Small things and trusting the process

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A while back I did an online course, it was a nice easy way to re-visit some basics - something that I think always pays dividends. And it has, as since then I have agreed to deliver a day workshop in botanical drawing in the summer. I'm turning my thoughts to prepping for that workshop so I revisited some of things I did on the course.

At the time, I was not much taken with this small (life sized) drawing of a wonky little pine cone. But looking at it now after a while away from it, I think it's kind of cute and I rather like it. 

There's a really useful lesson here I think, for me at any rate.  Mainly it is that in the moment of making or doing, judging one's own work is not easy. Literally too close to the wood to see the trees. It's always worth tucking a piece away for a while, long enough to get some distance from it. That way you you will be able see it genuinely afresh, without the burden of the labour, or creeping doubts such as imagined failure to achieve a certain effect or standard. I am too often beset by these kind of self sabotaging thoughts, so this lesson is probably the one I value the most! 

It's the little things, right?!




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