Master of none

What is the point of learning all these things and never mastering one? You got to choose one. As a kid, I wanted to take swimming lessons, ride horses, attend art school, attend a music school for playing guitar, but of course, I could only choose one of those things due to financial situation and perhaps even due to my mother not believing in me enough to be capable of handling it all.

I’m 31 now, and I still want to try and do… everything. I have always been curious by nature and love crafting stuff with my own two hands. I love working. In some ways, I think this has been passed down by my father. The true emulator, who loved to take some skill whatever it might be, and fidget around with it until he figured it out. He was doing photography with analog cameras and film. He was painting the scenery with all kinds of paints, painting huge murals on ice cream shops, inking using negative spaces only, sculpting pirates, devils, and crocodiles out of clay. He was a great fisherman and hunter. Played every instrument he got his hands on such as piano, guitars, accordion, zither, and harmonica. He loved building things and renovating as well. Was he master of all those things? Probably not, yet he was pretty damn great at them all. Why? Because he loved doing them. They brought him joy and that is a key to everything.

It is interesting to me to know that he wanted to become a “real” artist and applied to a prestigious art school taught by a master and was turned down. It turned out that only a select few were accepted at that time, most of which needed to pull some strings and have contacts to get in. I think he took that as a big fuck you and wanted to prove them all wrong. That was his fuck you fuel for learning by doing. Crafting his skills, his way and no one could stop him.

Can masters be out mastered? What makes you one? Is it some official title that grants you the status or is it your works and your skills? People love to compare, but to me, art is an individual journey. As an observer, you either can appreciate it or not. Do you even need to master something to live a rich and fulfilling life? I think my father certainly had fun. He never knew boredom, he happily crafted and did things that brought him joy. Life is too short to be concerned about what if I never achieve this or that or become the true master. Do what you love anyway.

You know, I rather am the master of none and still have fun in this life. It still stings a bit from time to time when I show something I have been working on for days or weeks to my mother and poured my heart out in it, and she says something along the lines you need to learn to shade, maybe go take some courses with some master, or oh you should see this artist’s work, they paint these realistic looking flowers. Things like that. How I should focus on getting serious about living xD Good thing is that I have realized that my life is my own.

I wonder what my father would say to me now.

While lately, my blog here has been more silent than usual, don’t be alarmed. I am not going anywhere. They should create a feature, where you can leave a message that pops up like a banner on top of your feed - be back soon, busy learning how to properly poke a digital drawing tablet or something, ha!

But here are some supplies that just arrived. I am so excited to put these to good use! It’s called… I was running low on sketching paper xD

_{I love raiding specialized art stores. It has been a lot harder during the pandemic with most shops now being online. You can’t be sure about the right texture or quality of the paper or the softness of brushes unless you know exactly what you are looking for. I am not sure yet how some of these things will perform, but I can’t wait to test them and find out.}

_{Aaaa, this brown watercolor paper pad will be so much fun, I can tell already! The spiral is at the top which helps with not getting in the way and pages can also be easily removed if I choose to do so.}

_{White ink! Yes! That is exactly what I needed for working on darker pages or for some accents here and there.}

_{Here I have a synthetic brush set since inks have been killing my silly broken brush for a while now. Not sure how long these will last. Single Copic marker xD Holy Moly! Those suckers are expensive, but I still wanted to see what the fuss is about and how they perform before getting more of them. 2 white Faber-Castell watercolor pencils, will also be great for working with darker backgrounds. Pigma Brush pen and Pigma Micron rapidograph 04.}

_{Water-soluble graphite pencils ^^ Ah! I love the scent of brand new pencils. These will do nicely for sketching underneath watercolor paintings as well as for sketchy drawings.}

_{What’s this weird contraption? While Beat Sabering, I kept thinking about how I wish my sabers had some weight as real swords xD So I got wrist weights for that. Now my sabers weigh 1.5 kilos! I would, however, recommend going lighter or for the kind that you can adjust since you get pretty tired quickly with 1.5. Upside, my arms will be super strong and I will be able to put a hole in the wall if need be. Hulk smash! Nah, I rather not make my arms look like his tho xD}

_{Woah! I am reading a book again! Keep Sharp by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. If you are one of those people who think that as you age your brain will only degrade and deteriorate, this book is for you. While it is true that many older people start losing their cognitive abilities, it does not have to be you, as there are ways to keep you sharp at any age. It is so great, and so far it has helped me to understand my brain a lot better. Can recommend it! I might write a review after finishing it too.}

Until next time, thank you for reading and stopping by! Hopefully, soon I will have some more works to share using these supplies perhaps! ^^

_{Song of the day: Firewind - Maniac}