Do we really fail in art?

I often hear my kid say ‘Oh but I am not a good artist, I cannot draw.’ And then it’s me saying ‘You don’t need to be an artist to draw. Everybody can draw!’. Though this doesn’t convince him a great deal, but sometimes he does get it. This reluctance to get his pencil on paper comes from a large extent from all the ‘perfect art’ we see around us. Be it on Instagram, YouTube and everywhere.

I am a self taught illustrator, when one fine day I discovered the joys of drawing digitally. I’ve been into graphic design and layout design for several years before that (I still continue to be). Illustrations is fairly new for me but I happen to love it more as the days are going by.

I find myself entering some really creative drawing challenges on Instagram every once in a while. Initially it did upset me that no work of mine was ever getting selected to be added onto popular stories but now I’ve learnt to look past that. My perspective - atleast it’s building my drawing portfolio and there are some works I’m fairly proud of!

So coming back to why I started this post - do we really fail in art? What happens when our ‘masterpiece’ does not get selected? Do we stop and rethink what went wrong? Do we pull ourselves down for not being ‘good enough’?

The answer is NO. We carry on with our art. We make it better. We try and understand it better. We proudly display it on our own pages. So what if it did not make it to MoMA (lol!) I’m still inspired and motivated to go ahead and draw some more.

There is a lot of ‘perfect art’ around us, but there are also a lot of artists who share their real journey stories and draw what’s closest to them. Some look like kiddy scribbles, yet so relatable! One of my favourites is Jemma Corell. She is ofcourse a celebrated and highly accomplished Illustrator but her simple, meaningful and highly relatable drawings are a joy to view.

Finally in the end it’s how you tell your story via any medium you choose. Staying authentic is the key.

Do you draw? Do you face self doubts? How do you overcome them? I hope you do :)

Why inclusive art is so important for me

To me, representation in art is very important. The most common artworks I saw and learnt as I was growing up was very uni-dimensional. They only represented a certain side of life and society. Infant I do not remember seeing any art that featured a differently abled person. Neither did I see varying skin tones and people of different race, ethnicities being represented in school textbooks, or even storybooks.

But thankfully we have moved on from there and now the world is opening up to greater representation coz #RepresentationMatters. The patterns and motifs in the fabric of society is never complete till we show the real picture.

“1 in 20 children have a disability.
That gives 19 kids a daily opportunity to learn about diversity, collaboration, inclusion and friendship.”

— Unknown

Simone Biles

I’d like to believe that art imitates life and vice versa. And in my effort to create art, I also endeavour to include what I actually see around me.

Here’s something I doodled a while ago where I was so inspired by the words I’d read. I almost instantly jumped onto my drawing board and created a free poster art for anybody who would like to have this at home or in class.

How important is inclusivity in art for you? How do you view things around you and do you think it’s important to write about it / daw them / speak about it and show them in every other creative form.

To me it is. It’s important that I keep my stories real. And I try to do it via the stuff I draw. I hope you like it too.

Love,
Suchi