The basics seem so boring. When I finally reached college age I was so excited not to have to take, what I considered, the boring curriculum subjects of math, science and foreign language and jumped at the chance to select more creative endeavor. And so, in my first season of college I took drawing, design, interior decorating, ceramics, quilting, creative writing, piano and guitar. You should have seen the look on my father’s face, (who was paying for all these classes). It’s not that he objected to any of them – he greatly encouraged my creativity! However, as a mature person, he could understand that I would need to complete those general education basics. These basics would enable me to accomplish educational goals that would allow me to have freedoms in life choices in careers and expand avenues to allow my creativity to flourish.
And so, I took the long way and had to take all those more difficult, yet basic, courses at the end, all at the same time. It was an example of what not to do. Sometimes we learn the hard way.
I would like for you to benefit from my mistakes and embrace learning the basics. Because it is in the mastery of basic skills that excellence has the opportunity to blossom! In this instance the application is in drawing. Drawing forms and lines convincingly, no matter how elementary they may seem, will pave the way for bigger and better accomplishment. Don’t be discouraged with the basics. Like the scene from the Karate Kid movie where painting the white-washed fence over and over gave the young man the freedom to make quick and effective karate moves, drawing simple things well will pay off in the long run.
Aristotle said,
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Michelangelo responded, when someone was questioning his seemingly endless attention to detail,
“Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.
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