I Draw Too Much
Sometimes I draw too much. Recently my drawing have involved… my work, where I draw or I’m at least creative for 8 hours during the day, then I do free lance at home too or commissions. Oh, plus the Tinkerbell portfolio too. Did I mention that I usually draw during my lunch time too? It adds up. I pile it all on myself though so I have no one to blame but me. The crazy thing is… I love to draw. Art is pretty much my life but I need to learn to take more breaks. Step away from it from time to time. When I’m not drawing, I feel like I should be and that’s not right.
I know I’m not the only one that feels like this though. My buddy at work is the same. He just wants to draw all the time too and we understand each other in this regard. But again… I need to take a breath. Now, I’m not saying I’m going away or anything. Heck no, I wouldn’t do that. I love drawing smutty things too much. I just have to realize that if I don’t draw in the evening… that’s okay. There’s always tomorrow to draw something.
I wonder if other artists have this issue…
Play Asia
March 24th, 2012 at 12:38 am
Moderation in anything one does is always a good idea. Besides, if you were drawing every waking hour, chances are you would get burnt out and then where would you be?
In the end you know you best. You know your limits.
March 24th, 2012 at 2:56 am
I know of at least two different things that can cause this:
1 – An emotional need for a daily sense of accomplishment. Most artists suffer from this without even knowing it.
2 – A project gets so engaging, that you get addicted to it. In a way, it’s rare and wonderful. But it becomes easy to neglect the other things in your life.
Your drawing addiction sounds kind of like the second phenomenon, expect that it’s not any project in particular.
In a way, you’re very lucky. Most artists would kill to have that kind of motivation. But you’re probably right about needing to distance yourself from it a little.
It reminds me a little of the concept of “distress”, where the body remains in a state of stress so long that it has trouble getting out of that state. A stress is anything that taxes the body, so it can also come from positive things. I’m thinking that a long-term artistic workout can be like this. I don’t think it’s anything too scary. It just means you’re stuck in your drawing state. I’m just going off of what little I remember from college health classes years ago, so you might want to double-check this concept.
March 24th, 2012 at 9:31 pm
I’m probably a bit of both. I do crave a sense of accomplishment in everything I do. I love people telling me that I did a good job on things. I’m also like the second point because I can loose focus on other things as all I want to do is draw. I sucks sometimes because I’ll think that drawing is the thing I SHOULD be doing… but really I’ve just become blind to what I need to be doing.
March 25th, 2012 at 1:13 am
I tend to have too much time but not enough drawing. However, this weekend I did a favor for the daughter of a friend of my brother’s. I painted a mural on her bedroom wall. Its a tree that she adds a leaf to for every book she reads. I even added a few little critters to it. A squirrel, a cardinal bird, and a rabbit, all reading books. She really liked it. Hopefully whenever I get my website updated, there will be a picture of it.
March 25th, 2012 at 9:42 am
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘too much.’ Seems to me that if it is not interfering with your family, work, or other important aspects of your life, then I’m not sure that one can do too much of what they love (unless, of course, what you love to do is harmful to others). It is obvious from your posts that you deeply enjoy art. Unless you think that it is somehow detrimental or is keeping you from bettering yourself in some way or other, I say stick with it. A desire to master the practice of one’s passion seems to me a virtue. One, quite frankly, I wish I a little more of…. Of course, a breather every once in a while is a good thing as well.