Graphite pencil and charcoal were the materials I started with when I began taking art seriously, and they’re what I turn to when I’m feeling stressed. That’s how I felt when I started this elephant portrait–we were in our last week of summer vacation and gearing up for the new school year, and between lesson planning and organizing all of our books and supplies I was in serious need of some art therapy. I’ve had this reference photo sitting around for awhile and thought I could drown some stress in all those wrinkles, so I got out my pencils and got to work. But sometimes my drawings don’t turn out according to plan.
I had finished all the details of the elephant and was ready to begin laying in the background. I was in the home stretch, and after hours of work I was ready to see it finished. Then, for who knows what reason, I picked up a piece of pastel instead of my usual piece of charcoal and started in, realizing as soon as I saw the streak across the paper that I had messed up. Graphite and pastel have very different properties, and the graphite elephant now looked completely wrong against this pastel background. I was so mad, I almost scrapped the whole thing. So many hours of work, just to mess it up at the end!
After a few choice words, I took a deep breath (or rather several) and got out my colored pencils. It took several extra hours, but as I went over each line, filled everything in again and redid the background, I forgot all about the frustration from my “mistake” and actually began to enjoy the process again. When it was all finished, I ended up far happier with it than I was before. It was almost as if the drawing knew what it wanted to be, and it wasn’t going to let me get away with taking the easier route.
Sometimes art, just like life, makes an unexpected change of direction. I don’t like change in general–I’m a creature of habit and find comfort in well-laid plans. It can be a struggle to remember that when plans inevitably do change, it’s for the better.
