Easily Discouraged

Last Friday night, our glamorous date has proven that the bearded fellow and I are rapidly aging. While he read a philosophy book, I did a pencil study of a Spanish Baroque painting at our local coffee shop. 

I love my new sketch for a couple reasons; First, the way that the sketchbook has cropped out her right arm reminds me of that same illusion when a "selfie" picture is taken, hilarious. Secondly, out of the blue I decided to draw from a masterpiece and instantly, my capacity of understanding light and form ballooned! I got so excited by the immediate growth that I went out and bought two art books, one on Bernini and the other on Leonardo da Vinci. I also purchased a new sketchbook with vellum finish paper, that will be specifically dedicated to drawing studies. This may seem a bit revealing for an artist but I am publicly sharing this information because I struggle so much with focus and I am easily discouraged. My hope is that this is the first post of many drawing studies to come. I'm documenting for accountability and to record possible technical growth; I am encouraging my heart to be persistent. For me, pursuing art requires me to aggressively battle my most controlling personal assumption, inadequacy. Am I the only one that struggles with that?