This is a card in Dave's Virtual Box of Cards.

I wish I had been practicing

Created: 2023-01-15
Updated: 2023-01-16

I mention this on my art page:

I would occasionally go through a phase where I drew quite a bit. I would, of course, see an improvement in my abilities. At that point I would bemoan "all the wasted years" I’d not devoted to art and would stop shortly after.

This is my "I wish I had been practicing all along" paradox. The overwhelming feeling of lost time would make me give up on the new effort and then the cycle would begin anew. Absolutely nonsensical!

I’m being a little hard on myself, but that’s the gist of it.

I finally broke this cycle when I started sketchbooking regularly.

Oh, and I did improve my art skills just as I’d hoped. The sketchbook habit comes and goes, but I’ve permanently improved my baseline abilities.