Where In The World Does The Time Go?
I always get worried that I don’t have enough time to draw and work on my art. What I always end up discovering and rediscovering is that the time is there. The trick is to find it.
To me it always seems like family life, my day job, shopping, cooking, cleaning and all the tedium of the days can really box out any ideas of building on something that feels so much like self-interest and hobby work to hold in high regard, when there are bills that need to be paid.
Personally, however, not drawing is not an option. There is little else that brings me such internal peace and joy than when I’m making things up on the page and they start WORKING. I pray I’ll never know the day where I lose my hands. Or my eyes. Or worse! My imagination. And if ever I do, it’ll be all the sadder, if even one idea that I had never got to fall out of my wrist when I had the chance to help it escape.
So, I draw. I draw goofy creatures and impossible characters day after day. Until I CAN’T! There always come seasons in life that try and take it away. But I’ve always refused to let it go. I came up in life with a lot of talented artist friends over the years. It has always baffled and upset me to see people let the art fall away entirely. “What do you MEAN you don’t draw anymore?”
People usually cite their bustling family life, their careers or even an inability to make a career out of their talents as reasons for allowing their craft to wither and die.
My problem with that is that if it ever came to that, it would mean living a life compromised by the demands of others. Which may be noble, potentially. In some remarkable case where someone has given up their passion of drawing for the love of mankind beyond themselves. But for me, family, job and chores have ALWAYS been there. Even when my life has gotten tremendously hectic I’ve found time to work in my sketchbooks- I’m thankful for first-hand experience to remind me- the time is ALWAYS in there somewhere. As long as you want it to be. So more likely, to me, I suspect that the NOBLE sacrifice of your art actually comes out of laziness. Comfort. Ease. (Cowardice, even!)
There’s a part of my brain that really detests comfort. It’s a trickster. The tantalizing promise of Comfort! Right now! hypnotizes you into not doing what you ought to be doing. It does that all the time. Comfort is the devil in disguise. To reference the Twilight Zone, it’s a nice place to visit, but no place to make yourself at home. If you ask me.
For a while now- a few months, after starting a new job, dating and a LOT more driving entered my life, I found myself having a hard time finding time to work in my sketchbooks. The days just didn’t seem long enough to make time for it. But even on my busiest days after pulling double shifts at work, or pulling 12 hour road trips, I always used to make time for 15 minutes, if nothing else, in my sketchbook. Surely, the days are still 24 hours long! Where did my sketchbook time, even those 15 minutes, disappear to? Of course, the answer was in the same place it always is. The Comfort Zone. You want to know where my comfort zone was this time? Twitter. Oops. Sorry- X! X marks the spot. I realized I was now spending so much time scrolling social media when I could actually be working on drawings to post to social media! Which is what I’d really rather be doing in the first place!
So that is my new rule of thumb. If I can’t find time to draw, my first move: Attack the Comfort Zone. Get up earlier. Turn off the tv. Put down the phone. Get back to work.
And so off I go.
-Ryan.
Wrangleshank! 