A Drawing A Day

I spent this year trying to clean up the various messes I made last year, and also in trying to ‘catch my breath’ so to speak, and to regroup in terms of my art practice. I’ve gotten in whole worlds of trouble, and by the grace of God I think I’m finally starting to pull myself out.

I’ve taken a deliberate break from ‘painting factorying’ (indeed, to be honest, I’m not sure I want to go back).  And all this time, I reckon what’s kept me grounded x from completely losing it was to do my best to make sure I at least drew one thing a day.

I mean, I did paint a couple of things, here and there, but largely the only things that have been coming out of the painting factory amount to little more than doodles.

I mean, they’re just in my notebook, fer cryin’ ~ well most of them are, anyway. And I’ll be sharing a few of the less embarrassing ones here throughout this post, along with some thoughts I have on drawing.

Drawing (As An Escape) From Life

Like reading, I have no real memory of learning how to draw. I’ve always just been able to do it.

I remember one of the first things I ever drew (or wait, maybe it wasn’t) but it was just this hideous scrawl doubling over and over on itself to form a sort of circular mass. Then I’d stick a stem and a couple of leaves under it and call it a ‘messy flower’.

(It’s the stem and the leaves that make me doubt whether that was reeeally my first drawing ever.)

I also remember these, ‘mermaid cities’ I used to draw when I was around, eight, I suppose (third grade, thereabouts). All the ‘buildings’ were (meant to be) upright clams or oysters or something and there was a hospital clam, an office clam, that kind of thing.

Oh and these lame ‘fairies’ or (dolls I think they were), which shluffed up an entire pad of paper. (You know, (if you’re a fellow Filipino my age), the newsprint kind, ‘size two’ with blue and red lines?)

It was like, I was drawing things I knew I couldn’t have or see ‘in real life’. I figured, if they already existed, then what was the point (I could just look out the window and take a gander, lol). Or, things I’d seen somewhere (like a book or a movie maybe) that I wanted to remember.

Lots of people draw for memory, as I’ve mentioned, so drawing these things was like escaping from the here and now to go back to what you wanted to recall.

Drawing from illustrated books was also something I remember I did as a kid. (I am grateful for having grown up in a house full of books ~ thank you Mom <3)

One book in particular I remember copying from ~ it was a ‘Wind in the Willows’ and I hate that I can’t remember now exactly who the illustrator was (I think it might have been Michael Hague).
​

‘Blacking Warehouse Days’

More than 20 years ago, my grand uncle gave me a book by Charles Dickens ~ ‘My Early Times’, I think the title was.

If I remember correctly, there was a time when he was super young (as in a kid) when he had to leave school simply because they were too poor to send him. He ended up in a sort of poor house (you know, the child labour kind). I think the ‘blacking’ referred to shoes. I don’t remember.
​
In any case, that’s how I refer to that time in my life, which lasted about, oh, half a year, I think, after I left art school and had great trouble finding a job. (Wow, 20+ years later, I can’t say things have changed all that much LOL)

Of course, job hunting back then wasn’t what it is now (because now there’s internet, and I’ve since learned to pray to St Cajetan as well as St Jude). But that meant I didn’t have any money for paint and things. However, I did have quite a lot of stuff.

So I figured I’d spend my ‘blacking warehouse days’ making art with the stuff I already had. I had a LOT of scratch paper and a tonne of books, so I thought I’d practise my pencil drawing by copying the photos in those books.

I’m fairly sure I’ve still got those drawings somewheres around here, but I’m afraid I haven’t got the political will at the moment to dig them up. Anyway (I’m ashamed to say again) ~ wow, 20+ years later, still can’t say things have changed all that much LOOOL
​
Because then, as now, drawing kept me grounded and from freaking out because things were just so ~ uncertain.
​

Drawing as a Discipline

I remember Kuya Robert (God rest him </3) gave an online workshop once about ‘drawing mindfully’ (or something like that). I remember him drawing a coin, and he was drawing in all the tiny lines on the coin’s edges ~ the workshop talked about noticing all those little tiny details.
​
For me, I think that’s what drawing is all about ~ or well not all-all, but it’s a huge part of it. Ingres ~ and my Lolo ~ are my ultimate drawing heroes (along with Akira Toriyama and Jim Lee ^_^). If I had a genie wish I would totally ask to be able to draw like them (just once like them before I die).

