sculptural element. Like I’m not just carving, I’m molding clay to fit the shape of the man’s face. Yes, light and shadow are still the main media you work with when sketching, but there is a subtle art to making these smooth fluid forms, much more like fabrics.

It remains that sketching is like carving, I believe the first step is placing the shapes, then establishing the light with a carving mindset. In the end you go through and sculpt the skin.

It’s funny, I keep having the same realization: the movement of broad to detailed is a theme in many art practices.

Painting, sculpting, writing. The first strokes capture the shape and energy of the subject, later stages find the reality in the details and quirks. I want to zoom in on that process in this blog post…

While drawing a person I’ll suddenly see the figure as real. a wayward eyelash humanizes the eye, a twisting fold of skin on the waist is surprisingly sensual, giving the sense that you could touch the person.

This moment is a bit illusory but it’s powerful. I’ve noticed it’s pulling me out of the plateau of mediocrity - moments where I see beauty in my own art. Pursuing those moments, appreciating each one. Is that what great artists do? Appreciate deeply the work they create? Discover something wonderful using art supplies sold at dollarama.

When I was young I feared ending up in a dead end office complex. Somewhere nothing happens, nobody is present. A passing grey building on the highway. I spent a great deal of time avoiding that til I came to see the mistake there. Obviously life is happening everywhere! Yes, there are boring Hyatt hotels where someone is lonely, bored, isolated. Those are the feelings I feared (because I felt that way stuck in the suburbs) but this act of creating, connecting ideas but above all noticing beauty is what frees you from loneliness. Not going to New York and being surrounded by noise and life. You don’t have to turn up the volume, you just have to listen.

I’m realizing that in writing this blog post I started with a rough idea and noticed the more intricate idea within. The idea that I am feeling less and less lonely. I am feeling more and more connected to myself and others through the act of stopping and sketching.