Growing up to be so someone who primarily draws for a living, it's hard to forget some of the drawing exercises/games that made me love pen and ink in the first place.
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| Exhibit A: the iconic Sharpie marker |
I remember way back in elementary school (first or second grade) when we were given this fun game:
The person next to you draws an abstract squiggle line, and then you have to quickly draw the first thing that comes to mind.
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Regular sheet of paper (preferably scrap to be green) ;)
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| Turned into a hill, mountain, and my mascot, Pepe in his car. |
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Another one, which I always ended up challenging everyone I knew, was the classic "choose-an-object-and-let's-see-who-can-draw-it-better" game. The only materials needed are scrap pieces of paper and the drawing utensil of your choice. For this one, the subject was my cat and I challenged my boyfriend to a drawing duel.
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| Buggles the cat. |
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| End result: two entirely different interpretations. |
Last, but not least, the project that may be the main reason I draw the way I do today. Take a blank piece of paper, a Sharpie marker, and fill the entire sheet with something, anything. Searching through my archives, I actually found my first intricate doodle. I'm figuring it's from 10th or 11th grade and I remember going through about 5+ markers since I kept on using so much ink.
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My first intricate doodle
So I thank the two art teachers who really made a difference in my life. They were passionate, encouraging, and extremely sweet to top it off. And I hope you all out there are inspired to just pick up a pencil, pen, crayon, or whatever is available and just doodle away. There are no right or wrong ways to draw and I don't believe in mistakes. I fined-tuned my craft on notebooks in school, on scraps of paper at my first few jobs, and have since traded in my markers for some fancier pens and paper, but it all started with a Sharpie. |
6 comments:
I've never done that first drawing exercise- I like it! It's like a less intimidating 'exquisite corpse'.
What a great article. Thank you for sharing this Virginia. We also had a draw off last night between my husband and my daughter and they drew:... the cat.
This is great - love it! I dont do as much drawing as I used to, prefer to just get my hands messy! :-)
Love seeing your first intricate drawing. It's amazing to see that you have had a certain style since you were in high school!
Wow, I loved all your doodles! And can see the progression to your work today!
I love the idea of a family draw off!
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