I experimented with cartooning tonight...

[capri0mni]

Just to see if I still had the courage of my youth to draw something unpracticed, without erasing anything, and get a message across. .... I almost succeeded in the drawing bit (I buckled under pressure from my Inner Critic, and erased and redrew the man walking away... but just once twice). Did I succeed with the message bit?

This has been an idea rattling around my head for years:

(Image size: 83 K)

Comments

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I get it, but I are dumb.

[pedanther]

Possibly you just don't have the necessary background information.

Do you know the saying "I was unhappy because I had no shoes, until I met a man with no feet"?

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

*Nods* that's the platitude I was going after. It might have been easier to understand if I could figure out how to draw a walking person that doesn't look like he's about to fall over.

My first idea was to make the walking man closer to the viewer, so you could see the detail of his bare, freezing, and bruised feet.

Also, I thought it would be easier to add color and detail after the picture was scanned -- but it wasn't.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Being able to see the other guy's freezing bruised feet would have given it a completely different message. It would have given a suggestion of "there are some benefits to not having feet, i.e. not having to buy shoes".

As it stands, it seems like you're making people see that being thankful for what you have because other people are worse off can be hurtful -- "there but for the grace of God", etc.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was the "completely different" message I was aiming at: "The person you're so busy pitying just might be pitying you at the same time." (and if that notion makes you uncomfortable -- good. Maybe you won't be so quick to go to your pity place, next time)

But, ultimately, I want the overall message to be a positive one -- Each man is coming away from the encounter feeling grateful for his own life, instead of wasting his energy envying others.

(And, based on personal experience, I recognize that there often are benefits to not being able to walk -- as long as my battery is fully charged, I'm the one who's better off when my ambulatory friends and I go to the county fair or art museum)

My point is: none of us can know whether others content with their own lives. And all of us (at least, the non-sociopaths) have the capacity to feel charitible toward others, and grateful for our own blessings -- even those of us who are routinely written off as "charity cases".

[ghost-light.livejournal.com]

I like it.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :-)

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

I needed that reminder from pedanther. Damn, that's brilliant.

I love the way you drew the guy's coat, and the chair.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm always intimidated by drawing mechanical things. But then, I remembered that I knew how to doddle a cube. It would have been much harder to put the guy in one of the new, snazzy sports chairs, with their aerodymanic angles.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

I think you got the shape and feel of the chair even if you didn't follow all the technical rules of drawing mechanical things. It looks natural.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Yeah... That's what I was aiming for. I need to shut my Inner Critic up -- stop worrying if I'm doing everything correctly -- and just concentrate on communicating the essential spirit of the scene to the viewer.

That said, grammar and syntax matters, too, but the polished drawing comes after the draft.

[rob-t-firefly.livejournal.com]

You draw wonderfully.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

:-) Thanks. I used to draw every day, several times a day... And then, one day, I just stopped. It takes a bit to remember that it's like riding a bike (or so I hear).

[rob-t-firefly.livejournal.com]

It isn't always. I've known (and been related to) people who stopped drawing, and either wouldn't go back due to "outgrowing" it, or tried to go back and found they'd lost the ability. That scares me, and I plan to never stop doodling.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the Harry Chapin song: "Flowers are Red."

I was blessed by being surrounded by a family who supported my imaginative explorations, whatever form they took -- so it's easier to switch back and forth between modes, and try new ones (like song writing).