When I was a kid, I struggled a lot with drawing. I’d try to draw a round circle. Put pencil to paper and before I rounded the first corner, I’d know it was no good.

So I’d rub it out and start again. This time the first corner would be good but it would be more oval. And so I’d picked up the eraser again, and again and again.

Soon I’d have a pile of eraser rubbings on the side and even though I had removed all the graphite from the page, a mess of a circle would remain due to the indentation. Frustrated I’d give up or try something else.

I couldn’t accept the reality of my skills not matching the vision in my mind.

I accepted that I was no artists.

Imperfections are okay

I still wish I could draw a perfect circle, or a straight line that doesn’t go up at the end. Maybe one marvelous day I’ll look down with surprise at one of these impossibilities emerging, but I don’t need it to happen anymore. I’m better at accepting these quirks and trying to turn them into something unique.

When the line bends the wrong way, maybe I can use that for something else. When the circle is more squashed in one direction, perhaps the person’s face was always meant to be that odd shape.

This is a lot easier with pen an paper than iPad and pencil™️, The ease of the double tap undo gesture is seductive and less noticeable than the collection of discarded shavings. That’s why I’ve embraces analogue sketching tools more recently (along with the increased screen time from my job).

Keep drawing circles

I still keep drawing circles, and still can’t really get one “right”. But now I leave the previous attempts. These accidents sometimes lead to and idea that couldn’t exist.