I remember back in art history class Mr D said that Delacroix said that the foundation of a good painting was colour, but that Ingres said that the foundation of a good painting is a good drawing. That’s picking between kittens and puppies for me but, you get what I mean (I hope).

Anyway I took a lot of figure drawing classes before I went to art school. I had a lot of those ‘draw this nude in two minutes or less’ type things, ‘draw this without looking at the paper’ or ‘without lifting the pencil’ and all that jazz. I remember being told it was ‘for discipline’ or something.

The term that sticks in my head now is ‘contour drawing’ ~ to be honest I can’t say I know the ‘proper’ definition of that but I *think* that’s what they call the way I draw today.
​
That (along with Mr A’s ‘mindfulness’) is probably what I would say on the off chance anybody asked me how I roll with a pencil or piece of pastel.
​

Get Your Hands Dirty

Although I do draw using other things. As I took all those classes (and spent a few years teaching some myself) I’ve learned to enjoy the tactile quality of charcoal and chalk. Ink I have a special affinity for, because I just can’t resist the *scritch-scritch* of the pen on paper.

Well whatever the medium is, I find it amazing how dirty your hands can get when you draw ~ I mean, it should be relatively neat, right? Like how my clothes are full of paint stains, and not pencil stains? And don’t get me started on the clean up (palettes, knives, and brushes, oh joy).

But yeah pastels and charcoal are pretty darn messy, not to mention ink (specially if I’m in a splattering mood) (and cleaning up after ink can be a real pain, too).

But hey, that’s part of the fun of it ^_^
​

Drawing Against Depression

So yeah, right now it’s been all pencils and oil pastels for me ~ can’t say exactly why; maybe because they’re familiar, comforting ~ you know? But I know for sure that the little or no preparation and minimal clean up time has a lot to do with it.

I mean the most I’ll have to do to get started is sharpen a pencil ~ or open up a box of pastels. Paper’s already there, just gotta pull it out of a pad or turn a page. I mean, versus mixing paint or stretching paper or something (heck I just killed a huge chunk of Saturday washing my plywood).

See these days I don’t, have a whole lot of time, I feel, in a day, for *arting* (on account of all that cleaning up after last year I was talking about). But I push myself (uphill sometimes, it feels like!) to do it because if I don’t *art* every day, I don’t feel right. I don’t know why that is. I just don’t. ​

So even if the ooonly thing I do is to draw one thing, even in my notebook (or well this year I’ve got one of those Starbucks planners) ~ I feel, stable, more or less.

I described it recently to a fellow artist by saying it was a lot like this anime I can’t. Stop. Watching. In it, the robots are referred to as (suits of) armour and the pilots are called ‘riders’, and if certain armour riders don’t ‘ride’ for a long enough time? They die.

Actually, even when I was painting the few things I was able to complete this year ~ even if I painted just one monster in the painting for the day, let’s say, I would be able to live with myself. If I didn’t, it just ~ screwed up everything else in my life. It’s terrible (stupid), I know, but that’s how it is.
​

Just Draw It

Drawing one thing a day (or more if I could manage it) has helped me a lot during the slump I was in earlier this year (actually I’m not sure whether I could still be in it now). It’s easy to do, and you should do it for you (at least, that’s how I did it).

Draw what you like, whatever pops into your head or what makes you happy, and since you’re just doing it, say, in your notebook or on scratch paper, nobody’s going to see it (unless you share or something). So zero pressure to make it *nice* or perfect or what.

Unless of course, you’re doing it for practice, or training. That’s good, too. Which you could say is also doing it for yourself.

That reminds me, by the way, of that time somebody told me you had to make a bazillion drawings a day if you wanted to get good at it.

We’re not talking about that here, and really, if it’s just something that’ll put even more pressure on you then I’m guessing (at least if you’re anything like me) that’s the last thing on earth you need right now.

In any case, I know it probably doesn’t show but I *feel* like doing a drawing a day has done me a world of good. I guess you could say it’s like doing warm up or stretches before you run ~ you stay limber and you’re not *running a cold engine*. And I’m sure it’ll do you good, too.

​

* Sometimes, people ask me for the things I draw ^_^;
If you'd like me to draw you something
(like my friend's fur baby up there)
Drop me a line to let me know.
​