I’ve always been a very impatient person. I could never wait for anything. I always hunted for my Christmas presents (I still do). No sooner did I have my pocket money in my hot little hands I’d be off buying a comic with it,. Cakes wouldn’t have a chance to cool before I’d be whiping them from in front of my aproned mother and burning my mouth with them. I always have wanted the newest, brightest and best. In short, anticipation and I have never been chums.

I am trying to learn to change though. I’m trying to develop a taste for the long view, for slow blossoming, for gentle strolling. Drawing does help with that. I think I’ve written before how I used to rush in panic at my drawings, working frantically in the hope that something would emerge. Now I work slowing (and usually without panic). I try to just concentrate on what’s in front of me and not think how this drawing will fit into my great (yeah right) career path, what I will learn from it, or whether it will make me any money. I just TRY and do what I’m doing and let the future take care of itself.

I’m a long, long way from perfecting the long view, but I am learning. It really is the only way I can sustain my creativity – doing what’s in front of me when I can and not thinking too much about it. So, I’ve allowed myself to take three days over drawing some pickles and am letting it be okay.

Now if only I could obsessively stop checking my web stats and counting how many copies of The Beany have sold…

9 Comments »