paralysis of perfection

I did this a few weeks ago, on a perfect beach day. As i drew, I noticed a few kids behind me, trying to be discreet (as discreet as kids can be!) as they peeked at the page. They stood behind me for a while as i continued drawing, and at one point, one of the little boys, about 8 or 9 years old, piped up & said, "you draw good". I smiled & said thank you, then asked him if he liked to draw. He replied, "yeah, but I'm not good".

Needless to say I had a good chat with this boy about the importance of doing "not good" drawings, and how you need to do thousands of not so good drawings to get to the great ones. And besides, I was willing to bet that they were already really good artists who just needed a bit of practice. Within minutes, the three of them were telling me what they loved to draw as they scoured the beach for drawing sticks.

We said our goodbyes & I returned to my page, but not until I snuck a peek at them drawing in the sand.