Dancing Skeletons

So far my favorite drawing from the work I’m doing with Lynda Barry’s book is one I did with my eyes closed.

The prompt was to draw 3 skeletons with eyes closed in blue, yellow, and red. I used colored pencils.

Davy was immediately drawn in by this, but insisted I draw them again “happy.”

The big smiles and heads threw off the proportions, but there’s no doubt these drawings have more “life” than any I’ve done eyes open.

I’m also loving rediscovering composition notebooks. I used to love writing and drawing in these as a kid.

Faces are just lines.

It’s pretty amazing isn’t it?

If you stop to look at an illustrated face (particularly a stylized one like those below) each of the individual lines are actually pretty simple.

It’s the way they’re all arranged that give the faces expression and character.

A few weeks ago I woke up and started writing a children's book. Just typing lines into my Notes app. We read picture books all the time so perhaps this was inevitable. 😂

I've decided to tackle my fear of drawing faces to see if I could perhaps illustrate it too.

I pulled down a stack of children’s books off our shelf and copying faces in lots of different styles. (See above.)

I obviously wouldn’t copy these in my own work, but I did this to study the lines used and see if I “could” draw stylized faces. For a first go I think I’ve done pretty well so now it’s down to practicing and developing my own style.

I started two courses for drawing people by Bardot Brush (it’s free!) and Lila Rogers (which I caught on half price.) They are both great at breaking the face down and make it all feel do-able.

Then I had another go using a minimalist approach with dots for eyes and simple mouths.

Then I added skin tones and white to the eyes.

This wasn’t an assignment, just me playing. I noticed a lot of Davy’s books illustrated the white of eyes in this way, which is very different than outlining.

I’m still not sure if I will end up illustrating this book, but it’s fun to learn something new.

It’s hard to let yourself be a beginner sometimes, but we always have the capacity to learn something new if we can keep our ego out of the way.

Making for Survival

Making is truly a self regulation tool for me.

So I’ve been turning to ways we can fold art and making into our days.

Davy is finally to that magic age where he can sit at the table with me and draw or stand at the counter and mix sourdough starter. This is the part of motherhood I was most looking forward to so I’m glad he’ll be home and we can have more adventures together.

I make art all the time, but at some point I became scared of drawing. Growing up and in undergrad courses I drew all the time. I never questioned whether I could draw something or if it was any good. I just got on with it.

Then I went a decade or so without drawing.

Now I feel incredibly rusty.

But (rust and all) I sat down at the kitchen table with Davy and joined The Good Ship Illustration’s art club. What I love about drawing is how simple it is. It’s not messy. It’s not stressful. And it’s perfect for parallel play.

Art club was all about continuous line drawing.

I find this way of drawing to be an exercise in seeing.

I used Davy’s Stabilo Woody pencils and the chunky bold lines meant I couldn’t be precious about it.

But also there’s something alive about this way of drawing that my old perfectionist self never tapped into.

Since that day we’ve pulled out our sketchbooks and drawn together most afternoons.

I foresee lots of drawing at the kitchen table in the weeks to come.

Maybe I will remember how to see.