Sketch and the City

I used to be a moderately talented amateur cartoonist, in a Jules Fiefferish, overly Garry Trudeau-ified way.  Good enough that if I drew you, you'd have known it was you.  You'd have wondered why I hadn't given you any feet and why your hands were in your pockets or hidden behind a coffee mug or a book or some other object you were apparently meant to be holding---I couldn't draw shoes or feet or fit five fingers on a hand---but you'd have recognized yourself without my having to give you any hints.   I was better at strangers, though.  I tried too hard with people I knew, I think.  But when my subject was some character who'd intrigued me, or amused me, or scared me, or attracted me on the street or in a restaurant or church or wherever, I could turn out a pretty good caricature on the spot.  If I'd shown you one of these cartoons, you'd have nodded and said, "I know the type."

I'd show you one now but my scanner's not working and, besides, I'm not sure if I could lay my hands on any of my best, because I had a habit of not holding onto them.  I tended to put them into letters to friends.

I don't draw much anymore.

Got out of the habit a long time ago.  I started to lose the knack when I began keeping notebooks.  I sketched strangers wherever I went, I just did it with words instead of with images.

Nowdays I tend to do this in the posts I file under the categories "Sketchpad..."  Sketchpad 2008.  Sketchpad 2007.  Sketchpad 2006.  Sketchpad 2004-2005.   Lots of posts in there that might have been better as drawings or comic strips.

Now and again I think about taking it up again.  I'll even buy a new sketchpad and drawing pencils and start carrying them around with me.  So far, nothing's come of it.  And since I got my digital camera I find myself reaching for that before I even reach for a notebook and pen, nevermind drawing paper and a pen.

Someday, though...

And when that someday comes and I start drawing again maybe I'll contribute a sketch or two to this blog, Urban Sketchers, "a community of artists around the world who draw the people and places of the cities where they live and travel to."

Maybe not.

Even when I was good, I wasn't this good.

Hat tip to Raven Rana.

Related re-run:  My empty sketchbook.

Comments

[Apostate]

I had lunch in that bistro today!

[Lance Mannion]

Apostate,

Did you get sketched while you were there?

[Apostate]

I doubt it. :)

I'll try to go there more often...and pose and hope.