The Genesis of Teaching Self How to Draw.

Mother fucking Dragon Ball Z characters. Look at how badass they are. 

I've been meaning to learn how to draw ever since a friend of mine wowed me with his drawings of Dragon Ball Z characters in middle school. Since the art classes sucked, I tried to teach myself how to draw several times with the help of drawing tutorials from poorly designed websites. Each time I would tell myself, "Today's the day you'll start drawing everyday and keep it up!" and then I pictured myself drawing amazing shit at the ripe age of twenty because I kept drawing every single day for ten or so years. But I never did. I am currently twenty-one years old and I still can't draw an apple or a steaming pile of shit.

Each time I tried to draw, it was too apparent how shitty the drawings were. With the glaring flaws front of me, it would seem easy to fix those but in reality, it was a bit of bother to actually correct the errors and make it look better because it involved using an eraser that never erased everything, leaving behind grey smudges. Even then, most of the time, I would look at my drawing and tell myself, "Well, that and so-so looks off. How do I fix it?" I never got past that point because I was clueless in that regard.

A panel from Asterio Polyp. 

Well, that would be all fine and dandy with me if I never learned how to draw. Art wasn't, by any means, a large part of my life. Sure, I could go to the IMA and appreciate the art itself but I had no interest in making a piece of art. But lately, I've been on a bit of graphic novel streak going through Jimmy Corrigan, Daniel Clowes works, Asterio Polyp, Brian K. Vaughan works, Sandman, Asterio Polyp, Watchmen, and so on. And well, that got me interested in making some comics. At first, I thought I could go into the Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore route and merely only write comic scripts. However, after I worked with an artist, creating a comic adaption of Beowulf for a class, I realized how challenging it would be to convey what you're actually picturing onto paper and then have an artist draw that. Right away, I became worried how much detail I should write, if I'm cramping the artist's style, if the script is shitty and so on. It didn't help that the artist wasn't exactly interested in the project (No offense to the artist, eh). Maybe it would be different if both writer and artist were eager to create the comic, and it was something original. But, it wasn't the case. Nevertheless, this left a bit of sour taste in my mouth. Am I to create a graphic novel without a big voice over the art within the book? Looking at the great graphic novels I've read... Chris Ware's, Daniel Clowes, Asterio Polyp, and so on. All of them were a one-man team. Alan and Neil, they were great comic writers because of their freakishly detailed scripts, something that I have no interest in. I think.

From Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics

And so, this brings me to this point. I could either forget about making a buncha of comics (or create poorly drawn comics but that's not up my alley, yo) and stick with writing or learn how to draw. I've decided on the latter. Because, from my view, comics are the most effective medium of conveying stories in the printed media. A novel will be bogged down with words to describe what's going on and so on. This bores me. I have no interest in writing those mere details and thinking of new ways of describing how the grass is green or the sky is blue. The sky is blue. There. No need to pussyfoot around it and say it in ten, twelve different ways. In comics, you merely draw the sky. No need to draw it twelve different ways. Although, I'll admit that you might have to draw it twelve times. It is the images itself that carries the burden of describing. With that, the words are left free. Ok, I don't think this is making sense, so I'll probably go back to this part and add more or make a new post later on.

Ok, I'm gonna keep progress of my journey in learning how to draw. I will be following Betty Edwards' The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.. Since I got a new tablet today, I am not exactly experienced with it. Same with the drawing program I will be using (GIMP for those who are curious). For that reason, there will be two versions to this: paper and pencil and digital. The drawings, or whatever it is that Betty will be having me do will be posted here. Since I'm not exactly interested in scanning the pencil and paper drawings, it will be digital only. However, if you want to laugh at me some more, you may seek me out and ask me, with a pretty cherry on top, to see my pencil and paper drawings I've made so far.

The initial drawings will be posted in the next post.