Uncle Josh on the Joys of Drawing

Way back in high school I thought I might want to be an artist. I was pushed into that decision, but I gave it a go. Unfortunately I learned very quickly that I cannot draw. At least, I cannot draw the way the art teachers at Portland State wanted me to learn, which was to fix my eyes on some object in the distance, fix my pencil on the paper, and then draw the outline of the thing I was staring out without looking at the paper. Astigmatism made this a tad difficult. When I stare at anything for too long I begin to see an afterimage of the thing move around. Because I could not do this or other miracles through “negative space” and had an entire term of drawing that was literally taping off parts of a page and then scribbling, I was a failed artist.

But I’ve always wanted to draw. I drew as a kid. For all my writing I think I do have a tendency to see things somewhat on the page. Then a few years ago I found a Kickstarter for the LUCY drawing tool, a modern take on the camera lucida used by artists for hundreds of years. I saw pictures of these things in the old books. Being broke at the time, I could only get the special mirror and figured I could rig something up. But of course I didn’t get to it. So I recently purchased a LUCY Mini to play with.

Today I decided I had had a little too much time staring at a screen, so I picked up my Mad Marvin award from the Wordos (for submitting over _ stories in a quarter^[1]I cannot remember the threshold for this award for critique) and decided to draw the bugger.

The LUCY Mini is not that tall, and I’m not well-proportioned so this setup was not the most comfortable. I had to bend over to really be able to look through the tool. Then I got to drawing.

I’m not going to say these are the best drawings I’ve ever done, but they were certainly fun and easy. I found an old sketchpad from circa 2002 and some Helix sketching pencils that are probably from the 90’s. The first two were with a B and the third done with an H. There is also another inscription on the award that I didn’t attempt.

I can see myself taking a little time each week to try another drawing or two. Maybe I’ll go crazy and take it outside in the summer months.

It was a fun distraction from the day job and other screen-facing must-do’s for the day, but I’d better get back to them.