Well, I've gone back & forth on whether to include this second, dismal sketch, which as you can see is pretty much a failure. But since the point of this isn't to produce masterpieces, I guess it really does belong here anyway. It was a very pretty bouquet at the grocery store which I looked longingly at, but didn't buy because I can't afford luxuries like flowers. So I thought I'd sketch it instead.
My excuse, therefore, is that I was drawing from memory, which I'm not good at, and also that I was trying watercolor pencils, which I've never liked, and as it turns out, I still don't!
I used to get discouraged when a painting or drawing didn't turn out--you can put tremendous pressure on yourself if you feel like you have to be brilliant all the time. But that all changed one day when I went to a special exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute, which was a show of Van Gogh and Gauguin. Gauguin isn't as much my taste, but I love Van Gogh. And as I walked through the halls and saw all these legendary paintings, I was surprised to discover something: some of them were so deft, so fearless, that I couldn't believe it. I stayed and stared and leaned in as close as I dared to study the brush strokes and color usage. And......some of them were crap. Yes. Sacrilege, I know; I'm sorry. They were not all great successes. Some of them are now priceless masterpieces simply because they were painted by the hand of the master. But they were crap.
So I figured, if Van Gogh could paint crap sometimes, then who in the world am I to feel like I can't do the same? Since I made that discovery, I've gotten much more bold and free with my painting and drawing. Sometimes I fail pretty spectacularly. Sometimes I come closer to getting it right. This sketch, obviously, falls into the former category.
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