Noobles07 Can I really draw that?
And What it feels to be able to look at something and go "I will Draw that!".
This post is a little unusual.
In that it is the second such post that spawned off of interactions in “Substack Notes” - the so-called Twitter of Substack1.
When I started this substack my goal was to Document my journey of trying to learn how to Draw - and hopefully in 3 years be able to draw well enough that people would pay attention only to the Drawing and not my skill (or lack of it!).
This was going to be a place of record-keeping, reflection and sharing what were challenges that I saw and experienced in learning that.
My expectation in starting off here was that I would be writing a lot about Challenges - and my substack drafts2 don’t disagree. However I have found stuff that I did not expect, you know?
The Unexpected Bonuses.
Something I did not expect was this Drawing3 below - yes, it’s by yours truly. It was a response to a note4 that I read.
I had not expected myself to just look at something and come up with ways to draw it. I mean, I had Zero, Zero expectations of doing anything more than writing here - with few pictures or screenshots, or responding to comments or other posts.
Notes really IS impactful in more ways than one, I see.
For this particular bit, when I read Robin’s Note, the thing that somehow stood out to me was “Passion Never Fades”, so I thought to draw it.
Firstly, from the attempt, I have learnt that just because we know writing and have written for donkeys years all through schooling and later, does not mean we know what passes for “How to space a word in a new Font size within a sheet of paper”.
So I then thought to make it like one of those posters on walls, but in a notebook sized space. Easy-peasy in the mind, but then you have to commend/command Pen, Paper, Hand AND Brain to co-operate in an assembly line to make it happen. So channeling my Henry Ford, I set to work and drew the image below.
Passion, I thought might need some emphasis or ‘Shadow’.
Never, would work fine as Italics5/Slanted.
By the time I came to Fade… I wasnt quite sure how to say FADE that wasnt just letters. Or how to space them, so I first had to write the letters out. “Could I just draw Faaaades?”. “Nah, sounds like some random badly designed robot voice; Frankenstein even!”. “Hmm..”.
And then I remembered… fading off/away, like sand being blown away. I tested actually drawing it below - tiny dots to make up the word Fades. And Thus the now completed picture (up above).
Took me about 400 words to write about this 1 picture! 😄
For the Record,
I don’t quite think Passion ever Fades - in my experience, we change as people, so Passion perhaps is better seen as getting redirected or reenergised.
Who, after all is still holding onto the favourite toy they had in the Crib?
But dont we hold other things or ideas Now, as close to us as we did that Toy?
But that was just Text and Dots…
Well, true! The point I suppose, was not what it was, but what my response to it was. Here is a better example perhaps.
Lalipa Nilubol (link) has been sharing some awesome imagery of Elephants6 from Thailand on Substack Notes - including some really Massively Tusked elephants7. The one I drew was this one:
When I first saw the pictures, my reaction was: “I should8 draw this.”.
So, I picked up the pen, and the sketchbook and started drawing lines and shapes and more. For doing I picked the picture that:
I Liked &
Thought I could draw reasonably okay.
The Picture I thought I would draw somewhat like an elephant, and possibly might not look like a horse or hippo such. That was my expectation, nothing more.
And This was the drawing I finally drew.
This was quite shocking to me even as I drawing this - and I kind of am in a bit of a shock “surprise!” even now writing this.
I did not know I could, at all, but I just drew the lines anyway, looking at the pictures of the magnificient Elephant beauties that Lalipa9 shared.
There have been certainly some “Walls” of “What is probable” breached if not not broken down completely.
Fortune Teller
If you had told me maybe 1 year ago or even as recently as 3-4 months before - that I would be looking at something and turning around to make a Drawing or Textual-drawing of it - and then be Sharing it for anyone to be able to see. I would have laughed at you.
And 4 months after, I would have come around to ask you about your fortune-telling abilities.
This post has been vetted by Mr. Draft10.
All of the drawings were hand-drawn, on paper. :)
Cya!
Is it like Twitter - Yes and No: I Agree - it is a Public Space of Substack that exists to facilitate more interaction and Disagree - there is far less breathing-down-your-neck Algorithmic stuff (even pre-Elon).
Substack apparently has a 1-page limit of 25 drafts. After that it gets sent to 2nd/3rd page. Don’t ask me how I know. 🤣
I have never understood why writing in Italian is so slanted. Is it a stereotype against Italians? or just against Pista Pissa and Pazta?
Why are we supposed to write in Italian to emphasise in English anyway… English is a funny language sometimes!
If you from India / around the Indian sub-continent, then you might notice that the elephants look similar - that is because they are all the same sub-species.
Among Indian / Asian Elephants only the Male elephants have tusks - and they use it for many things in the Wild - including fighting and killing each other.
Should/Must - what do you think is more appropriate when you are driven to do something?
I really enjoy your writing, it feels like how my brain works!