The normal cliche is that practice makes perfect, but my wife had a drama teacher forever ago that said it differently. She always said, “Practice makes permanent.”
The idea is simple. If you’re practicing something the wrong way, you’ll continue to do it the wrong way into the future. Unfortunately, the best way we all have to get better at anything is to practice. So what’s the solution?
Practice better.
For so long, I have relied far too what I learned a while ago without actively learning new skills. I’ll pick up a thing or two along the way and begin to use that too. It gets me better, but the progress is very slow. I’ve found that I eventually end up at the same place on all my projects. It’s stiff, it’s predictable… it’s what I’ve always done. And I’m bored with it. I need to retrain myself.
I’ve decided that for my new project, I’m going to revolutionize my own art. While I’m writing, I’m going to be relearning as much as I can about drawing. I’ve picked up a few drawing books and I’m sketching my way through them (my current favorite is Action! Cartooning byt Ben Caldwell, which had been recommended to me by Wes Molebash).
I’m not resting on anything I already “know” because I don’t want to do things the same way any more.
This all goes back to my mantra lately of “great not good.” I’m ready to move into a new phase of my career as a comic-maker. It’s not a race for perfection (there’s no hope there), but it is about pushing myself to do things better and not halfway.
I’m not there yet, but I’ve already seen progress. That excites me. Drawing is like a muscle, and sometimes you just need to exercise.