A blank page is not neutral. It carries every drawing you have ever seen that was better than the one you are about to make. That is a lot to put on a piece of paper.
The trick I use, and the one I offer in workshops, is to make the page slightly worse before starting. A wash of colour, a torn edge, a smudge in the corner. Once it is no longer perfect there is much less to protect.
Three ways in
- Work on the back of something else — an envelope, an old print, a page from a book you were never going to finish.
- Set a timer for six minutes and stop when it goes off, whether or not you have finished.
- Use your non-dominant hand for the first few marks. It removes the option of being good.
None of this is about producing better work. It is about getting past the thirty seconds where most people decide not to start at all.
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