Branching Out into Other Areas

I’ve taken an interest lately in drawing and sketching. I think some long-buried seedling sprouted up from two different trees. First, I drew a lot when I wore a younger man’s clothes. Mostly it was copies of cartoon strips from the Sunday newspaper, which had all the comics in color. I especially liked Ziggy and Charlie Brown and—my all-time favorite—Calvin & Hobbes. (Not to be confused with Hobbs and Shaw, which is a completely different medium.) I also tinkered with caricatures and portraits, mostly making fun of my teachers in school when I got bored with the lessons, which was often.

My wife has been into cartooning the last couple years also, which I think was my other source of inspiration. I’ve seen how far she’s progressed in the last while. She and my daughters also participate in Inktober. I’ve enjoyed seeing their work the last couple of years. This past October, I thought to myself, “I think maybe I’d like to start getting back into that.” I kinda missed it.

So for Christmas this year, I asked for sketching tools: pencils, erasers, sketchpad, blenders, etc., and the family came through for me. I don’t come upon excess free time very often, so it’s taken me a few weeks to actually put pencil to paper. Plus—and this maybe tells you something about me—if I’m gonna start something, I want to be good at it. So I felt like I needed to dive into some research and study before I really got going. I studied some topics like shading and one-versus-two-point perspective, and Loomis heads, and lighting, and what to even start drawing, which turned out to be basic shapes like circles and squares and triangles and spheres and cubes and cones. I know, I know…riveting subject matter. But I gotta start somewhere!

I finally sat down and spent about an hour just…shading…and it was so much fun! Just kind of feeling how the pencil moves across the paper and how the paper takes the graphite, even just using the different pencils and seeing how they put down lighter and darker shades of material. I also drew a ton of circles and squares and cones to start off, trying to get the techniques down. And yes, it turns out there are actual techniques to sketching. How you hold the pencil. How you move your arm. How hard you press for that initial shape.

I’m excited for my next drawing session. I don’t know that I’ll ever participate in something like Inktober, for the same reason I don’t participate in NaNoWriMo. Possibly for my next attempt, I’ll start drawing spheres and cubes and cones and add some lighting effects and shadows. I know, right? Really advanced stuff. But hey, I’m reconnecting to something I enjoyed doing earlier in life, and I’m having fun.

In addition to the drawing, I’ve also been getting into photography. I also reviewed some videos about how to get the best photos with an iPhone, since that’s all I’ve got. You can check out some of my recent favorites below. For some reason, I’m really into fire…? I dunno.

The writing is still coming along. A bit slowly. But some of these other things are also nice outlets for creativity. It feels good just to do something for fun, you know? I mean, the writing is also for fun and for me, but I also have high ambitions for that. These other things are just relaxing.

What brings you joy? What are some creative outlets you foster?