Getting Back to My Roots

I used to draw.

A lot.

It was my favorite activity in Kindergarten.  We all got to draw as kids but man I was serious. I’d work those crayons down to crumbly wax stubs during art time.  I would draw pictures for myself, for friends, for family members, for almost anyone. I’d draw with pencil (my fave back then) and pen, too.  As a kid I would make up G.I. Joe characters that didn’t exist.  Ones I wish they’d base new action figures on.  I’d draw army men, battles, robots, cars, spacemen, all kinds of crap.

It didn’t stop there.  I drew big ass banners for my high school’s Commercial Art class.  These were banners that were actually used to promote various high school activities, services, and local events.  I was in the Journalism class and drew political cartoons and other filler.

I won a couple of awards of merit from the California State Fair for drawing portraits of Brandon Lee as The Crow and actress Joan Chen.

In college I minored in Art Studio where one of my classes was a charcoal drawing course that had us drawing for 4 to 5 hours per lab, two or three times a week.  Part of our assignment was to draw a self-portrait every week.  I took painting, lithography, and intaglio, too.  Just a crazy variety of different forms of art.

For a time, I wanted to be a comic book artist.

Then suddenly…

THUD.

A lot of other people’s (dis)beliefs fell on me.

OK, maybe not so suddenly.  But more like a steady flow of other people’s doubts buzzing around in the back of my mind.

“You’ll be a starving artist.”

“You need a backup plan.”

“Artists don’t make much money.”

I’m not here to cast judgment or chastise anyone.  It’s over and done with, and I’m over it.  But here’s where I’m going with this…

I haven’t drawn, and I mean freehand with no computers, for a very long time.  In fact, it’s been so long, I probably suck at it now.  But I’m fired up again because of a project I heard about through someone’s Facebook post.  I signed up to do The Sketchbook Project 2011.  And my sketchbook just arrived in the mail today.  My theme: The View from Up Here. Now, I don’t have to draw; I can use other media if I like.  I might do that.  But I really miss drawing.  Just picking up that pencil and seeing what flows.  I’ve always had a strange fascination with blank paper.  To me, it represents endless possibilities, stories untold, new beginnings.

It’s never too late to do something you love.  I’m going to draw again, because I love it.  If only for this one project.

By the way, if you’re having trouble with those same beliefs I mentioned earlier, know this: Art feeds the soul.  So fear not, there is no such thing as a starving artist.

To be continued…