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| 6/2/16 inks, colored pencils |
On Tuesday, the last day of the month, I went out scouting
for urban couches – the “free” kind that people put out on the sidewalk on
moving day in hopes that they will be hauled away. I came home disappointed,
but then yesterday I hit the jackpot right on my own block: the most
cat-shredded couch I have ever seen! The bonus giveaway right next to it was
the cat’s scratching post/condo, which looked in much better condition than the
couch. (Why use a post when you have an entire couch to shred?)
I made this sketch very quickly and a bit furtively because
the neighbor who had abandoned the couch was talking with a visitor right
inside the front doorway, and the door was open. (Stealthy sketcher that I am,
I was mostly hidden by a shrub.)
See the rest of the sketches in my ongoing urban couches series.
In other news:
Circulating on Facebook this morning is an NPR story called “Practice Makes Possible: What We Learn By Studying Amazing Kids.” What caught my attention first was the cartoon leading
the story, which resonates strongly with me about practicing a skill like
drawing and how that practice is not related to “talent.” This is why I
bristle whenever someone looks at my sketches and exclaims that I must have “natural
talent,” even when I know they mean that as a compliment. (“Yeah, thanks — I’m at about hour 2,000 with 8,000 left to go;
I wish that ‘natural talent’ would kick in a little sooner.”)
Reading further into the article, I learn that Anders Ericsson,
author of Peak: Secrets From The New
Science Of Expertise, believes “This is the dark side of believing in
innate talent. It can beget a tendency to assume that some people have a talent
for something and others don’t and that you can tell the difference early on.
If you believe that, you encourage and support the ‘talented’ ones and
discourage the rest, creating the self-fulfilling prophecy. ... The best way to
avoid this is to recognize the potential in all of us — and work to find ways
to develop it.”
Practice is key to improving performance, but not just any
practice – “deliberate practice.” Ideally
the deliberate practice would happen with a mentor, teacher or coach who knows
how to show people how to reach the level of performance they want to achieve and
can help them set reasonable expectations.
"Ideally the deliberate practice would happen with a mentor, teacher or coach who knows how to show people how to reach the level of performance they want to achieve and can help them set reasonable expectations."
ReplyDeleteRespectfully disagree. Look at all the money you've forked out and time you've spent over the past five years for classes, symposia, workshops, etc. yet you are still drawing in basically the same way you did when you started blogging five years ago. Your library series is a perfect illustration of that. You can barely tell the difference from the first time to the last time you sketched it.
Well, I still have my 8,000 hours to go. ;-) And more to the point, I'm enjoying every one of them.
Delete- Tina
I agree with you, Tina. Letting schools label people gifted has been more constricting than freeing to students in the public school system. In my parents and grandparents generation, everyone got to learn all the useful crafts handed down by the previous generation. Brenda Swenson, the watercolorist, expressed an opinion similar to yours, in a Sketchbook Skool lesson. "Talent" is closely connected to desire, the drive to practice.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a very interesting article. For me, the "drive to practice" is everything. If I didn't enjoy it so much, I would have quit a lot time ago.
DeleteFor all of my adult life I've told myself "I can't draw" - my few half hearted attempts were sad and confirmed my belief that I had no talent for drawing. For the longest time I equated the perfect use of perspective as "drawing". In the last couple years I've become more atuned to the idea of talent vs learned skill and while I still believe some people have an innate ability, even that needs practice to improve. This year I committed myself to learning the skill of drawing. And practicing. And more practice. And of tackling subjects that seem difficult (or impossible). Sometimes they still are impossible and I give up in frustration. But, I'm seeing improvement. And like you, Tina, I'm loving the journey and having so much fun meeting and expanding my circle of art friends who wander the city and sketch!
ReplyDeleteWe come from the same place, Terrie, and we are both taking the same journey! Practice, challenging ourselves, going back for more -- and enjoying every bit of it. That's what it's all about. So glad you discovered USk!
Delete- Tina