You give.

You give at your job. Or jobs.

You give to your family.

You give to your friends.

Maybe you go further and give to your church. Or some other extra curricular group.

The point is that giving becomes a habit. And maybe it never occurs to you not to give.

So I ask: What's purely for you?

What is for you and only you? What is something that you maybe never let anyone else in on? Or if you do, that's as far as it goes.

You don't do it for praise. You don't do it for money.

You do it purely because it makes you happy.

You may think I would say the thing I do purely for me is write.

But I can't say that as I now consider myself a professional writer. Or at the least, a writerly professional. I now, more so than ever before, have a vested interest in improving my wordcraft.

No, the thing I do purely for me is sketch.

I'm not great at it. If you've followed my blog, then you've seen my previous works and know I'm not just being modest.

But sketching has become something I do purely for joy. Because the joy is all I can expect to get out of it.

Okay, that's not completely true—I can expect to improve with time and reps. But not significantly better. At least not to the point of ever making a penny from sketching.

And if it never goes beyond my own personal joy, that's fine with me.

So again, I ask: What's purely for you?

And if you don't have an answer for the question, please find one.

You deserve it.

You've given enough.

#art

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I'm not proud of this drawing so much as I'm proud I drew it.

Let me tell you what I mean.

I'm not a great visual artist. Sketcher. Drawer. Whatever you wanna call it. I know this; I'm fine with it. These days, anyway.

For years I let my lack of ability rob me of the enjoyment of sketching.

But recently I got an itch to start drawing more.

Perhaps this was another facet of my intention to get back in touch with my inner artist in 2022. Yes, I'm aware of how hippie dippie that sounds. I don't blame you if you rolled your eyes while reading that line. (I rolled my eyes while typing it.)

Back to my unremarkable sketch . . .

I started criticizing my “art” less when I discovered Danny Gregory (Sketchbook Skool on YouTube).

Danny is the genuinely positive teacher and mentor everyone needs. His writing is great too. He reminds us that the action of the creating, not the creation itself (the end result), is the point.

How many times have we said it's not about the destination but about the journey? Yet how many times have we avoided doing something enjoyable because we thought it wouldn't lead to anywhere grand?

“Yeah, I know you're right, but . . .” — Everyone I know has a big “but”.

My sketches are nothing great. They don't lead to a sexy destination.

But the journey . . . man, the journey sure is fun.

#art

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