I really didn’t have the money to spend on a lot of drawing classes but I’d always wanted to be able to draw and paint so I thought I’d try at least one six-week session.  To my surprise, Ann, my art teacher, was thrilled to have me.  “I love to get students who think they can’t draw,” she laughed.  Boy was she in for a surprise I thought.  I couldn’t draw anything but a happy face and a stick figure. 

Surprise, surprise.  My first class I drew a leafy plant in a pot and it looked like a leafy plant in a pot.  My friends were amazed.  My second class, Ann made me take off my shoe and copy it.  And I did.  It didn’t look kind of like a shoe; it looked exactly like a shoe.  And it looked exactly like my shoe.

After the 12-week class ended, I signed up for another and then a third.  After that, I decided I’d be on my own.  That was three years ago.  I went from graphite to acrylics to pastels.  Now I use mostly pastels, with some graphite and a little acrylic every once in awhile. 

While I was taking Ann’s class, she made note of my progress in front of other students.  One of the other students was also a beginner like me.  The other four had been taking Ann’s class for one to four years and they were so good it was impossible to believe they hadn’t been drawing their entire lives.  The other beginner asked Ann how I got so good so fast.  Ann looked at me and asked me how often I drew between our weekly class.  “Every day,” I responded.  “In fact, sometimes I draw for three or four hours a day.”

Then Ann looked at the other new student.  “Have you drawn at all since last week,” Ann asked.  “No. How did you know?” she queried.  “It shows,”  Ann smiled.  “If you draw every day it shows.  And if you don’t, that shows too.”

No matter what medium I’m working with, pastels, graphite, acrylics, I always spend some time sketching during the day.  Even when my disabling condition is at it’s worst, I pick up a sketch pad and do a little sketching sometime during the day.  And sometimes the oddest thing will happen.  I’ll be drawing a flower or a face or something, anything.  And all of a sudden I will get a result I never had before. Something really good.

Last week a friend who I paint with on a regular basis, but hadn’t seen for a few weeks because of mutual schedule conflicts, came to my house.  We weren’t even going to paint that day, just go out for breakfast.  She looked at my latest pastel painting and then gave me the strangest look.  “Something has changed”, she said.  “This is fantastic.  Your painting has gone to a whole new level.”

My friend was right.  My painting has gone to a whole new level recently.  I’ve been sketching for so long, my style has really developed and my painting has gone from better to really good.  I wouldn’t look for my work in your local gallery just yet.  But then again, you never know.