When I was much younger, perhaps in preschool I remember finding one of my mother's how to draw books. It was full of cartoon characters like monkeys, hippos, gorillas and the such in wild early disney fashion, but it wasn't put out by Disney, I don't think.
Being the young studious watcher of cartoons that I was, I was thrilled to find this treasure and Mom was thrilled as well. I wanted to do exactly what the title proclaimed and draw these marvelous creations that danced in my imagination fueled the magic of animation. I took to mind to sit around with notebook paper and trace the cartoon figures onto it, badly if I recall.
This activity eventually brought about a bit of motherly advice. "Tracing is fine but if you want to be an artist, you need to draw them without tracing." Or it was something to that effect that I remember. Well I never forgot that small bit of advice, even when I was often discouraged by my ill fated attempts to render an image with #2 pencil that looked like a mishap at the wax museum. I took the advice to heart and don't trace unless I absolutely must to this day.
A son's advice at this point is, "Mom's don't be afraid to give advice to your kids, despite my many failed sketches, I value the good ones even more because without tracing I've created accomplishments that are not built upon the backs of others, but upon my own will and determination."
Later on when I was in middle school, I think, I was sketching again. By this time I was much better and I like to draw people's faces, I still do. I'm not a great character artist, but I can throw down a few good lines that lets a viewer know what they are looking at.
Sitting on my bed, drawing to my hearts content, my mother sat down to look at what I was doing, to which I proudly displayed my latest attempt at some weird superhero or another. She studied it for a bit and said, "I could never draw people. I was good at animals but never good at people. You are really good at drawing people and making them unique." Or something along those lines.
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Joe Jeskiewicz's Art Exercises topic, please visit the Discussions page.