Me! Me! Me! (Waving hand frantically from back of class):

Everything that Danny said, and this: drawing slows you down enough to truly appreciate how much the veins in a newly sprouted trillium look oh-so-much like the lines in a hand, and then you contemplate what those veins do, and how they function, and maybe the flower's veins are like the lines in a hand. No two are alike, they look like a roadmap to places past and yet to come. Makes you feel a bit like a gypsy palm reader. And then you look around you in gratitude for the very fact that at this moment, right now, it is so truly amazing that you and the trillium are alive.

Drawing is like meditation, or yoga, or breathing, darlin'. If you have to ask why, then you haven't hit your stride with it yet. But you will, you truly will! And when it happens, your question will not be "why?" but instead "why not?"

WHy are you always right with these witty questions??;-)))
It seems like the heavens just blast you with powerful speeches YOU give us, DANNY.
Can't wait for a new book..

I draw and if (IF!) I can overcome or those doubts-bugs-punishments I am soooo haaapppyyyyy and time just goes by..
I reach for a pencil to shut the loudness of the world up and open the heart .
it is the state of completeness ---(IF!) - no wars , no sufferings exist anywhere. And I don't consider this time as selfishness.
Thank YOU, Danny for YOU!
all the best!

Because it should never be about the outcome, but all about the process. If you're having fun with the process, it will reflect on the outcome. If a certain outcome is your target, you can only force your way over there, and it will show. It's a lesson I know by heart, but often forget to apply. Still learning..
Cheers,
Arco

I sketch for many reasons: 1. preparing for an illustration, 2. Keeping a journal, 3. loosening up for a long day in the studio, 4. just because. I have trained myself to keep a journal and a sketchbook after reading Danny�s books. The exercise has allowed me to become free of the shackles I had created in my mind. I look to each new assignment or illustration as an excuse to sketch until the final product evolves. Whenever I am in a creative rut I open my sketchbook and allow the pen and my subconscious to create the drawing. There is something so Zen about turning on the music and letting the pen and paper become a Ouija board.

Because it's there...to be drawn. Because it's there!

...why the bulbs are pushing out daffodils?

Very nicely put, you are the man.

What is creativity? Creativity is the ability to come up with productive, enterprising ideas and work that, at the very least, should have aesthetic, if not monetary value. It's all very well to say that creativity should exist for its own sake; for enabling the self to be conscious of the here and now; but how could you possibly remain calm and poised enough to achieve that state, if your so-called creative work merely represents your inability to produce anything more than eyesores?
Your book, 'Creative License', aims to rid people like me of this inconvenient truth, but I'm afraid it fails to do so. I attempted at your EDM group's weekly assignments one challenge a day, everyday for the past week, struggling to keep my inner critic down and concentrating hard and long so that I may to produce something half-way decent, but the best I have come up with so far is a deep lengthwise scratch in frustration down a page of the Moleskine I'd bought after months of guilt at such indulgence.
I doubt you could really help, but it would be interesting to see what you have to say for such problems.

"A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one." — Shostakovich

Dear Blue Skies:
I'm sorry you are so frustrated with your efforts. I'd suggest you worry less about aesthetics and persevere. The fact is, your desire to make 'something half way-decent' is your Achilles heel right now and your harsh inner critic is taking advantage of it. Spend another week just drawing the same thing over and over. Draw it, turn the page and draw it again, A bowl of fruit, a shoe, a picture of yourself, whatever. Again and again. Don't look at your work, don't judge it, just draw and draw
If your inner critic is jabbering in your ear, blast music.
I know you don't trust me but heed just this: if you draw a lot you will improve your drawing. It may take longer than you;d like but it will happen.
Aesthetics do not matter at this point. I know you don';t believe this either but it's true. You are learning how to drive, no how to win the Indy 500. And there will be rewards. Every so often a line an angle, maybe a whole drawing will strike you as not quite so awful. And theat feeling will happen more and more.
Force yourself to do it on a schedule so your inner critic can't talk you out of it each day. Twenty minutes after breakfast, fort five before bed, whatever,
It may sound like bullshit, but your inner critic is the one that is the one convincing you that the whole enterprise is a waste of time. But it is wrong.
Frustration is natural but irrelevant at this point. You are not and will not going to make anything frame-able or even pleasing at this point. That's not the point. Work out, build your muscles, feel the rhythm and only then run a race. So your inner critic is right: everything you are doing is crap. That's no reason to stop.
So go on, right now, get off the computer and just draw some object. Don't think too hard about what it is, just draw it. Then turn the page and do it again.
Don't think of why I'm wrong. Just do it.
Thanks,
Your pal,
Danny Gregory

This reminds me of when I was first learning watercolor. I bought a very good "How To" book to learn all the techniques. I completed the first five exercises and was totally dismayed at my results. I wanted to stop right there and then. I convinced myself that I was not going to be a good watercolor artist. But then, I looked deeper into why I wanted to give up so easily. You see, everything has always come easy to me and I figured that watercolor painting would be just one more thing I could do well, instantly. With a few lessons, I would become a watercolorist, just like that! The results though of those first five lessons spoke the truth and were very humbling to me. Although I had a very strong feeling just to stop there, I didn't. I didn't proceed to the sixth lesson until I could do those first five lessons well enough to please myself. I asked the perfectionist in me to take a back seat for awhile till I could get this right. I'm glad I didn't quit when I really wanted to because I'm really enjoying painting now. Please don't give up on yourself.