If you had joined me the other morning and sat beside me on a bench on Main Street as I drew the picture above, it would have been pretty easy for you to spot all the differences between my subject and my drawing.
Some things are out of place. The barrel was actually on the left, but I missed it while drawing the bags, so I placed it on the right.
The lamp post wasn’t quite that tall, the tree wasn’t quite that short, and the awning wasn’t nearly that crooked.
And I took liberties with the colors. The posts weren’t really maroon. They were made of brown oak, but I’d had enough of that, having already colored in the wooden bench, barrel, and trash can. I was ready for something other than brown.
You might’ve thought, “Hmm, that doesn’t look right.” But you would have had no idea how right it felt to me.
It felt right because I was doing something I’d been wanting to do for some time: go downtown and draw one of the store fronts. It felt right because the sun was shining and I was having fun attempting something new and slightly more complex. It felt right because I love using my Faber Castell pens to add color to my drawings.
Consequently, when I gaze upon it, it even looks right because I can see my progress and imagine doing more of this.
When you draw or do anything creative, allow yourself to enjoy the process whatever the outcome. To paraphrase an old Barbara Mandrell song, if loving it is wrong, you don’t want to be right.
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