I can't draw. Can't paint either. I can't even draw a straight line or a pretty heart shape without ruining it. But for some unfair reason, I'm surrounded by many family members and friends who can draw or paint well. I can only say the reason must be to mock me for my less than exemplary skills with a pencil or brush. Throw in the markers & crayons too.
Why am I not creative in that area? I didn't used to mind at all, I wasn't one for art classes when I was in school. There's something I have against art education at school. Art should be cultivated & encouraged. It shouldn't be made into a subject that can be taught. Let alone be critiqued by ONE teacher and thrown into a pile of categories of meaningless alphabet letters. And not shockingly enough, I've never had the honour to be bestowed the letter that starts the word, "Achievement" on my report card for Art.
Of all the extra-curricular classes my mum could have sent me to when I was a little girl - ballet, piano, or drama etc - she chose to put me in an art class which I dropped out pretty soon. I don't even remember anything there. Except for the lousy feelings of not being a very bright kid at filling a piece of white paper with the images in my mind. The images are beautiful in my air balloons, but tend to look very different when they have to be forced out by my hand.
But now with the advent of blogging, my jealousy horns have popped out & couldn't stop growing whenever I see my talented friends showcasing their lovely illustrations, designs or paintings. I want to fill my blog with things I created with my own hands too. So that led me to try out two free drawing softwares: Inkscape & Tux Paint for children.
I had a go at Inkscape first but found it too difficult to work. Navigating through the functions certainly requires some knowledge of a graphic design student or designer. So I aborted the program to try the next one with some shame. Because it's for children, I doubt I could come up with anything that would be near satisfactory. True enough I didn't. But I wouldn't blame it entirely on the program; after almost two decades I still found difficulty with filling up a blank space with anything except for scribbles that were scrawled out from frustration & creativity block.
After a few feeble attempts that would even put a baby to shame, I did manage to come up with something. It was two snow-capped hills submerged in the sea - home to two little penguins. And there is a story:
Dark grey clouds were looming over the hills, with one particularly ominous black cloud just above the taller hill. The cloud broke and guess what happens during a thunderstorm? Lightning strikes. And unfortunately, the penguin with the bad karma who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time was jolted by the lightning & ended up with a charred bottom. The cuckoo, who was flying above (her lucky day) saw the dangerous flash breaking from the clouds in front of her, managed to escape by turning back. Moral of the story:
luck is unpredictable
A picture paints a thousand words. If I'd managed not to lose my drawing (that looks like it belongs to a five-year-old) by not knowing how to save it properly, I wouldn't have to humour myself by coming up with a story like this...
At the end of the day, I still haven't achieved my goal of filling up my blog space with something I created myself. But maybe it's for the best because it would hurt to hear people thinking,
"She really can't draw".
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