Grappling with ideas...

I've been poring over the Sketchbook Challenge blog site. There is so much to take in! I've read numerous bits on the various artists who are the "experts" who keep the whole thing going. I'm very impressed with their creativity and originality, to the extent that I'm feeling very UNcreative and original! :( I know they all started in the same place I'm starting. I realize it takes years of practice to get good at this stuff. I'm just wondering if it's worth years of practice?!?

Where am I headed with this? (Thinking out loud, which is, of course, what blogging is all about, eh?) I'm also reading a book about professional artists who go to work each day and paint 8 hours a day to produce saleable art. Yuck! It's interesting to look at their studios, but I can't imagine doing art as a business. SO, I know I'm not headed there. At least not in the sense of artists who fill large canvases (canvasses?) with big splashes of paint that look like nothing I recognize, so others will buy it because their name is well known in artist circles. Nah.

On the other hand, small illustrations for greeting cards, picture books, that sort of thing...possibly.

What gets me is how many of these artists (on the Sketchbook Challenge website) can draw or paint something fairly simple, then they take it to a whole new level by adding really beautiful details that came from their imaginations. I just draw what I see and it can look pretty boring when I'm finished. So, I'm going to continue to try to ENJOY drawing and experimenting and I'm not going to worry about where it's going. I'm also going to keep reading and looking at what others are doing. Maybe eventually something will spark some originality and creativity that's "in there" somewhere!

In fairness to myself, I also see that many of these artists are drawing from photos or models and are taking classes from other people to get ideas, so maybe I'm not the only one who needs some help! :D

Just needed to vent, self!

BTW, this is a video called The Doodle Game. I've noticed that several of the people posting drawings on The Sketchbook Challenge like to do extreme doodles. This looks like fun! Come on Pom Pom! You're a doodler! I'm going to try this...