Lynda Barry’s book, “Making Comics” offers an insightful explanation of the image world and how it’s trying to communicate with us thru our hands. To allow the image world to lead the way on the page, we must enter a state of mind and presence. Drawings are living things, new creations. It’s not our business to judge an image’s worth. We must give our images space to exist and not be so cruel to them.
I’m working thru her book as If I’m in her class and she is my professor. The first exercise is four drawings in twelve minutes. Using 4×6 index cards, draw a frame (life happens inside the frame), add your name and date to the top. Using a timer or music, I had to draw based on the following prompts, draw yourself as:
- An Astronaut In Space
- Turning Into An Animal
- Turning Into a Fruit
- Turning Into a Monster
She advises keeping your pen moving during the exercise until the time ends. It was challenging to keep my judgment at bay, and even sharing them here feels very revealing. But, Prof. Lynda reminds me, you don’t have to like your drawings for them to start connecting to the image world.