Draw·So·Fast·You·Can't·Think
In the summer of 1957, I spent many afternoons visiting my mother who was in the hospital for respiratory problems. She had to spend several hours each day inside an oxygen tent. To pass the time, I would take drawing supplies with me and draw while we visited. One afternoon I decided to do a portrait of her. (Looking back now, I can imagine just how unenthused she must have been to have her portrait done while sitting in an oxygen tent!) Suddenly a nurse came into the room. She was very professional, very efficient. She never stopped moving as she quickly went from one chore to the next. When she came in, she saw that I was drawing and commented: "I see you are drawing. I am a cartoonist myself." At the time, I had great hopes of becoming a cartoonist and I immediately asked her: "How do you get your ideas?" She answered: "Oh, I just draw so fast I can't think." And with that she left the room. I stopped what I was doing and sat there stunned! Her words had struck me like a bolt of lightening. I felt like they had been engraved on the inside of my eyelids. I never forgot what she said. Almost ten years later, I was having great difficulty with my drawing and imagemaking in general. I remembered what that nurse had said. I decided to put it to work to rescue myself from the creative fog I was in. For details about the results of that adventure, check out White Noise. Here are the specifics of the method I developed. It is very,very simple yet it can be surprisingly effective when practiced regularly and with some degree of discipline. Preparation- have several easy-to-use markers such as felt tip pens or pencils and an abundance of inexpensive surfaces to draw on.
|