A mile of drawing🤔
I’ve been sort of addicted to using rolls of Kraft paper for a while now, almost a year I think, off and on. There’s something about the scrolling feel I love, the unassuming and inviting brown, how a Sharpie looks on it. The fear of a white canvas on which to create, scary to me in so many ways, this vibe so much easier for me to approach, at least while I’m learning.
Since I moved out of LA in April, I’ve gone through 6 100ft rolls, and I’m cruising through my 7th. While I’m not exactly sure how many feet a day I sketch through, it’s enough to know I’m pretty damn serious about it. So far it’s taken between 7 and 12 days a roll and I’m down to do more and go faster.
I really want to get better at drawing. There’s so much to it…every day I learn more, but also learn how much more there is to go before I get anywhere near where I wanna be. It’s daunting, depressing, frustrating, but, also exciting. I’ll admit, the crushing weight of knowing that AI can and will outpace and outshine me at every turn, cut me out of so much possible work, attract so many more eyes than I could probably ever in the algorithm driven digital world…it makes a lot of things harder…makes the passion a lot harder to follow with the outlook more bleak than ever before for small artists…yet, I still continue in some fevered hope of success…
Watching foot after foot go by, each section showing its improvements to me like a silent movie. Lots of people use sketchbooks, I’ve got a couple myself, but, being able to stretch a bit, draw bigger, allow my hand to feel more free in it’s strokes across the paper, and not be so worried that I’m gonna run out of pages and not be able to afford another, not be able to keep going…
Nothing is fine, it’s all rough. Practice, random ideas, little rabbit holes, just whatever. My brain feels cut off from its main source of creativity atm, in the holding pattern of improvement. Getting better and better and better, always open to a flash that may suddenly blind me, then guide me somewhere…in the silence that my life has become, listening for voices.
Which is why I decided to challenge myself to ‘drawing a mile.’
What does that mean?
Well, a mile is 5280 feet, rolls are 100ft each, so, 53 rolls of drawing. So far, 6 down, 1 in-process, and 46 to go.
Get Wessel’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Why am I doing it?
Well, outside of just a goal of improvement, I need to think of something catchy for people to get interested in, check back on, have some sort of measurement that people might be impressed and wanna see. None of my projects, the daily stuff like abstracts and animations have hit for a while, so why not give this a swing?
In the process of all the drawing, maybe build up some regular fans, since trusting social media and it’s irregularity and whims of who, when, and why it shows people stuff…at least with this the benchmarks, speed, and reasons to check back in are pretty simple and easy to remember. And, maybe, at some point, universe willing and stars aligning, a show where I cover the walls in these scrolls and suddenly a visual journey appears from what appears to be nonsensical repetitions of all the things I’ve decided to focus on.
The hope, a small one, barely detectable amongst the daily emotions that flood my brain and nervous system…
I have to figure how and where I’m going to pitch the project. There’s a great need for financial support, like all artists, but I’m not looking to fully support myself through something like this…just enough for supplies, and maybe some breathing space so that I can think better. The daily constant desperation for even pocket change, getting to be a bit much. And, an audience that cares, if even just a little bit, badly needed to restore confidence and ego.
The competition is so fierce, much of it artificial, created to create even more strife and competition, for resources, and I have no idea how I’m going to begin to connect to the people I’ve been trying to but unable to connect to this whole time…but, since, nothing else has really worked yet, on to this project, and the sliver of hope it brings with it.
Supported or not, the project is still going to happen. Like everything I’ve created and pursued over the last 15 years, I do what I say I’m going to do and keep at it, despite the rumbling and growing desire to give up, throw my tools down, and burn every single piece of art I’ve made and feel no ones cared about, because, in the end, this is the path of chosen, or has been chosen for me by fate because I sure af haven’t been able to change my focus, passion, or desire.
I’m not looking to be, and do not want to be famous. I just want to create, connect, support myself, and enjoy the world around me before I pass on or it’s destroyed by the egomaniacal greed of those in power.
We shall see how this all turns out.
LFG🤟🚀
