How to improve your drawing, no drawing skills required, tip 3 - Love what you draw!

Hello at last after a very long break! I must apologise for being away so long, this is because l have been having so many issues with my website builder. It has been scrambling all my pages and turning them into nonesense when l publish. I am seriously hoping that publishing this blog does not scramble the rest of my website! If you have come across muddled up pages, it is not me, l promise! I am a little scatty at times, but l spend hours making sure everything is right before l publish. So, to find out that everything has been moved and muddled is very frustrating and l have been put off writing my blog for fear of more scrambling!
Anyway l am here now and l really wanted to add to my series on improving your drawing. My third tip is to love what you draw! Does that sound odd? I think perhaps it does at first, but l will explain.
One of the biggest challenges with coloured pencils is learning to be patient (see tip 1). A colored pencil drawing takes many, many hours. If you don't truly love the piece you are drawing keeping the motivation up to work each stroke with love and care, to add the necessary layers is so, so much harder.
When l began working with colored pencils l read a lot of books about using them. I can't tell you how many begin with drawing an apple or a sphere. Now if drawing an apple appeals to you, go for it l say. Put your heart into it and draw the best apple you can. But l didn't want to draw an apple, at least not the sort of apple that l saw represented in those books. An awesome 3D apple, well that might be different.
I understand why those books start that way. They teach the basics. The theory. But l also realised that l found no pleasure in performing an exercise like that. It was boring. In fact it put me off drawing. I understood straight away that to put my heart into a piece l had to love it.

l really wanted to mention this because l have been thinking about it as l browse art on Instagram. There is so much amazing art on there that motivates and inspires. But there is also a lot of art on there that just copies (often exactly) what has been popular for someone else. It is very easy to see a great piece that has got thousands of likes and think ,'l'll copy that and everyone will like it,'. Well, they might or might not. These pieces often lack something, and what they lack is usually love.
If you love a subject it shows in your work, even if you are very new to drawing. It is something you can't exactly pin point. You can't see the love in a pencil stroke or a certain color, but it shows in the finished piece. If you love your subject you WANT to put care into each pencil stroke, to take your time, to do your best, to make this piece better than the last piece. Love in art just like in life brings growth.
So l am sharing with you today a sneak preview of the piece l am currently working on, it will be a while before it makes it to Instagram, l really love Betta fish, l hope that shows in my piece.

View gallery