Art Challenge

I am really bad at DOING things. I have enough skills, talent and eye to make nice works, but I don't DO anything. It really is so that "done is better than perfect"... If you have DONE something, there's IS something, but if you don't DO, because it will not be good enough, or perfect, or just as you want it to be, or all that, there will be NOTHING.

Bah. Enough with big letters.

So - I decided to challenge myself.
I will pick 365 artworks I like, and then I will copy them, one a day.
I won't be able to copy them very well, because - hey, a day is a very short time when it comes to making art - especially illustrations and the art of the quality I like. To reproduce something perfectly is not my aim with this challenge, or exercise. The goal is to
a) learn to see what kind of colors, lines, compositions and subjects I prefer - learn my own style
b) get rid of the "I don't know what to paint" excuses
c) get rid of most of the other excuses. As I don't need to produce anything perfect, a sketch would be enough, I won't be able to excuse not doing it.

You see, the goal is to paint. I have never produced as much as I did when I was in school, and I have never developed as much as then. It's obvious to me - the more I paint, the better painter I am. I won't get better by WISHING I could paint.
Nothing I did in school was meant to be shown to anyone. I did most of it just for the fun of it, because I had an idea, because I wanted to see my idea on paper, and there were no-one else who could do it for me.

Also, if the idea of copying someone's work bothers you - don't.
Firstly, that was the way the artists learned during Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli all learned that way, and what is good for them is good for me.
Secondly, you are not claiming ownership of anything. You copied the composition, theme, subject, colors, lines, everything, from someone else. It's okay to copy.
I mean, this obsession with originality is probably one of the biggest obstacles in the way of wannabe artists. No-one is a master from birth, everyone has to learn, and humans learn by copying. Even the most original artworks are at some level copies of something, if nothing else, then copies of nature. Of course, you are to have some amount of originality when you become an artist, but we are not talking about people who ARE artists, but people who ARE GOING TO BE artists. You are a student, a beginner, a wannabe. Accept that fact, embrace it and use your right to copy :-D
(Besides, just think about Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp. If they are considered not only artists, but some of the greatest modern artists... Geesh. It's okay to copy.)

Besides, I want to be an illustrator, not a "real artist". There is a difference.