Sunday, June 9, 2013

The ugly page

The other day, I was going through my Flickr account and stumbled across the pictures I took at the petting zoo in the park. I decided to use them as reference photos for a page in my sketchbook.


I kind of fancied drawing the goose. Now, of course I could have picked this picture but instead I chose the one with the funny angle, this one:


I was going to make this beautiful sketch, use amazing colours, put a border around it and fill the rest of the page with text on what a lovely day it had been in the park and what an inspirational model this goose was... when...


Well, as you know I work in pen. Pen isn't very forgiving. A line that you put down is permanent, there's no going back. So when I drew the beak too small, all I could do was add a little more. And then more, and then some more. I did what I could to try and indicate the back of the head, to do something about that eye that I had made to look possessed.


It did not help. The goose still looked like a penguin on speed. It was a disaster.


I could have ripped the page out, I could have scribbled all over the silly looking goose, I could have simply turned the page and started again. Instead, I used my watercolours best I could, and then got my pen out again. I wrote, 'And here it is, the Ugly Page.' I filled the rest of the page writing about the goose, and how the drawing came out a disaster. And guess what... I kinda like it now.


Embrace your Ugly Page, even if you do a whole sketchbook full of them.

4 comments:

  1. One of my favorite sayings is "learn to embrace your weeds" and that includes those "bad" pages. The more you do the less often those "bad" pages show up!

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  2. Thank you for visiting. Maybe I should learn to embrace my weeds, too. ;)

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  3. Ha Eveline,
    Je stukje maakte me aan het lachen! Zo herkenbaar... Goeie tip, om dan je pagina 'the ugly page' te noemen, dat scheelt me scheuren ;-)

    Ook ik vind je gans heel grappig geworden, misschien maakt die imperfectie 'm juist leuker en het is nu echt 'jouw gans'.

    Groetjes! Lilian

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  4. Scheuren moet je niet doen hoor! Het is altijd leuk om je vooruitgang te zien, dus dan moeten ook tekeningen waar je niet zo blij mee bent bewaard blijven. Dank je voor je reactie, als ik de gans nog eens tegenkom zal ik 'm influisteren dat 'ie nu van mij is. ;)

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