Life Lessons from a failed sketch

Sketching is my newly acquired hobby. I have been drawing sketches in my free time and reading a lot about different sketching techniques online. I am still a beginner but that didn’t deter me from attempting portrait sketches.

Portrait sketches are quite difficult as it’s not easy to draw facial features correctly. It needs a lot of practice and patience. But I have always been an impatient person and so right from the start, I wanted to draw beautiful portraits. I surf a lot of sketches online whenever I am free. Some of them are so realistic and beautiful that it makes me wonder if I will ever be able to draw that way.

Some time back, I made a sketch of Emma Watson which went horribly wrong. It somehow looked like Emma but a quite older Emma (May be Emma will look like this 15-20 years from now!)

I really sulked afterwards and even contemplated stopping sketching thinking that it’s not my cup of tea. But even that failed sketch taught me some valuable lessons:

  • Take baby steps towards the goal. Don’t take a huge leap but go step by step.
  • Remember ‘The hare and the tortoise’ story! Slow and steady wins the race. Keep working slowly and consistently towards your goal.
  • Have patience. Nothing can be achieved overnight. Then how could you expect to be perfect just like that?
  • Learn from the failures. Reflect and see where you went wrong. Mistakes are the lessons for future.
  • Don’t be afraid of criticism. Fear of criticism will never let you grow in life.
  • Practice, practice, practice till you get it right.

A little bit of reflection helped in cheering me up and I continue with my sketching attempts. Hits or misses…But both will help me to be better at the art.

© 2017 Shaloo Walia All rights reserved

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17 comments

  1. Wonderful, Shaloo! You are brave and wise. Keep going! If you haven’t discovered him yet, you might have fun participating in Danny Gregory’s “Sketchbook Skool” online: sketchbookskool.com

  2. I recognized each portrait. All art requires practice, whether that’s playing the violin, writing poems, or drawing. Keep it up and enjoy the mere act of being creative.

    1. You are right. All art requires practice and at the same time, being creative is a source of happiness in itself.

  3. Wonderful sketches Ma’am. You are right that portrait sketches do require a lot of skill and patience. They are my favourite form of art too, but I’m trying now to learn how to paint, instead of sketch. You have made a brave attempt and you should never stop trying. That’s what I learnt too when I took up art again through the blog. Keep sketching!

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