ParomaC

When I was a kid I loved to draw. People were my favourite. All the adults in my family (willing or not) modelled for me at some point or the other.
On the other hand in school I faced a peculiar indifference from my art teachers towards my creative efforts. They weren't the shiniest in class so they weren't worth encouraging. =/
Embarrassed and insecure, I didn't draw again for years.
Then at age 21, I was sitting at this tiny station at night waiting for my train. I had run out of books to read but I had my journal, a pen and a stray dog who had curled up trustingly at my feet making me feel oddly protective of his sleep.*
I started sketching without expecting it to be more than a misshapen blob.
It wasn't.
paromac.deviantart.com/art/Dog…
Somehow in the years of being too self conscious to pick up a pencil I had developed a much better eye for form.
Then slowly I started sketching again. People in trains, characters on tv.
I don't practise as much as I should to develop my incipient skills but what I do create I put up here to keep track of my (very) gradual improvements.
But it doesn't matter how good or average I am. I love sketching and there's no one to stop me from putting pencil to paper.
I don't owe my demons justifications for doing something that makes me happy.

*Something else happened that night. I had always been rather wary of dogs. Respectfully wary but it kept me from appreciating them as anything but creatures with sharp teeth and a scary bark. Two years after that night I brought home my lab mix puppy, Duke. =)