Knowing when to need more

Last night I went to a live figure drawing session of models in the nude.  Now,  I can sketch flowers and landscapes with relative ease and flow.  The human form, in it’s bareness, wow, now that is a big challenge.  The sketches I did are merely attempts, now worth of a blog post.  And I’m confronted with that uncomfortable feeling, I need more training in art.

In my Reiki work, I’m a big proponent of the phrase, ‘less is more’.  Don’t overwhelm yourself with various trainings.  Stick to one path until you achieve mastery.  But then, I do have over 15 years experience working with that technique.  I have a master’s degree in counseling, I’ve worked directly with thousands of people, developing my own technique of Insight Reiki.

But delving into another form, like figure drawing, is where I acknowledge, I need more.  Luckily, there are many books and classes around to help the fledgling artist scratch down the basics of musculature, proportion and shadow.

I think I’ve steered away from it in my other art of painting for so long because it always seemed so focused, so particular.  It is.  Human beings are amazing complex, I know that working with their psychologies and energy fields.

Now I’m motivated to capture their exterior, as much as I honor the interior.  The little bits of practice I have had at these figure drawing sessions shows me I also see the energy of the models I’m drawing.  I find this really curious, and am excited to see where these two ways of seeing eventually meld.