Grids

Today I came home and I decided to paint. The other day in stress management, we were asked what do we do to relieve stress, and the first thing that came to my mind was to paint. I've been having a couple of stressful days recently, so I thought that maybe painting could help. It did. I feel more comfortable with a brush rather than a pencil.
To keep with learning the technical side, I did this piece on a grid. I did it pretty quickly, in total it took about an hour and a half, and I still need to finish the jacket, and fix the face a little. I am happy with how it came out, especially because this is my fifth time trying to draw or paint Julian Casablancas, and this piece is the most recognizable out of all of the now six attempts. I can't wait for it to dry. I want to hang it up in my room. The grid I used for this piece was much larger than the one we used in class. There were fewer boxes, and it actually felt like I was painting. I couldn't get to the level of detail that the David Sedarius I'm doing in class is going to be, but the whole thing just felt so much easier. Julian Casablancas has a very distinct jaw line. I think it makes him look even more beautiful, but i've always had trouble drawing or painting it, but once I put the grid on, the whole thing became easier. I saw it better. That's really all the grid does, it let's you see things better. It's about tricking your mind into seeing things the way they really are, not the way your brain interprets them. I know what I made today wasn't perfect, but it's the kind of thing that I can show my parents and they'd be impressed. That's the other thing, art is expensive, and my parents have money, so a factor in what materials I'd be able to buy for myself, and what art classes I'm allowed to take, very much depends on how well I can make things look real. I know that there is more to art than making things look realistic, but I have to admit there is something extremely fun about getting something on a piece of paper look like what exists in real life. As kids, that's what we all tried to do a couple of time (or more for certain people), but quickly gave up and went back to drawing neckless dogs, or stop drawing completely, like what happened to me.
I remember my sister got into grid drawing. She found this huge piece of cardboard and transferred a portrait of our grandmother onto it. She never finished it, and the detail was limited, but that was the push that made her become interested in art. She tells me she wants to do it, and I think that part of the reason is that drawing with a grid is easy and it's a thing that's very show-offy. Show-offy is important. What's the fun of getting really really good at something if you had to keep it to yourself? What if The Beatles just decided to lock themselves in a garage and only make music for themselves? And show offy skills always get the most respect. Athletes, musicians, painters. For the most part, people will think you're cool for being able to these things, but no says "wow, you're good at math? that's so cool" we'd have a million more kids studying math if it all of a sudden became cool to whip out a calculator at a party and solve equations.