Never Self Promote Your Sketches

Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings, not obscure men.

ALERT: This is a cautionary tale for anyone who takes advice about sketching from me. I promise to give you the tools to become the best sketcher in studio, but please young grasshopper, wield your power wisely. For with it comes countless ways to appease your little ego.

Even up into my junior year, I got into this habit of taking my really nice sketches and strategically laying them out on my desk in studio, but in a way that looked like an accident. That way, when my classmates walked by, you couldn’t help but look down and see them. And by strategically laying them down, I mean turning the papers 180° so that they were facing the pathway which everyone walked down. Pathetic! That would mean that all my drawings were facing away from me on my desk… Yeah, that’s not strange at all.

But freshman year was particularly bad because I was both hungry for some validation and wanted to be somebody in studio. As a matter of fact, a perfect visual would be how a dog pees on the ground to mark its territory. You take Fido for a walk and it seems like every couple hundred feet he takes a quick squat and, well, you know. Then every dog in a 5-mile radius just has to respect that.

But you know what? Marking my territory worked well; really well. Whenever I put something out, it absolutely turned heads and I heard things like, “Oh my gosh Isaiah, that looks so good.” and I was able to build a reputation of being “that guy who can sketch”. Looking back though, I was just an insecure little punk fishing for compliments.

Don’t be like an animal; if you’re excellent at what you do, people will notice, and you’ll never have to seek out praise.

— Your sensei