Why a Pencil Blog

 

For my second post on RAD Pencil Art Blog, I want to get into why I am writing this blog. As with many things in life, the reason we do things are multi factored. My reasons for the blog are based on a quote from a 1980’s motivational speaker Zig Ziggler. His quote was “you can get anything in life you want if you help enough other people get what they want” This quote has stuck with me my entire adult life, and I believe it is a rule to live by.

So how does this quote apply to a blog on pencil drawing and art? Well, to answer that let me first tell you what I want. I wish to become a better artist and to do that I need to practice. Secondly, I would also like to improve my writing skills and to do that I need to practice. To achieve what I want it looks like I just need to practice. Sounds simple, right? Problem is that life keeps getting in the way and my drawing practice time and writing practice seem to get pushed aside for other priorities. That is where the above quote from Mr. Ziggler comes in and the reason for the blog.

The idea is to blog every week about the current drawing that I am working on and describe what I am doing and how I am accomplishing it. Hopefully, this blog will then be discovered by people who also wish to learn to draw and have the desire to practice. As a result, I will be helping others to learn to draw or improve on existing skills. What I will get in return is the requirement to practice both my drawing and my writing. Because to have any content in a blog about drawing, I will have to draw and then write about what I am doing. In the end everyone will hopefully get what they desire. Others can learn from my experience and I get the motivation to practice.

I am sure many would be thinking, “why not just set a goal to practice drawing and maybe set aside time for that”. In response to this question, for those that have set New Years’ resolutions at the beginning of the year and then forgot about them a few weeks later, know the answer. It is easy to say, “I am going to do this or accomplish that” and then not follow through because there is nothing holding you to it. My hope is that with a blog that requires regular updates, I will have more motivation to keep up my practice.  

Another reason for taking this route is that I love to teach and help people. Maybe with this blog I will be able to encourage others to take up drawing and even help them along the way. To me that would be a great reward, knowing that I was able to help someone else.

On a side note, the drawing of the tree above is one from the sketch book I have carried around for 20+ years. The tree was drawn while I was traveling supporting mobile communications with the Air Force.  At times I will be sharing drawing from my sketch book as a part of this blog.

 I believe that completes the introduction work for this blog. Next week will be my first blog on pencil drawing and I will be covering the materials I use.