I’m having a tough time drawing a useful comic-style self-portrait. I guess you just keep doing it over and over until it looks right, huh? I got my dog right first time, which says to me that I DO NOT LOOK IN THE MIRROR. Because I’m actually good at drawing what I see comic-style. I don’t think I see myself. I know I avoid mirrors.
There’s a funny flip side to this, in that I’ve been digging in the garden for hours every day for what, two months now? Forever. Since the ground thawed at the end of April. The garden is mostly rocks so it goes like this: break up the ground with a shovel, pick up rocks for ten times longer, repeat. And haul big heavy buckets of rocks across the yard and throw them into the rock pile.
Apparently what that does is sculpt your entire body. I had no idea because my weight is about the same and the same clothes fit, but they fit…differently. Better. Much more awesomely in every respect. I got a comment this weekend about all the weight I’ve lost, which mystified me, until I looked in a mirror and whoa, whose legs are those? Yay!
Avoidance is a bad thing, is what I’m saying. I don’t think I’m going to be able to draw a recognizable self-portrait until I get familiar with the dang mirror, that’s all.
My friends say I dress like a comic book character anyway. It’s true, I wear very similar outfits a lot. Skirt down to above the knee, big loose silky shirt, tights or leggings, boots. Or just the shirt and skirt or shorts in summer.
Maybe this Drawing Words & Writing Pictures book will help me grasp the way you’re supposed to draw a person who, hello, does have TOPOGRAPHY, so that I don’t look so much like a paper doll.
Though I did get my apprehensive expression exactly right, which is hilarious.
And the dog, let’s not forget. The dog gives me hope! I can draw what I see! I just can’t see what I won’t look at.
