Painting diaries

I think I've said enough about my painting skills than they actually are. I've started getting demands now. That too for free.

I must have drawn 2-3 sketches of people whom I know personally. (Should I include the sketch of a relative that I had drawn casually when I was in 3rd or 4th standard, the copy of which is not with me now and I doubt if even the object of the drawing must be having? I guess it was meant for the trashes of a recycling factory.) 

Someone else forwarded a picture to me on WhatsApp months back, I knew I would take longer than expected to complete it. In fact, I doubted if I'll be able to bring it into existence given the terrible speed of drawing that I've, unlike the natural artists who take minutes to make sketches of people, making the apt strokes in the first attempt. (People usually stamp their drawings with the date it was drawn on. In my case, I get confused as to which date should be put onto them as I take multiple days.) Thankfully, I saved my dignity of a fake artist despite the delay.

People only see the photos that are clicked once the drawing is complete. They don't see the difficulty that I face in achieving even a tad bit similarity with the original one, which, I believe, is the ultimate quality check of a piece of art. That is, if you have to explain what does your drawing depict or whose face it is that you've drawn, then it should be trashed. 

I know, I have invited unwanted flak for this last statement. I am going to be chided and lectured, "It is not for others that one draws, instead art is for inner peace." To some extent, it is true, but if only it is limited to the purpose of inner peace only. If by any chance, you've put into a public space, then you are bound to get overwhelming responses to it and receive critical comments at the same time. You can't plead mercy. 

In my eyes, I'm not born as an artist, rather I didn't like the art lecture much during my school days and the year it ceased to be a subject is the year in which I pursued drawing as a hobby.

And because I've just come after watching my drawing file for the umpteenth time, I can say it with an assurance that no doubt it makes you feel content, but also you can see your growth as an artist. I mean the same things that I had been proud 8 years back are the ones that now I want to keep hiding in the last pages of the folder.

Your age is reflected in your art with an evident transition in the choices. The shift from colours and pastels to pencil sketches and colourless paintings all are different tell-tale signs.