On The Count Of Three

I think I may not be that bad of a drawer. I'll be realistic in saying that I'm not a great one, or probably even a very good one. I have terrible spatial reasoning. If you asked me to write a line of text across the middle of a page so that it occupied the exact center, I would struggle at that and I would probably fail. There are also probably not very many real world objects and shapes that I am adept at capturing with accuracy.

Still, I think that I surprise myself. When I aim for a very modest drawing goal, I come very close to hitting the mark. When drawing a face, I am really not so terrible. There is a great chance that, if I draw someone who you should know, you will figure out who it is without any help. I have managed to do this at least a couple of times, and given a lot of practice, I could do it at least a couple more times.

Most recently, there was a birthday celebration for a friend of mine who is an extremely accomplished drawer and animator. One of his other friends, who is also more gifted than me at such things, made a drawing of him as a gift. I decided that I would try my hand at it. I resolved to expend little energy or time, so that whatever I came up with would have to be a happy outcome considering the circumstances.

Going by the profile picture of my friend, I set to the task of sketching him in pencil. It took no more than a couple minutes, and when I was through, I found that I had more or less accurately captured his likeness. Perhaps even better, my ineptitude had resulted in the drawing taking on a certain distinct flavor that improved its charm and which no one else could really hope to duplicate. It was encouraging.