In search of cartoon people with expressions

So I do this thing that requires me to draw in front of people. Fortunately I have my back to them while I’m in a flow state otherwise, gah! I would probably have all kinds of performance anxiety issues, which I do not. Thankfully.

What I do have is a struggle with drawing from my imagination, essentially having to whip images out of my head. On the spot. While still listening to the conversation as it’s happening.

How can this be you ask? Haven’t I been an artist for most of my life? Don’t I have a Masters in Fine Art which assumes I know a little sumthin’ sumthin’ about drawing? Didn’t I teach figure drawing for five years, helping all kinds of people get over their emotional and mental hurdles about drawing the human figure in my own version of The Artist’s Way?

Yes, all that is true, but….and this is a big But, I learned how to draw from life. Which means that I learned how to draw by looking at something (a banana, a naked man, an artichoke) while drawing it.

I learned how to see something clearly in all its nuances, textures, shadows and shapes and translate what I was seeing onto paper. It’s no coincidence that my superpower is Clarity.

I can teach anyone to draw

In fact, I claim that by teaching this particular technique to hundreds of people throughout the years, I have Never Not (love that double negative) been able to teach someone how to draw. I have a 100% success rate. And that goes for all those people who thought they had no artistic ability or “couldn’t draw a straight line.”

(I may turn this simple 10-minute lesson into a video at some point because really, who doesn’t want to learn how to draw?) Stay tuned.

That’s how I learned how to draw—by looking and seeing. Now I’m doing this fantastically fun work where I’m translating what people are saying into images/pictures/simple icons in a cartoon form.

These pictures stand in for a thought and I have to conjure these things out of my head.

Out of my head. On the spot. Quick like a bunny. (And here I would draw a bunny in a hurry.)

Where I fess up to the hardest part of my business

Some of the time I struggle, especially when it comes to drawing people doing stuff or having facial expressions. Drawing cartoon people, which as I’ve been saying, is so different from how I initially learned to draw. Which means that I’m having to relearn how to draw.

And this is actually the hardest part of my business for me. There, I said it. Because I have to challenge myself as an artist.

Get some training. What a good idea!

I’ve bought books and worked with them. I even hired a cartoonist about eight months ago to give me and a colleague a weekend cartoon drawing workshop. My friend and I learned a few things from him but we blew his mind when we told him that we have one shot to get our image down on wall-size paper because the conversation is moving along (did I mention I do this work live in meetings, conferences, coaching sessions, etc.?) and you have to stay with the flow. You don’t have time to draw and redraw.

When our cartoon teacher draws his cartoons for Marvel, he uses tracing paper—layers and layers of tracing paper– so he can redraw the same thing over and over again, perfecting it. He wasn’t able to teach us a quick, one-shot, bing bang approach to drawing a person, say, making a grimace because they can’t draw cartoon people.

Still looking for a cartoon teacher

So I’m still in search of a good cartoon teacher or course I can take because I want to get some expressions on my people and have them doing stuff so they animate the murals I create.

If you know of anyone, please send them my way and I’ll keep you updated on my progress with this.

Oh, I should say, the fabulous clients I work with always say great stuff about my murals and drawings. They probably have no idea that I’m unsatisfied with the way I draw my people. It’s my own critical eye I’m trying to satisfy here.

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