For The Love of Art

I recently attended my high school's 25th anniversary reunion, and one thing in particular stood out to me.  It wasn't your typical "how successful someone is" or "how much fatter we've become", but rather how much art has been a part of my life.  A letter written by a friend 25 year ago, that was also addressed to me, pointed out how much we used to draw back then.  Even one of my old teachers, after all these years, had held onto a drawing I did of him.  I know that I haven't drawn as much as I once have, but this fact didn't really hit me until this weekend.

It made me reflect just how long I have been drawing for.  I'd been drawing for as long as I can remember being able to pick up a pencil and paper.  I always say I had a knack for drawing, considering both of my parents were draftspersons/drafters.  Some of the earliest drawings that I can remember doing were typical boy things:  A dinosaur (a pterodactyl if I'm not mistaken), and a football helmet.  Now granted, memories of my childhood when I was only a few years old may be skewed about just how well they turned out, but I remember just how proud I was of myself to be able to draw.

Now, like most other kids just learning to draw, I'd doodle on my parents' newspapers, or I would trace over whatever pictures I could find.  However, because I'd always had an interest of learning how to draw, I remember my parents would give me the tools to feed this curiosity.  I recall having some type of "technical drawing" set for kids, complete with grid paper, straight edges, triangles, and circle templates to help me draw vehicles and the like.  I also remember getting one of those "learn to draw" books, which taught me basics, such as perspective, depth, and using primary shapes to plan how to create your subject.  I also recall other kids in my classes over the years that could draw really well, and that always pushed me to up my game.

Even through high school, I'd always take an art class every year as an excuse to keep on drawing.  I'd even go so far as to use the family's collection of encyclopedias, under the biology section, to get a better understanding on how the muscles were formed in our bodies.  High school was also a slight emergence in comic book collecting, as a way of finding inspiration on drawing like those great artists.  A few friends of mine and I would even go so far as to try to draw our own comic books.  We'd created alternative personalities of ourselves in comic book form.  On a side note, one of my nicknames that still carries to this day is a result of my personal character creation.

As I carried through college, I'd still continue to hone my skill and "find my voice", so to speak.  I had to evaluate my strengths, and what kind of style of drawing suited me.  I'd moved on from the typical comic book art and made my way through a manga-inspired style (much like, I'm sure, a lot of others, especially with the anime boom in the 90s).  I'd eventually fine tune things to a point where I feel it's something unique to me.  I still picked up some books to aid in my skills.  Even to this day, as I view a lot of other artists' work through Instagram, there always something I'd study and like to incorporate into my own style.  The problem nowadays I guess can be time.  But, as one of my high school art teachers once shared to her class: just keep sketching.

I'd recently picked up a little travel sketchbook to try to help me keep my skills up.  Especially now that it appears my young 2 year old seems to be showing an interest in drawing, just like his parents.  I'll do my best to teach him what I know, but also stress the importance of not paying attention about how good or bad his drawings turn out.  Let him find his voice, and if the interest still stays with him like it has with me, then he'll be just fine.