The "right pen" excuse
Today is Day 4 of my Feb challenge, where I practise drawing each day. In these 4 days, I've watched some YouTube videos aimed at beginners. I'm trying some of these ideas out, but it's not been too easy. Just yesterday, I tried drawing a sunflower based on a reference and it looked mutated. The artists who I've read all talk about the chasm between your taste and your ability, especially when you're starting out.
But I still feel that sense of insecurity. One way that a part of me tries to assuage this feeling is by constantly wondering: "What are the best tools I can use?" Having asked myself some version of this at various points in my life, I know that it is a way to transfer the responsibility of good/bad art to my tools so that I don't have to carry it. The tools suck, not me. It is a compelling thought — with the right tool, I'll be good. I know this way of thinking is fallacy, but that doesn't make it any less appealing.
All I can do, all any of us can do really, is to keep making art, whatever that means. And in that slow, steady, painful yet honest process is where the gap between our taste and skills close.
Because as Rooster says:
It's not the plane, it's the pilot" — *Top Gun: Maverick (2022)