A nice bit of feedback…

I recently posted up some drawings to the discussion forum on my Craftsy.com class as part of a long answer to a student. I was referring back to some sketches done while testing a new (old) pen nib.

I’d said:

“Continuing on with the question about – should I draw in pencil first?

Here’s a small set to emphasize my point about drawing directly in ink. Now, I know everyone sees art differently, and these might be somewhat extreme examples. But if you like the sense of freedom and exuberance in these drawings and you’d like to try to get here with your art – this is why you can’t really do it by drawing in pencil first.

You just won’t have this sense of freedom. If your mind is saying ‘I need to plan the drawing so it’s perfect’ – your hand cannot possibly be free in the execution. This is something that I’m loving more and more as I draw. I have simply made the decision that there are no mistakes in drawing. That I don’t care about accuracy, I care about my drawing. My personal mark making. Anyway, that’s just some thinking from me. Take from it if you like what you see!”

And I got a nice answer back:

“I am really glad you decided to address this, because I had been wondering the same thing myself. Since following some of your traveling sketch class I have gotten so much freer and it’s been so great not to worry about if I’m being accurate enough. I’ve loved the freedom. I’ve been away from the tutorial a bit lately, and I could feel myself getting more concerned about accuracy, less free and then giving consideration to drawing in pencil first. So, bingo! I see your comments and sketches and it’s taking me back to what I was enjoying. So, I’m going to go back and watch the videos again and do more practicing until it’s super instilled in me to continue to enjoy the freedom of ink drawing!!”

So in celebration of that nice reminder of why I do this blog, and who I made the Travel Sketching class for, I just wanted to remind everyone, that if you give out this link, any friend you send it to can register at $20 off the retail price. This is my full instructor discount, permanently on offer to you, just for reading my blog.

My Sketching People class, which just got voted in the top 5 favorite drawing classes on Craftsy (thanks for those 5 stars!), is also on at my full instructor discount – just for clicking through me you’ll get $15 off.

Craftsy gives instructors a slightly higher royalty click if you sign up to a class this way, because they know we love our blog followers, and they want us to be able to offer you the best rate.

So I’m glad to do it, please pass it on to your friends and support the blog, and thanks for being a loyal reader!

~m