I was browsing Instagram the other day and came across a reel of an artist (seethelines) who said ‘Sketching became liberating when I learned this: No one cares. Just Have Fun.’ A really good lesson to learn, and something I have heard elsewhere - from Derren Brown, I think. Derren said that ‘Nobody Cares’ may sound harsh, but like just like seethelines says, it’s liberating, and meant in a kind, encouraging way.
Like many other artists (and in other areas of my life), I spend a lot of time worrying about what people think, and how they are going to react to this painting or that course of action. But the truth of the matter is that they don’t really care. They have their own life to lead and their own things to worry about and they’re really not paying attention to what you’re doing. Well, certainly as not as much as you think, anyway. It means you’re much more free to do what you like than you think you are. Free to try new things and make mistakes and ditch perfectionism in favour of creation and expression just for the sake of it.
Of course, it’s not quite that easy. You do want people to pay some attention. If you’re creating something for the world to see, you don’t want to let it out only to be greeted by a resounding silence. And you have to consider the fact that if you do let go of your inhibitions and do something that’s really daring and unconventional, you may get noticed for all the wrong reasons. So, for me at least, it’s still a balancing act, but when it comes to my sketchbook, I really must bear in mind that nobody cares and I can just let go and do what I like, no matter how crap it is. But then the inner critic comes along and says ‘well, nobody else cares, but I do, and what you’ve done there isn’t very good’, and I’m back to square one. Argh.
Going back to seethelines for a moment, while I appreciate the message he is trying to convey, the video it’s in isn’t all that encouraging. Because while the captions are playing, he knocks out a beautiful ink and watercolour drawing of a building that he makes look effortless. It is a lovely, loose piece of work, but all the lines are nicely placed, and the colour applied sparingly but very effectively. He’s trying to say it’s a very loose piece of work that he didn’t put much effort into, but I know I’d struggle to do something like that. And I’ve seen other reels where artists flick through their ‘sketchbooks’. But by my definition, they’re not sketchbooks at all - they’re marvellous works of art, full of beautiful drawings and paintings that make me green with envy. To me, a sketchbook is where you practise, make mistakes, and generally muck about.
If I were to convey the ‘nobody cares’ message, I would show a video of me making a few sketches that really aren’t all that good (and I have a lot of those), to demonstrate that the quality of the sketch isn’t the point - it’s about drawing or painting to let out ideas and try new things and allowing yourself to make something that is far from perfect. But whether I’d have the courage to do that, I don’t know. At the very least, here’s a page of questionable quality sketches from my sketchbook:
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