“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” — Benjamin Franklin
Almost exactly one year ago in May, Motorcycle man gifted me an iPad. I primarily use it to watch Youtube, Netflix and get ideas from Pinterest. However I was really excited at the time thinking about using it to make art. R.J. got me a “pen” to go along with the iPad because she knew it was an interest of mine.
I had all the tools to try something new and here we are a year later and just yesterday I paid for the app called “procreate”. It’s a digital drawing app.
I was sent some instructional videos to watch and immediately felt overwhelmed. It seemed too hard to learn something new. I decided to first play with the app before trying to move through an instructional video. I pulled in a drawing I did from my photo library and played with color. I became frustrated fairly quick. I kept reminding myself that I’ve been here before. I have been in places that I have no idea how to do something, it always comes with loads of frustration. It comes with feelings of wanting to quit. I even let a little anger sneak out and the anger starts to talk back at me. It says things like “your stupid”, “you will never figure this out”
Guess what? Scarlet is a lier. She is the rude being who lives inside of me and says mean things. She has no idea what I’m capable of. I remember when I was learning to make videos. I had to use a new app I had never used before. It came with loads of frustration, it came with me wanting to quit and there Scarlet was, as usual telling me I couldn’t do it because I wasn’t smart enough. I had plenty of fails, learning curve after learning curve. Until one day, it started to click and I kept practicing making movies, I took classes and I practiced more. Now I know how to make and edit family movies because I didn’t give up. I kept trying through all the frustrations and mistakes.
Below is my very first attempt at making art on procreate. I can’t wait to learn more. I can’t wait to keep practicing. One day, I’ll be able to make art on my iPad because I didn’t give up.