Practice, practice, practice never makes you perfect

It never makes you perfect but it makes you better than you were. I’ve been drawing and painting for over 60 years, yet, the same is still true with me. If I quit drawing for even a few weeks, I can tell the difference when I start to work again, the same with painting and even creating art on the computer. If you stay away from those tools of the trade your brain and hand-eye coordination starts to diminish.

A few weeks ago, I was doing some retouching of photos in the computer but my fingers were hitting the wrong “short cut” keys and the computer wasn’t responding to my commands. The memory in my fingers had temporarily forgotten the right commands but after a few hours of checking over the options, I was off and producing quickly again.

A few months ago, the art guild had a person posing as a cowboy, guns and all, but again, I didn’t realize how rusty my hand-eye coordination had deteriorated.

Just because you once had an acute and very special ability doesn’t mean you’ll keep it without constant practice.

I have several classes with seniors attending. Some had painted for years and were quite good. Children came along and maybe even grandchildren before they had time to start painting again. No, they didn’t just pick up where they left off, some have even taken one or two years to be as good as they were.

When I gave up my full time commercial art business and started painting for pleasure and some sales, it took two years for me to really make the change.

Even though I still was working in the art field, the fine arts is completely different and offers different challenges and standards.

My friends who had remained in fine arts told me I would have to pay my dues all over again and they were very right.

It actually took me four years before I felt comfortable painting in the fine arts way again.

Harry Croghan is an artist, photographer, writer and teacher. You can send comments to croghan@dragonbbs.com or call (740) 852-4906.