Bill Watterson Quotes

I think the mystery of art lies in this, that artists’ relationship is essentially with their work — not with power, not with profit, not with themselves, not even with their audience.

Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.

For the artist, drawing is discovery. And that is not just a slick phrase; it is quite literally true.

Any artist that's involved in their work is inevitably going to have a focus in what they do.

Nothing prepares you for making art except making art. You have to do it to get better.

I'm a believer that you shouldn't really talk about the drawing until you're done with the drawing.

While drawing, I discover what I really want to say.

I made all sorts of things: drawings, sculptures - I was doing origami before I even knew the word. I was constantly creating.

Those who become enamoured of the art, without having previously applied to the diligent study of the scientific part of it, may be compared to mariners who put to the sea in a ship without rudder or compass and therefore cannot be certain of arriving at the wished for port.

Failures in art usually lead to something else interesting.

An amateur may not be an artist, though an artist should be an amateur.

I still come closest to success with drawing. When I use color the results are dubious, for these painfully gained experiences bear less fruit.

I sketch the faces upside down because it's like drawing from the left side of the brain or the right side of the brain. I never took an art lesson in my life.

For all the years I'd spent talking about pictures, the truth was that I had no idea how to draw or what it felt like to do it. I would mistrust a poetry critic who couldn't produce a rhyming couplet. Could one write about art without knowing how to draw?

When you set down the path to create art, whatever sort of art it is, understand that the path is neither short not easy. That means you must determine if the route is worth the effort. If it's not, dream bigger.

The art of drawing is the art of omission.

Great artists treasure their time with a bitter and snarling miserliness.

Art is craft: all art is always and essentially a work of craft: but in the true work of art, before the craft and after it, is some essential durable core of being, which is what the craft works on, and shows, and sets free. The statue in the stone. How does the artist find that, see it, before it's visible? That is a real question.

This beginning with Audacity, or being thrown into the middle of it, is already a very great part of the art of painting.

The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don't have the time to read reviews.

The important thing is to keep on drawing when you start to paint. Never graduate from drawing.

If you're going to be an artist, all life is your subject. And all your experience is part of your art. A youngster told me recently that he was going to give himself a year to see if he has talent. A year! It takes a lifetime to see if you have it. Painting is total engagement.

I still come closest to success with drawing.

Creating art is a habit, one that we practice daily or hourly until we get good at it

All intervening steps, scribbles, sketches, drawings, failed work models, studies thoughts, conversations, are of interest. Those that show the thought process of the artist are sometimes more interesting than the final product