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I remember saying on tumblr once a long time ago that visual artists had a lot of power; that, if you can draw, you have the power to draw Luigi pushing Isildur into the fires of Mt. Doom, Mabel and Dipper Pines at the Pokémon Centre, and really anything else. If you could think of it, you could make it happen. I said this because I was getting a little annoyed of people who were demonstrably great at drawing complaining that their own work was terrible and not worth the time it took to upload to tumblr, when at the time I was having a hard time even stringing 3 words together to make a sentence. Here were these people, able to make anything from their imaginations happen either on paper or on the computer screen, complaining that they couldn't draw as well as they wanted to, while I was working out from under my hardest creative block of the pre-COVID era. In retrospect, the problem was that I could draw, I just wasn't drawing. I kept buying all these sketchbooks from Walmart's back-to-school sales, and letting them sit around gathering dust, calling myself a composer and not composing either. So, I was actually taking it out on myself.
Anyway, I often think about that tirade of mine. I sort of adopted it as a benchmark for visual art. I guess what I'm getting at is... well...
By my own standards, I guess I'm a visual artist now? I was watching Return of the King earlier tonight and, well, you know how it drones on and on and on. Frodo and Sam had just gotten into Mt. Doom and I thought about my old tirade. I realised my sketchbook and a pencil were sitting within easy reach, so I grabbed them, opened to a blank page, and drew it. Luigi pushing Isildur into the fires of Mt. Doom. That little circle there is, of course, the Ring falling into the fire too. There. Luigi is now the hero of the story, some things that should have not been forgotten and lost were destroyed, and it saved everyone a massive headache. The Ring turned into a Power Star and Luigi went back through the painting in Princess Peach's basement gallery.
Anyway, I learned in the intervening time that it doesn't have to look amazing, it just has to exist. It exists now.