Shed off your fears, completing the what-ifs

We can't use erasers in our Graphics' Studio. It started when one of our professor asked us the difference between drawing with an ink-pen versus a pencil. Someone pointed out that while using pencils you could erase your mistakes. And this is how we were forbidden from using erasers, they say there are no mistakes in art.

Though it had much to do with the feeling a pencil could deliver; the soft graphite rubbing itself against the rough paper that we draw on, and also the varying intensities and thicknesses you can achieve with the pressure and the angle that you use, the question had me pondering over the actual fear.

What if is all it starts with.

What if I draw my pencil line a bit off?

The problem with our brains is that they are hard-wired to be protective. This, as an artist, can be hampering in our endeavors, but it does apply to other disciplines. Your brain actually keeps you from doing things that can be dangerous, in which case, even dangerous to your personality. Which, is actually good. You're protected by your brain from doing things that are morally wrong because you're a person who is good, who is usually right. But what it does interfere with is it prevents you from exploring, from doing things that you could've been doing.





For example, let's say that you're walking in a dense rain-forest. And you're lost. To add to the misery, you haven't had food since a day. There's a bush with a tasty looking red colored berry. It looks so perfect and delicious, you can't just resist having a bite. But, you've been told to not eat fruits which you have no clue about. So you go on to find a black berry which is familiar. You hate black berries, but you still eat it, because you're afraid to explore a new fruit. Your brain is protective.

It's definitely a one-sided argument that a reasonable person would eat the black fruit instead of a red one, but that's a story, a story when you're in a forest. This isn't a forest, right? Then why the heck are you, now, afraid to try out the red fruit?

From now on, just try to complete your what-ifs.

If my pencil line's a bit off, it wouldn't matter at all, because the person looking at my work wouldn't really know how had I intended to draw the line in the first place.

So, there wasn't anything to fear at all. I threw away my eraser already. Time for you to throw yours.