The other day I partnered with a colleague on a project where we were creating tandem graphic recordings: both of us working on the same board at the same time. Since it was our first time working tandem together, we wanted to strategize on how we were going to approach the project so that it would have a consistent look.
That’s when I found myself saying, “I draw hearts in my people. The people in this recording HAVE to have hearts.” It was simply a non-negotiable in my book.
This got me thinking about the things I draw that are uniquely and decidedly me. Why do I feel compelled to draw them more than other things?
If I look back, there are three visuals that really spoke to me growing up:
1. Bryce Byerly’s drawings of people
2. Growf, the dragon sidekick from the “What’s New With Phil & Dixie” comics
3. Keith Haring’s heart
1. Bryce Byerly’s drawings of people
Bryce was a super-cool dude I knew back in my early high school days. (He was a Senior, I was a Freshman, we were both in Air Force Junior ROTC.) Bryce was funny, he was nice, he was unusual in a cool way, and he taught me an important lesson about drawing. . . whether he knows it or not.
You see, Bryce drew people in a simple and straightforward way. He’d draw a face with just a few lines, and get so much animation out of it! I was in awe, and tried to draw people like his when I was doodling in high school:
Of course, his were WAY cooler! But those drawings taught me that a few simple lines were all that were necessary to create a whole new person. . . or world. In a way, Bryce gave me permission to draw gloriously imperfect people and have fun doing so. (Today, Bryce is an actor with the Exquisite Corpse theater troupe in San Francisco, under Foul Play Productions. This makes me ridiculously happy!)
2. Growf, the dragon sidekick from the “What’s New With Phil & Dixie” comics
Back then, I was also an enthusiastic Dungeons & Dragons player. And if you were a D&D player, you read “Dragon”, the monthly magazine for gaming enthusiasts. My favorite part of that magazine was “What’s New With Phil & Dixie,” the comic series tucked in the back of each issue. Phil and Dixie explored all sorts of issues pertaining to the game, and they were regularly joined by their dragon sidekick, Growf. Growf was a little purple dragon and he was cute. So of course, I started to doodle him everywhere. (My own version, of course!)
I drew in the same, loose style that I had picked up from Bryce, and because I loved this little dragon he always seemed to be sitting on a cloud and thinking about hearts. Growf gave me permission to draw what I loved. . . and to infuse love into drawings. (Now that I think about it, this may also explain why I love Disney’s Figment!)
Which leads me to number three:
3. Keith Haring’s heart
I was in high school when I first saw Keith Haring’s artwork. It was powerful, it was primitive, it was energized, and I LOVED it! Big, bold, black lines drawing people who had no features because they needed no features. They were all of us. And they were united in love. While my generic people look a lot like Haring’s, it’s his heart that I found myself drawing ALL the time:
To me, this simple little drawing was profound. If Bryce showed me that drawing could be simple, and Growf showed me that I could draw what I loved, then Keith Haring showed me that drawing was a powerful expression of self. I remember seeing this Annie Liebowitz portrait of Haring for the first time in an 1987 issue of Vanity Fair:
It seared itself into my brain. Here was a man who wasn’t just drawing: here was a man who WAS his art. I wanted to live my life like this, where I didn’t “do” things but “was” them. Where my work was a full expression of myself.
Today, my work is absolutely a full expression of myself. . . or as full as I can do right now! That’s part of what the focus for me this year is all about: allowing me to draw forth more of who I am and pour it into what I do.
What do you draw?
The heart’s the thing for me. But what is “the thing” for you? What are the images you always find yourself drawing? And what do they tell yourself about what you are drawing forth into the world? Draw them up, tweet them to @jeannelking with the hashtag #alwaysdrawing and let’s see what they say about us!
I cannot wait to see what you draw forth,
