I've never been able to draw. Ever.
Because I've always known I wanted to write, that inability never really come up. As long as I could communicate with words, who cared if my doodles looked like doodoo? But when I started working in advertising, I noticed my copywriting cohorts could draw. They weren't necessarily art directors, but they were good enough. AdWeek calls them "hybrid creatives." I call them "very rude."
Suddenly, my hand's refusal to cooperate started to frustrate me. So I bought a book, You Can Draw In 30 Days, by Mark Kistler. I got a sketchbook and an eraser. I did not buy good pencils or a "blending stomp," nor did I learn what a “blending stomp” was. Maybe next time!
Honestly this was a pretty strong start. Check out that third try! I was a pro already.
Butts! Lesson 2 was butts.
3 days in and I was already so, so bored of spheres.
I loved drawing cubes. I didn't understand foreshortening. Still don't!
This was my favorite lesson for the entire book because it was the only one I was good at.
Stacking tables were boring. Someone in the book drew a robot out of stacking tables but I just wanted to draw a real table.
I think he was trying to teach me about "the thickness," or whatever side of an open door/window you see. I giggled at "the thickness" every time and also now.
I was SO pumped for the koala lesson. I even went a little off-book and drew some textures as a challenge.
This was the first really hard lesson. Looking back, they're not that bad. They're also not that good.
The biggest takeaway from this lesson is that I can't consistently spell cylinder correctly.
I was incredibly proud of this mailbox. Look at that woodgrain! Look! At! It!
This was my favorite drawing. I don't really love doing detail work, and I definitely didn't have the right tools, but I love this haunted house anyway.
I really was flying blind on this lesson. There were basically no instructions and I was UNHAPPY.
Tube men were fun. In the lower right corner, I tried to draw a water slide and clearly learned nothing
It's me, Hokusai.
These flags were fun! But I felt like when it came to the "challenge," I had zero instruction, so I was bad. I hate being bad at things!
I feel like this was my second bat mitzvah.
I struggled a lot with really needing the drawings to be GOOD. Un-learning that was very hard, and didn't really stick. Kinda like therapy!
My friend told me that Picasso drew a coffee cup every morning to warm up. I liked my little round cup! I did NOT like drawing those holes.
I've never seen a tree that looks like this, but okay!
This was my second take of a room in one-point perspective. I struggled HARD with that ceiling fan but otherwise, I really liked the perspective lessons in this book!
I meant for those to be symmetrical windows on both sides, but they turned into weird holes and I couldn't figure it out, so I went with it. Art!
An intro to 2 point perspective! I loved drawing this. I did another version that was taller and more interesting but this one was so clean! So even!
A 2-point perspective castle, feat. a rippling flag from lesson 17. I really liked drawing all these lines. This was fun. I only wanted to draw castles forever.
I didn't have it in me to do any sort of detail work on this 2-point skyline. I don't even have a good excuse. I just got bored.
THESE LETTERS WERE SO HARD. I tried to write "hi" again and it looked the same, and then I tried to write my name and it didn't work at ALL.
In a universe where the Bachelor franchise doesn't occupy 4+ hours of my life every week, I might have devoted more time to making this less horrific. But it was so funny in its monstrosity that I couldn't bring myself to change it. Sometimes I make copies and leave them on people's desks. Good luck sleeping ever again.
WHY DIDN'T THIS LESSON COME BEFORE THE PORTRAIT?
I was relieved to be done with this book and project. These hands are pretty good.
So Can I Draw In 30 Days? Not really! My doodles still mostly suck. But I did have fun being creative for 30 days, and I think that's probably the more important lesson here.
I highly recommend saving that image from lesson 28. It's really impossible not to laugh at. You're welcome!