Day Eleven: Find Your Flow

Today was the last section of Nina Rycroft’s Face Shapes Class. I really enjoyed the class. I am proud of myself for slowing down and taking my time with it. My usual way is to plow through everything at warp speed just so I can say I’ve finished it (usually in one sitting). This is especially true with these videos because each one is only a few minutes long. However, because of the goals I set forth with #FindYourFlow, I decided to just tackle one face shape a day, creating six different characters, and it was very beneficial for me.

Here’s what I learned:

• I take on too much and try to get things done too quickly. I need to slow down, take my time, and really pay attention to and absorb what I am trying to learn.
• I was only drawing one face shape over and over again before taking this class. This class has expanded my knowledge of face shapes, and as such, has expanded the possibilities of character development.
• Each element of a face is important and shifting even one thing can vastly change the character that emerges. It is amazing the difference eye shape, mouth shape, nose shape, and even hair shape can make for the character.
• I love sketching with the Caran d’Ache non-photo blue pencil. I love it more than I do graphite. When I go over it with graphite, it loses something. I need to find a graphite pencil that goes down on the page as smoothly as this pencil does.
• I started out wanting to draw just one character over and over again for the #FindYourFlow thirty days, but realized during the practice sessions that it wasn’t going to work for me. I was flexible rather than pushing through as I usually do, and the very last character I drew for the face shapes class is a very good candidate for the character I was looking to create. So, through my flexibility, and my willingness to expand my practice to all kinds of characters, the one I was looking for emerged anyway, and I had a lot more fun.
• I can do things slowly even though it goes against my nature.
• I can do things slowly, and it is beneficial to my progress.
• I can do things slowly and still finish them.
• Everything doesn’t have to be done in one sitting. I can learn to trust myself to come back to it and finish it.
• Small steps are still progress.
• I am proud of myself for going through something slowly, coming back to it day after day, and completing it.
• I followed my intuition rather than my logical mind, and it worked out very well. I am proving to myself that following my intuition is safe to do.

I don’t know what I will do for tomorrow’s #FindYourFlow session, but I am going to let my intuition guide me in the direction I need to go.