I drew a picture of Jesus and scared my wife.

Yesterday some religious people came by and wiggled a flyer through our door so that it landed inside our house. I felt annoyed, but that's beside the point. (Couldn't they just leave it on our porch with all the other junk mail?)

The flyer had an illustration of Jesus with his wrists bound in rope. It said something like, "Jesus died for your sins, what are you going to do for him?" He was also wearing a crown of thorns.

So I did what any good Christian would do and drew a picture of Jesus in my sketch book. It took about 35 minutes. Then I showed my wife who said it was scary. She said that my Jesus made it look like he wanted to kill her.

So I basically drew an evil Jesus.

Why do artists paint bowls of fruit?

In any art gallery you see lots of bowls of fruit. You also see flowers and vases and even some cubes. Why?

Bowls of fruit can't be the most exciting things to draw. I'd like to ask my sister - as she seems to know a lot about art through her boyfriend.

Anyway, I think it's because fruit are shapely, colourful objects that are pretty easy to find in your house. Many of the beginner art books use fruit as drawing examples - they have good combinations of colours and nice, shiny lighting effects.

Same with flowers and vases and cubes. Good practice for shading or drawing. You can draw or paint a bowl of fruit in an endless number of ways - and each way can make the fruit look different in terms of texture or mood.

I'm going to go draw an apple now.

To draw better you need to learn how to see.

I was reading The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. She said that drawing well doesn't have anything to do with hand coordination. It has everything to do with sight.

"When you see in the special way in which experienced artists see, then you can draw."

I thought that was such a great idea. It applies as a larger metaphor for life as well. The more clear we see things the more success we have.

Educating yourself is learning a new way to perceive or see the world. Painters and artists train themselves to use their eyes in a different way. Edges become beautiful. Negative spaces become beautiful. Shadows become beautiful. All this means that simple objects become fascinating.

Above are two drawings I did. A before and after. The before was my first drawing since grade school. The after, is about a week later after reading a third of the book.

I want to learn how to draw.

One thing I'm horrible at - drawing. I haven't progressed in drawing since I was maybe 8 years old.

The other day I came across a website by a guy who decided he wanted to learn how to draw so he did one drawing for 2,000 days straight and posted each drawing on the site, no matter how bad. Well, after 2,000 days he was an artist. Literally.

It's truly amazing to see his progression. Anyone could do this. It would be hard though. Every day for 5 or 6 years? Scientists say that you need to practice at something for 10,000 hours before you become expert.

I've gone to a few bookstores to look for books about how to draw I quickly became intimidated. There are so many techniques and styles and things to draw I don't know where to start. Talking to people about drawing doesn't help because they just say things like, "Get a book. Draw something you like."

I don't know what I like. Maybe I'll take a drawing course? I need some guidance here. Throw me a fricken bone!