"I would give anything to draw like you"

Someone SAID that about one of my faces, how SWEET is that? Just for comparison, I'm posting my very first EVER "Goddess" face.Nice, huh? See, Suzi Blu kept telling me that I could draw if I just practiced. I didn't believe her, because I was 27 years old. If I had the "talent" to draw, wouldn't I have known it by then? Still, when she opened her ning site, Les Petit Academy (referred to fondly as "Suzi Skool"), I joined. What did I have to lost just by being there? I met some people during nightly chats. And then all of a sudden, HUNDRED of pictures started getting posted at the Academy - all these people could draw? How come they could and I couldn't? Wait - maybe Suzi was right, maybe I could do it? Nah. I couldn't. I was POSITIVE.

Then Suzi compared it to playing an instrument. Yes, Mozart could play and compose with no training, no practice, from the time he was four years old. But just because I'm not Mozart didn't stop me from learning to play the clarinet - I got scholarships and accepted into honor bands and colleges. I'm a good clarinet player. But was I at eleven? Not so much. I practiced. Constantly. For hours and hours and hours at a time. I never found a piece I couldn't play if I worked at it. Could drawing be that easy? Just practice until I got it right?

So I took a class. Petit Dolls. It was FUN! I loved it. Took every class she offered...and then came the Goddess and the Poet. Realistic stylized faces. Of course I could do this, why not? Suzi said I could and she'd been right so far. But I couldn't. I practiced and worked and drew and erased. I was HORRIBLE. That face up there is my first ever, but I drew dozens of awful ones. Ugly face after ugly face for weeks. I wanted to quit, to just STOP and admit that I couldn't do it. I didn't (hubby wouldn't let me) and I'm glad I didn't, but it wasn't easy. Not for me. For some people it was a piece of cake. But should I have just given up because it was harder for me? Am I not a "real" artist because I had to work at it? Maybe not, but I'm having fun and my faces make me happy! Don't tell yourself that you can't do something just because it's not easy for you or you have to work at it. Don't let anyone else tell you, either.