I’ve spent years taking snaps of things I find visually interesting in addition to taking proper landscape photos. This has given me a wealth of reference material for sketching.
However, this comes with an interesting neurosis — the fear of running out of things to draw. This is so ridiculously irrational. As of writing this, I have a folder of over 550 reference photos that I have picked out as potential material for sketching — and that’s just a cursory browse of my photo collection, and it doesn’t include scenes I would choose for paintings. Plus, I know I could go out for a wander with my camera tomorrow, and easily find at least another ten more sketching subjects.
… and yet that fear of running out still niggles at me!
In reality, it would take me a year and a half of daily sketching, creating finished pieces out of each reference photo to get through those. If I did create that many pieces of finished art in the space of 18 months, I really don’t think it would be a concern. I’d like to think I’d be feeling a sense of achievement from being so prolific, not worrying about silly things.
The mind works in strange ways. I can’t believe this shit takes up mental space!
