Practice Makes Perfect?

This here is my study wall. The room is entirely white apart from this border which goes around the whole room. I started drawing patterns like this about 3 years ago for some unknown reason and I have continued ever since. I like the way that the whole thing looks a little sinister, like tendrils of some evil plant/bacteria thing reaching out.

I didn't know how this photo would turn out but I kinda like it. The texture of the wall and the way you can just about make out brush strokes gives the painting a certain feeling which I cant quite place, but is nice.

I hand painted the whole thing (about 8 meters worth) over the space of about a month between September and October 2010. In total I must have spent about 24 hours doing it and I loved it. Just sitting there painting mindlessly and listening to music. It was great. It was also nice to be able to visibly watch myself improve as I progressed around the room. This is a section which I did fairly early on and is quite simple in comparison to the opposite wall! In fact I had to paint over and then redo a section when I had finished as there was such a clear difference in quality and style.

The moral of this is that practice may not make you perfect but it certainly won't make you worse. Find something you enjoy, and do it, you will get better at it. You may see improvement in a few days or only over years, but it will be there, you just have to look hard enough. You don't have to be the best at anything, you just need to be the best that you can be.

And anyway where would we be if our forefathers had never tried to better themselves, and where will our children's children's children be if we don't try to do the same?