draw + repeat
practice.
yancey towne’s art making is a weekly peek into the art studio to share learnings, current projects, and inspiration. Making art is what teaches us who we are, what we believe in, and what we can create… here’s to finding yours.
Practice. It’s about showing up regularly and being willing to deep dive into a project so you can begin to know all the ins and outs of the process. And then allowing that learning to spill over and push you into a new direction. Always trusting that the practice will carry you to the exact next step as long as you keep showing up.
I find it interesting that as hard as I try to repeat something again and again, I can never do it exactly the same. There are subtle differences that appear like line quality and shape. No matter how much I try my best to repeat a drawing, even if I trace it, it will be different. Each moment we are changing and those shifts are going to show up in our work, so embrace them and see where they lead.
I’ve begun to consider this as an experiment and being curious about how much things will change even if I try to keep it all the same. There are two aspects I’m working with—that practice takes a lot of repetition and that nothing drawn by hand can ever truly repeat. My work is to find the one thing I like in my practice and see how far I can continue with it. I hold in mind the words of a former professor, “more, faster.” I don’t think his goal was necessarily to get us to make a large body of work, but to learn the lessons that come only by making a large body of work, even if most of that work is messy and unrefined.
Even if you aren’t sure what that one thing is, start with something—it could be as simple as repeating circles. As you continuously show up, something more will grab your attention and you’ll know exactly which way to turn next… 💛
What are you drawn to in your art practice that you could put on repeat?