A couple of weeks back I grumbled about how I found Ivan Brunetti’s book Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice to be a bit… hard to get through. Fellow Substacker Suzan Colon (love her cartoons) suggested I take a look at Making Comics by Lynda Barry. Good call!!
Before I even opened the book I was chortling - I could just tell it was going to be fun! When I started reading/peering gleefully at the drawings, it was obvious it was also going to be super helpful.
Though I immediately started breaking rules (I didn’t have the index cards Barry suggested we use, and I used my Lamy fountain pen instead of her pen suggestions, and by accident I added words because I was so enthusiastic about diving into the assignment that I skipped over that part of the instructions….) I had a blast.
The assignment was to draw a series of four self-portraits, each taking about as long as an average song lasts (3-4 minutes). We were to include our whole body and head and draw ourselves (I’m using the plural as I’m imagining her students doing this in class in person and hordes more with copies of the book open on tables before us…) as each of the following:
an astronaut in space
turning into an animal
turning into a fruit or vegetable (Lynda Barry must see a lot of banana-people because she specifically forbids bananas)
turning into a monster.
As per Ivan Brunetti (I felt rather bad that I had semi-dissed him as she quotes him in her book… I feel compelled now to go back and give his book another go… except Lynda Barry’s is WAY MORE FUN!! - just saying), we were supposed to use basic shapes - a big, round head, a simple body shape, and minimalist limbs and features.
As you already know if you’ve been here for a while, hands are my nemesis, so I was pretty happy to tackle the astronaut version of me (above) because of course I would be wearing mittens if I were floating around somewhere in outer space. Note that my hair is restrained in a bun in order to contain the disorder inside my space helmet.
On to number two…
With Icarus fresh in my mind from a couple of days ago, I leaped into this one with gay abandon and, yes, avoided drawing hands once again! [Note: I was careful to stay far, far away from the sun.]
Unable to draw myself as a banana (yeah… I confess, that was the first fruit that came to mind), I went for Nikki as Pear - complete with some bonus, elongated stalks for neck, arms, and legs. Again, no hands!!
And, finally, Nikki turns into a monster. Monsters all have creepy hands, so I wasn’t too worried about the triangle/claw/flame digits sprouting from stick arms. The snakes weren’t planned, but the hair had taken on a life of its own and (again, thank you Icarus) Medusa came to mind.
I think I’ll go read up on Medusa and maybe give Medusa-me a whole comic of her own tomorrow. Heh. Heh. Heh. THANK YOU, Suzan!!
For those curious about Day 2 of the poetry prompts in celebration of International Poetry Month - yes, I did write one today - but it’s pretty somber, so I’ll spare you. The theme came, once again, from a Lois Peterson prompt. The prompt was LOST, but instead of going where I thought I was going (I have a bit of a reputation for being able to get spectacularly lost, pretty much any time I leave my house), I wound up writing about losing my sense of identity in a toxic relationship. It feels like one of those poems that needed to come out and get as far as my journal but doesn’t really need wider distribution than that. Maybe after I’m dead someone might find it an interesting reflection on a dark time in my past, but for now, let’s stick with pears and monsters, shall we?
Obligatory disclaimer: If you follow the link to the book and make a purchase, Amazon will, one day, toss a few pennies my way.