Taradash Types!

Last week someone found a drawing I’d made back in school, some 15+ years ago, and posted it on Facebook. If you’ll excuse a little retrospective modesty, it wasn’t a great drawing, more of a cartoon, really. Not much in the way of depth or shading, limited use of colors, and showing only a rudimentary grasp of anatomy. It was meant to be a small comment on the impending end of our time in high school, and a small nod to a couple of good friends. But in the few comments that followed, it seems that other people thought I used to draw and doodle and make little cartoons all the time.

So what happened? Why don’t I draw anymore?

Okay, I took a couple of animation classes in university, and actually completed some 6+ minutes of moving cartoons. Including holds, loops, cycles and titles, it worked out to about 4,300. drawings, more or less. I wasn’t burned out by that, I don’t think. But somewhere between the first post-university job and leaving for Japan, I kinda stopped drawing for fun.

Then I became an ESL teacher, which meant I had to find ways to communicate with people who didn’t, couldn’t or wouldn’t understand my words. Suddenly I was sketching things I’d never considered before, in order to get an idea across. For example, how would you explain what meaning is implicit in the past perfect tense to someone who can’t yet understand the grammar your explanation would require? “That thing you did before the other thing you did” rarely made it clear. And don’t even think about explaining it in their language. I was working in a school that specifically promised me to be a teacher who wouldn’t (or couldn’t) use Japanese in class.

As it turned out, a cartoon strip of a person making, then eating, instant ramen, totally bridged that cultural and linguistic gap. Other illustrations didn’t work so well. Washing hands before a meal? Opinions were divided, with washing hands after eating seen as an equally valid choice. Shower then work? Again, no clear answers, leading to unclear use of the grammar. But everyone agreed on first boiling the water, then opening a pack of instant noodles and pouring in hot water, before waiting 3 minutes and eating. Advanced students pointed out that they “had added salt flavor… envelope, before [they] poured the water.” And that miracle of common understanding was made possible by a few quick drawings, and the easily understood convention of two comic panels indicating time passing.

Of course, when I went back to school, I was studying writing, so only really managed to sneak the occasional bored doodle into my notes. Theoretically I could have pushed it and had more than the four illustrated panels of footnotes in my thesis, but it hardly seemed worth it. And that was largely it. In the last two+ years, I’ve hardly put pencil to paper.

Seems like a bit of a waste, so for the next six months or so, I think I’ll try and put some sketches on each of the envelopes I get from my bank. Why? Well, I hear recycling is supposed to be popular or something. Besides, I want this drawing thing to be fun again. No pressure to make the best use of the premium bond paper or the special pigment pens, just pencil or sharpie on the back of an envelope. Like so.

I’m almost looking forward to my next bank statement.

Tags: drawing, status

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 12:13 am and is filed under design, envelope sketches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.