If you’ve been reading along since the beginning, you’ll know that prior to the start of this year (2023), I hadn’t drawn much at all. This project is as much about sharing the process of learning to draw as it is about having a reason to want to do so.
Not, I hasten to add, that a reason is needed. If you want to learn to draw, pick up a pencil. But, I do have the kind of personality that likes a project, and what better way to put new skills to work than through the process of creating something. A graphic novel memoir about your artist father, for example.
With all that in mind, while the subject matter is my father’s life (how he became an artist, what that was like, growing up with someone whose profession nobody really understood, all that stuff we’ve already touched on in previous posts) by deciding to create a graphic novel as the means to tell the story and by taking on the challenge of doing both the drawings and the writing myself and by vowing to do all this publicly, one day/page/new drawing challenge at a time… Hm. Where was I going with that long and winding sentence?
Oh, yes. I think this project would have been too daunting to stick with if I hadn’t decided to a) commit to a daily post, which, in turn, reflected a daily steplet along the road to project completion and b) to sharing widely and telling EVERYONE what I was up to, I would have quit by now. Learning to draw, diving into the previously alien-to-me waters of comics/graphic novel creation, coming up with a way to write a memoir of one of my favourite people in the world… well, it was a lot to take on. And, like all big projects, it’s better not to think too hard about all the moving pieces, all the challenges, all the drafts, all the erasing, the editing, the stops, starts, trials and errors that will inevitably raise their ugly heads before all is said and done.
One drawing exercise a day, though, that’s manageable. A quick post to report on progress isn’t much to add. Given that there are lots of things to think about, research, learn, try (and try again), well, the raw material for daily posts is not exactly in short supply.
With all that in mind, I was at the library today and found a copy of Drawing: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun: For Mixed-Media Artists by Carla Sonheim. I was intrigued. A quick flip through and the exercises did look like fun. I’ve been curious how one develops a cartoon-style, and the first exercise looked promising.
Essentially, the exercise was to draw a bunch of cats in 10 minutes. I grabbed Dad’s yellow Lamy (I live in hope that using his pen will help me draw better) and started scribbling.
Ten minutes later I had a lot of badly drawn cats. Though in most cases, I think you can tell they are feline and not tarantulas, I’m not sure which ones to pick for the next step. I’m supposed to choose a couple I like best (hm) and then re-render them using other materials. Stay tuned…
There is a cat in our family history (a couple, actually, but one in particular stands out) who deserves a spot in the GN. Mischa was a kitten we acquired in Sydney, an absolute sweetheart of a brown tabby who wound up travelling with us from Australia to Banff, Vancouver, and Calgary, and then retiring in Bavaria. Thinking about Mischa, he probably deserves a whole book all to himself.
Which means I’ll have to keep working on the cat drawings.
PS If you wind up following a link to buy something I mention in these posts - like, say, a super fun drawing exercise book, the good folks at Amazon will send me a few pennies. I have to let you know or I’ll get into trouble. Don’t let that stop you from checking the book out - it’s actually pretty fun, as promised on the cover.