Red Means Go

I've been trying very hard to stop neglecting this part of my life, and for some reason, I found that I was getting all tense and weird every time I tried to draw directly into my sketchbook. (That's as opposed to just being all tense and weird all the time. Yes - I know I am. Shut up.) So I ripped a page out of a scrapbook kit I had lying around and drew a cardinal on it. I painted it in gouache and then stuck it into my sketchbook with some washi tape, also from my scrapbook kit. 

Once I had done that, it suddenly freed me up to do something with the rest of the spread, and I ended up painting the apple on the facing page. A few days later, I drew the tree frog and glued it in and then needed to do something to fill that last remaining space at the top of the apple page. A little typography later, and I had a completed sketchbook spread. 

Sometimes, I act as if it matters if I mess something up in a sketchbook - like it's some sort of precious thing (my preeeeshussss) that is going to be curated into the Louvre one day. In reality, it supposed to be a messy sort of laboratory, where I experiment with things. Experiments have a way of going desperately wrong, which is fantastic, because that's how you learn what you're really supposed to be doing.

None of these drawings is going to become anything more than what they are - space fillers in an overpriced bit of paper and binding. And that's perfectly fine. They don't need to be. Because they taught me something. They taught me to just scribble something on a piece of paper and stick it in a book. They taught me to stop over-thinking every single mark I make and just draw something.

How about you - what areas of your life are you neglecting because you just can't find a way to get over the hurdle of perfection? How do you jump over that hurdle? I'd love to hear!