There's a bit of a tradition about to start here on Heinz Evolution, or as I have just now decided to call it, Evolve, so let's get the first things first. There's something about Thursdays, and that thing on Evolve will be a post about any random subject. Updates will be done separately, and these posts will be completely self-contained and unique. Plus, they will be consistent because I actually said that they would be. Don't want to make a liar out of me, do we. And, in keeping with starting a new adventure, I had a fitting topic in mind. Come along, will you?
Now, exactly how many quotes have you heard about starting a journey, or winning life's race or whatever rubbish the human race feeds itself? Don't answer that, I don't want to know - you don't want to know. So why do they keep coming up with new and fancy ways to say that you need to start something and see it through until the end? Because we always end up asking ourselves the question on the other end of that coin: why did we never really try it out? Why was it that whenever we got knocked down it took an eternity to realize that we needed to pick ourselves back up, that even though everyone said we could learn something if we just started it we never believed them? Humans have the amazing ability to word simple messages poetically and powerfully and still let it right out of their heads in an instant. We know that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step until we take it and think we got ourselves nowhere and we jolly well aren't cut out for this walking thing anyways. But now I'm just wording the same message again a more complex way that I will soon forget, let alone you, aren't I? Then let me try something a bit more specific; a trigger, if you will, that will bring all of those bold, brash, and endearingly human words right back to life.
Now let me give you a situation that we have all faced, if not in this particular area in others like it. You see a video of a person, or an artist, rather, using a pen or pencil to sketch a simple subject. They talk about how detail and precise lines are not important, and proceed to outline something that looks like a week of effort on your part in a few simple strokes. The people trying to be as simple as possible by their standards have just danced a few circles round you, taken a short tour of Europe, and arrived back in time for tea. If this is not in any way relate able to you, then firstly wow - there are a ton of speed sketch and speed painting videos out there, and they are all over Facebook; do you live under a rock? I bet you don't even like Vine or Twitter either. Square. Anyways, two: If it is not familiar to you it is doubly so for me. I have come a long way in my drawing skills and still run into this every time I try to learn. It is disheartening, I know it is. It feels easy to count yourself out after one try because it ended up looking like a dead rabbit next to an old piece of driftwood, and that sucks unless that really is what you are drawing, in which case Bravo that dead rabbit looks amazing, how did you do that?
Somewhere in the back of your mind, you know that this is the first step to an indispensable skill, but the reason that the first step knocks you down so hard and makes it so hard to get back up is the realization that this will take a really terribly long time. That time holds weight in your mind, it is very valuable and you instinctively protect it, but it is worth it. So here is how you actually get back up, not think about getting back up or want to really really bad, but actually do it: reward yourself in your mind and physically when you make a bad drawing. Once you see it and think "Wow this is bad" tell yourself that this is one more crumpled up piece of paper on the pile that any good artist climbs over and leaves behind. If you write a song and feel like any single other person could have written the same thing chalk it down as one of the 200 ways Edison got the light bulb wrong first and go get some chocolate or whatever you are into. Failure is essential. It will happen. That doesn't mean it has to be a bad thing. Make your body think that it is a good thing.
And one more thing. Traditions are always started with one post, phrases with one person. The only thing that gives an object sentimental value is time. If you want to have something special going in a year or running inside jokes and strong friendships, they have to start right now. So go ahead try and start something. Then try again. Who knows, maybe number five will be magic.
Now let me give you a situation that we have all faced, if not in this particular area in others like it. You see a video of a person, or an artist, rather, using a pen or pencil to sketch a simple subject. They talk about how detail and precise lines are not important, and proceed to outline something that looks like a week of effort on your part in a few simple strokes. The people trying to be as simple as possible by their standards have just danced a few circles round you, taken a short tour of Europe, and arrived back in time for tea. If this is not in any way relate able to you, then firstly wow - there are a ton of speed sketch and speed painting videos out there, and they are all over Facebook; do you live under a rock? I bet you don't even like Vine or Twitter either. Square. Anyways, two: If it is not familiar to you it is doubly so for me. I have come a long way in my drawing skills and still run into this every time I try to learn. It is disheartening, I know it is. It feels easy to count yourself out after one try because it ended up looking like a dead rabbit next to an old piece of driftwood, and that sucks unless that really is what you are drawing, in which case Bravo that dead rabbit looks amazing, how did you do that?
Somewhere in the back of your mind, you know that this is the first step to an indispensable skill, but the reason that the first step knocks you down so hard and makes it so hard to get back up is the realization that this will take a really terribly long time. That time holds weight in your mind, it is very valuable and you instinctively protect it, but it is worth it. So here is how you actually get back up, not think about getting back up or want to really really bad, but actually do it: reward yourself in your mind and physically when you make a bad drawing. Once you see it and think "Wow this is bad" tell yourself that this is one more crumpled up piece of paper on the pile that any good artist climbs over and leaves behind. If you write a song and feel like any single other person could have written the same thing chalk it down as one of the 200 ways Edison got the light bulb wrong first and go get some chocolate or whatever you are into. Failure is essential. It will happen. That doesn't mean it has to be a bad thing. Make your body think that it is a good thing.
And one more thing. Traditions are always started with one post, phrases with one person. The only thing that gives an object sentimental value is time. If you want to have something special going in a year or running inside jokes and strong friendships, they have to start right now. So go ahead try and start something. Then try again. Who knows, maybe number five will be magic.