Keep making mistakes!

three dragons, courtesy of AI

I’ve mentioned it before but thought this is worth repeating. I’m no fan of AI, but it’s appearance has unlocked my acceptance of imperfection.

It wasn't a coincidence that I started drawing after two dormant decades after Dall-E and Midjourney hit the mainstream in 2022.

Before this happened, I would have guessed that generative AI images would finally smothered the last embers of my interest in drawing.

Instead, I was freed from the self induced constipation of accuracy. I picked up the pen and started laying ink on paper again.

They're rough. There’s no undo button. No edit function. All you can do is start over, again. Try not to mess it all up with the last few lines on the page.

These aren’t perfect, but I can vouch for their provenance. My hand was there when each molecule of dye nestled into the fibers of these pages.

Here's to many experiments in this year of the Dragon!

I wasn't super happy with the purple, but it was "good enough"...until I messed up the last two letters of this page. Lettering in ink demands full attention. The simplest mistake can be catastrophic.

This was on a good track, and then I got cute with his beard and ruined the dragon. Again, the last thing killed the whole page.

At this point, I didn't even try to outline the dragon. I didn't have energy to try a fourth time. I kind of like how the dragon is a bit atmospheric on the page...but that might be a total rationalization for wimping out.