Drawing Epiphany!
Jul. 25th, 2009 02:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
errantemberI used to draw quite a bit as a teenager, mainly:
1) Nude women
2) Robots
3) Weapons
...or some combination of the three.
Since doing artistic things isn't allowed at Texas A&M University, I quit pretty much all of my artistic pursuits while I was there, although I did sometimes doodle in my notes.
I've remained mentally focused on visual artwork and drawing for years, have studied various techniques and artists, and have generally done a lot of drawing-related things, without much actual *drawing*.
However, after once again being inspired by Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
by Scott McCloud and That Yellow Bastard by Frank Miller
, I decided it was once again time.
So much has changed about me in all those intervening years, and one of those things is a deep understanding of how my tendency to do left-brained nit-picking and mechanical cogitation over how I *think* things *aught* to look has sabotaged my efforts in the past. This time, I *insisted* that I do the Michelangelo thing of *seeing* the image I wanted to draw *before* I touched the pencil to the paper, and simply sketching around a figure that was *already* *there*. My left brain kept trying to take over and *think* about the process, but I kept kicking it out and simply stayed focused on what the final image I wanted *looked* like, to the exclusion of all else. And I'm happy to report, I did it! This is the very first time in my life that I've *ever* been able to pre-see the image before I drew it, and it rocks!
I think this is the start of something big. It's also a good example of how it's possible to get better at certain things without actually having to *do* them, as long as you keep part of your brain in that headspace.
The character I drew is called the Chickeneer, a Rocketeer ripoff for a Permaculture comic I'm thinking of doing. I'll post a picture to it here once I get it finished. Instead of a rocket pack, he holds onto the legs of two chickens, who fly him around. Instead of the art nouveau helmet, all three will have matching Mexican wrestler masks!
1) Nude women
2) Robots
3) Weapons
...or some combination of the three.
Since doing artistic things isn't allowed at Texas A&M University, I quit pretty much all of my artistic pursuits while I was there, although I did sometimes doodle in my notes.
I've remained mentally focused on visual artwork and drawing for years, have studied various techniques and artists, and have generally done a lot of drawing-related things, without much actual *drawing*.
However, after once again being inspired by Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
by Scott McCloud and That Yellow Bastard by Frank Miller, I decided it was once again time.So much has changed about me in all those intervening years, and one of those things is a deep understanding of how my tendency to do left-brained nit-picking and mechanical cogitation over how I *think* things *aught* to look has sabotaged my efforts in the past. This time, I *insisted* that I do the Michelangelo thing of *seeing* the image I wanted to draw *before* I touched the pencil to the paper, and simply sketching around a figure that was *already* *there*. My left brain kept trying to take over and *think* about the process, but I kept kicking it out and simply stayed focused on what the final image I wanted *looked* like, to the exclusion of all else. And I'm happy to report, I did it! This is the very first time in my life that I've *ever* been able to pre-see the image before I drew it, and it rocks!
I think this is the start of something big. It's also a good example of how it's possible to get better at certain things without actually having to *do* them, as long as you keep part of your brain in that headspace.
The character I drew is called the Chickeneer, a Rocketeer ripoff for a Permaculture comic I'm thinking of doing. I'll post a picture to it here once I get it finished. Instead of a rocket pack, he holds onto the legs of two chickens, who fly him around. Instead of the art nouveau helmet, all three will have matching Mexican wrestler masks!
