Day 35

I’m sharing today’s drawing for one reason only: it’s a testament to my newfound persistence. This morning, I absolutely can’t see anything but a huge blur out of my left eye. My attempts at using a ruler to draw straight lines were ridiculous. I couldn’t even see where the edge of the ruler was! Nor could I even distinguish how many faces were on that form I was trying to draw. It was supposed to be an octagon. I don’t know exactly what I ended up with!

But, I persisted. At least, the best I could — which wasn’t very good, really. I did make a conscious effort to draw the “slightly foreshortened” egg using templates, and since I’m focusing (not really a good word to use with impaired vision) on shading and blending, I made an effort to finish the egg. As for the cube behind it and the octagonal column to the side, I just roughly shaded those in and called it “done”.

So why even bother to post this? Why would anyone want to see this drawing or read about my problems? Good question. As mentioned above, I’m posting this to prove — if only to myself — that I am developing a persistent mindset, that I’m not going to give up in the face of challenges.

Actually, though, there are other reasons to post this. I’m sure anyone reading this has faced difficulties before, either in art or in another creative pursuit, or simply in some aspect of life where problems and obstacles came along. This post is my way of saying “Just keep going.” If you can’t do everything, at least do something.

Doing this drawing did give me some sort of satisfaction, not for the quality, but for the realization that I am stepping up and doing what I set out to do — to create 100 days of shapes and forms in graphite drawings. I’m far behind, but I haven’t quit.

Today would have been a good day to shrug this off. After all, when I can’t see what I’m drawing, how can I possibly draw it? The answer is “not very well”, and yet, draw it, I did. And in looking at it and thinking back to drawings I made 10 years ago, I’ll be so bold as to say that there was once a time when I might have considered this an acceptable drawing!

And you know what… it IS an “acceptable” drawing today, too. Life happens. We face physical challenges. And we do what we can do. From that point of view (another questionable term for someone with vision problems) this drawing is more than acceptable. It represents persistence, determination, and a can-do attitude. I might not “do” very well, but I can do what I can do.