derbzsketch
Writing wasn’t going anywhere so I dashed off a sketch of Kirby watching (inexplicably increased) traffic from his chair in The Shed.
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A chilly rain all morning but at least The Shed's nice and warm whatwith the little baby infared heater and all though a little sun would be nice so my panels can drink drink drink.
As I scribble my way through Edwards's DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN (in those afternoons when I'm not attempting to make The Paintshop habitable again), I'm fascinated to see its translation to my writing and the realization that my process – hunt and peck scraps and fragments and eventually combine – is right brain, whereas my frusration at this method and its slow pace (until it isn't) is a 100% left-brain mania. Learning still, to tune that out, even after (especially after?) all these years.
Looks like I'm back to some form or other of morning / midday word-blogging because it's the only way I'll actually do it. Plus, I do kinda miss it; twas always a useful way to unstick the brain. Note: need to figure out a time to do the actual posting.
processing
Thinking today of how my means of processing life, my processings of processings, have changed over time. Writing - journaling in notebooks and reMarkables or blogging here - used to be the main way, but now I seem to have moved more over into fiction and cartooning. Attendance Cards as graphic blogging, having replaced the old daily maunderings that gave birth to this space for the last two years now.
In an effort to figure out where I am now – who I am now, creatively and, perhaps, more deeply – I've spent the last few years revisiting all of the art forms of my past: while it wasn't unpleasant to work thorugh Stone's STICK CONTROL, a return to music yielded little more than a reminder of why I left music in the first place (it served its purpose, to get me out of Ohio when I needed it most) and so here I am, even further back, playing with drawing and the memories of stick figures with my grandmothers at their respective dining room tables. Maybe this is where I was always meant to be, having given it up in my late teens, or maybe it's nothing in particular but what it is. Doesn't matter. I'm enjoying myself either way.
Convinced that one of the reasons I keep shaving my head is I really don’t like drawing hair for the Attendance Cards.
Continuing on with the Fictions, but also with one eye and one or more braincells focused on transitioning to more of a balance between prose and cartooning / comics. If I were being honest with myself, I'd tell you that my goal is to shift entirely to cartooning but, alas, I'm too chickenshit to go all the way without a bit of a fallback (and, I can't forget that the medium is the message, right, Marshall?); suppose it’s moderately poetic that it only took me 35 years (and will probably take a couple more) to get to where I wanted to be when I was eight.
"Draw yourself as Batman"
While I won’t share all of the fruits of my progress through Barry’s exercises, I’m particularly fond – even though it’s difficult to make out my face, especially in C (vomiting) and D (passed out) – of the results of the Batman exercise (in the center card I’m making an omelette; don’t think I’m vomiting because of my omelette):
Barrys’ instructions:
beyond attendance cards
First day working with the third new thing I'm teaching myself (along with learning to speak semi-competent Japanese, the and an intelligent, long-term approach to investing (read: not crypto or speculation), as per Benjamin Graham's book – though now I’ve probably opened the comment-field floodgates to sp@m; great) is how to draw or, rather, how to (re)learn how to draw, or rather, how to at least somewhat improve what I'm doing with my will-forever-remain rudimentary Attendance Cards and translate it over to drawing well-enough to convey some of my word-ideas in comics form – first Informality notwithstanding – in interesting ways that feel as one with the words I concoct; the work of Tadao Tsuge, especially, is a major inspiration (as is Jonathan Hickman's debut, THE NIGHTLY NEWS, and Bendis's early Jinxworld comics – TORSO, in particular).
General plan is to do at least a little bit every day. Current texts: Lynda Barry's MAKING COMICS (a return to regular practice, and where I'll start, doing an exercise each day, usually at the start of my second workblock); Ivan Brunetti's CARTOONING: PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE; Scott McCloud's MAKING COMICS – though as more of a general reference than anything; and I'm even pulling out my old, battered copy of HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY that saw heavy use in my early double digits – though I've little interest in drawing comics the Marvel Way, no matter how much I adore 60-70s Marvel comics.
Suggestions for further horizons broadening welcome.
I've long considered drawing to be the missing piece in my storytelling practice: an increased recognition that the only way some of my work will come to fruition is through drawing, through comics or, rather, comics and text in my own weird hybrids. Maybe I'm finally returning full-circle to the eight-year old who wanted to draw comics with 34 years of mileage behind me?
Lesson being to never underestimate the power of drawing out a diagram and working with that to open up your narratively blind eyes to the thing that unfurls all the things within the thing that you weren't seeing.