Familiar Faces

(19-25 March 2017)

In a relatively slower week, I once again struggled with the battle between the need to continue practicing my craft and this massive hole in my mind that has been sucking away thoughts and ideas and the drive to enable me to draw or write something.

I stopped bringing to work my watercolor journal. Eventually, I decided to leave at home my pencil case filled with drawing pens and waterbrushes because they are just added weight in my bag. I don’t even use them –  not as much as I would the weeks before.

Then, I remembered the tips a friend whom I met in a watercolor painting workshop commented in my Instagram post asking how to deal with artblocks. The tip that stuck in my head is to copy something. It allows the mind to create something but still gives it a break from conceptualizing what to draw.

As always, I go back to what I usually draw -faces. But instead of trying to visualizing new characters, I doodled faces based on existing ones – ones that I didn’t create.I randomly thought of actors, films, tv series and ended up doodling 10 faces throughout the week (some I will use for another post). The general idea is to copy, I ended up trying to make it less look like I am merely copying something – if that makes sense.

Those random quick sketches reminded me of how I began with art. I may not be at the same level with those who I look up to but I know I have grown.  And while my mind is not in its best state, the exercise continue to fill me with hope and joy. Portraits has always been what I loved drawing the most.