October Podcast Month: Visual Artists Are So Cool!

I’ve never been talented at drawing, but lately I’ve been getting to work with some amazing visual artists, and being around their creativity charges my own creative battery.

In today’s October Podcast I talk a little about that, and about the exciting creative energy of the Inktober challenge. I also talk about the one drawing I did once of my cousin, which was the best thing I had ever drawn, so I held onto it for many years before finally throwing it out because honestly, it is not amazing and if I personally am never going to hang it up for display, then who exactly am I saving it for?

That picture:

Image Description: A picture I drew of my cousin, using her colored pencils, while she drew a much better picture for her high school art class many years ago. This picture shows a girl with curly brown hair and a pink dress. She is sipping Coke through a straw from a branded Coca-Cola glass.

As I recall, the picture my cousin was drawing was of a partially peeled apple. It had lots of tricky shading and color blending, and was infinitely more realistic than my own drawing. Also, as I recall, we were sitting in her kitchen at a breakfast bar and not a very small round table. And she was not wearing a pink dress. I just sort of … started with her head and then realized OH NO, I don’t have the skill to draw anything else that I see before me! What do I do??? And then I broke from the reality and went to a fairy tale princess in a malt shoppe sort of place, I guess? I also note that the idea of drawing hands was a terrifying thought, so I craftily made the table stand between her hand and the viewer. I also feel obliged to say that my actual cousin is much more beautiful and … realistically scaled … than this portrait might imply. Also her ears are not bright yellow. LOL.

I was 19 or 20 when I did this, so please don’t think, “Aww, you’re being too hard on yourself! That’s really good for an eight-year-old!” I’m okay with my not amazing drawing skills. It just makes me appreciate all my talented and skilled visual artist friends more.

Are you skilled at drawing? Are you participating in Inktober? I’d love to hear all about it!