Drawing Scared

or, Finding Your Own Good

Hi y’all! First off, don’t worry. I’m not going to slam you with daily posts as I was considering yesterday. But today’s Daily Drawing (actually the second I inked up) inspired a little conversation with a couple other folks about what I was calling, “Finding Your Own Good.” So I wanted to share the picture and just some of my quick thoughts on the matter. Hope you dig the picture and thanks for checking it out!

Scott Brown is one of my favorite modern inkers. He just posted a digital pencil warmup (he always calls 'em "Ditties," which I think is pretty cute) of a Penguin picture, and I was wrapping up my inking/scanning/computer time, but the kiddo was drawing here on the studio floor, so I thought I'd take the time to knock out another ink picture.

(Here are Scott's original pencils. Tight enough for me to work with, but so full of looseness and energy it allowed me to just sort of be rough with my brush and see what happened.)

Scott's pencils really lend themselves to some awesome fun and experimentation with the inks, and that's what I'm all about right now. But I'm also trying to push myself out of my comfort zone, and that's why I opted to ink this piece from HIS pencils instead of something of my own. And it's very simple...

Scott's inks scare me. I'm so intimidated. He's so freakin' good, and he has such a fun and loose style. So much energy! And I'm scared at the thought of trying to draw other people's characters, attempting to mirror their style, or even just how mine would compare to theirs. I know it's silly, and I'm not competitive about it in any way whatsoever. But I do want to be better at my craft, and there are folks I look at that I just think, "I'll never be that good." Scott is one of those folks.

So lately I've been drawing some things that intimidate me (Calvin and Hobbes, Bone, Maxx, and now inking over Scott's pencils). And it's for a very simple reason. I'm teaching myself that it's true. I'll never be THAT good. "THAT'S" how good someone else is. And I'll never be THAT good. I'm working to find MY good. And I'm having lots of fun with it. There are things I draw that do not build my confidence as an artist. But I just keep plugging along. After almost 30 years of kung fu and tai chi practice, I know that's the secret. That's really the only secret. Practice. Practice. Practice.

And the more you can practice the things that make other people want to quit...even better :)

Anyway. Here's a bonus Daily Drawing. Now I gotta get to the real work!

B

You can check out more of Scott Brown’s awesome work at his Twitter or Instagram. I highly recommend it!