I find the act of drawing much more difficult than the act of writing. Maybe it’s because writing, especially on the computer, has a constrained set of marks (just 26 in fact, plus punctuation), so all I need to do is put those together in various ways until I’m happy with them. It’s easy to change those 26 marks at any time and iterate them towards something I like more. I never find myself too attached to any combination of words at any time. (This might also be because I hold myself to a lower standard of craft with words but that’s a whole other thought).
Drawing is different. With drawing, the number of marks is, quite literally, infinite. The effort required to produce a mistake, only to correct it repeatedly, through the millions of possible variations, is orders of magnitude more difficult for me to get something I’m happy with than when I make marks with words.
Because of the effort required with drawing, I’m a little more resistant to throwing things out that I don’t particularly like even though they’re ‘finished’. I say things to myself like, ‘it’s good enough’ or ‘no one but me cares or will notice’. But, if even I’m not moved by the work I produce, why would I expect others to be moved by it?
The reality is, not every drawing is a keeper. In fact, most of them are fishing for the bait that needs to be found to catch the bigger fish. And, as any fisher would know, there’s nothing quite like catching the fish you’ve been looking for, especially if it’s taken much longer or much more effort than you expected.
