There's some down time at work sometimes, where I either grab a coffee, chat with coworkers, or pull out my wretched, beloved phone and disappear into it. Sometimes a combo of all three activities.
But a few weeks ago, I grabbed my clipboard and did some sketching instead. I was sequestered in a private area, but some of the other workers saw me and took a peek.
Their reactions surprised me, though they logically shouldn't have.
“Wow, you draw?”
It's funny; I spend a fair bit of time doodling, or thinking about drawing or writing, or actually doing sketches or actual pages for my web comic. It doesn't occur to me that I've kept these activities quite private. It's just the way I am.
My boss actually took a picture to post on his facebook page. I was stunned. The thing wasn't even that good, but he was blown away by it. Pretty darn flattering!
Today there was some downtime again and I drew again. Sinister clowns. For some reason I draw sinister clowns when I'm at work. Not sure why; I don't draw them otherwise.
Again, a passing coworker saw it and said “that's AWESOME!”
I remember being “the guy who draws” back in elementary school. Somewhat in high school, too, though some writing, and playing drums became bigger passions then.
But yeah, I draw!
Actually, at my primary job, a few years back, I taught a co-worker's daughter to draw. She's about 14 now, and she left a self portrait hanging at work. It was fantastic! And she started with a few simple lessons from me! Wow!
Being on Drunk Duck and among some really talented artists and writers, it's easy to forget that the general public is not into all this stuff. We do pretty cool things. Making up stories, jokes, and characters. Expressing ourselves with art, whether 2d, 3d, photos, paint, or whatever.
The things we do here are kind of…special.
It's kinda nice, innit?
Have a good Thursday!
-banes
weDRAW
Banes at 12:00AM, Aug. 25, 2016
4 likes!
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PaulEberhardt at 1:08AM, Aug. 26, 2016
@Kim: Well, you may have that alternative option, but you see, if I were to bat eyes and pout lips I'd only achieve that I'll have the place to myself very, very quickly - and if not I'd be scared too. Fat hairy guys like me seem to be kind of stuck with the drawing-in-public method, you might say. ;)
rawdale at 9:45PM, Aug. 25, 2016
@Ironscarf That's great. Don't you just love happy endings? I was lucky enough to have a string of day jobs that came with a lot of downtime (running a video store, managing a showroom selling swingsets, etc) that allowed me to work on my comics while on the clock. Hell, I even loaded up Photoshop and colored them at work as well. The owner of the video store even gave me shelf space to sell my xeroxed mini-comics and the various comic anthologies I had stories in. Despite all the freedom I had to do what I wanted in the downtime, I always felt as if I was getting away with something by working on my comics on the clock.
Ironscarf at 3:14PM, Aug. 25, 2016
Years ago I worked in a call centre and the director was a musical arranger who was going through a fallow period. We'd chat about music and he didn't mind me churning out drawings all day! Not a great preparation for the world of work, but great fun! This story has a happy ending - he went on to become a really succesful and in demand arranger again.
Banes at 10:32AM, Aug. 25, 2016
@KL - hahahaha!
Banes at 10:32AM, Aug. 25, 2016
@gunwallace- nice! Let me know if you remember the title; I'll look it up! @oz- heh, exactly! @KL- you're painting on your breaks? That's fantastic! You're dedicated! @brunoharm - congratulations! I wanna do a printed edition too @Paul - HAHAHA! That's great
KimLuster at 10:21AM, Aug. 25, 2016
Paul, you mean... instead of batting eyes or pouting lips, all I have to do is hold a pencil...?!! That's power!!
PaulEberhardt at 8:07AM, Aug. 25, 2016
It's difficult to remember that it's special, especially with all that great artwork around here. At first I didn't like having anyone look over my shoulder when I'm drawing, but I've got quite used to having an audience for years now. As usual, I tried to look at it from the practical side. For instance, I found that just by holding a pencil I can order them around: "Hey you! Get me a beer, will ya?" I keep being astonished at how well it works. It doesn't particularly improve the art when I do that, but it feels good. ;)
Bruno Harm at 7:43AM, Aug. 25, 2016
I've got a prototype of a book in my office of Bruno Harm. I got it like a week ago. People couldn't believe I made it. It's true that we live in this world surrounded by artists that put us to shame, but in the general population, we're Rembrandt. We should probably get out and enjoy it more.
KimLuster at 4:38AM, Aug. 25, 2016
Good writeup!! I've carried my good-sized art back (which can carry just about all my necessary supplies) to work several times, and drawn and painted during breaks!
Ozoneocean at 4:08AM, Aug. 25, 2016
We have a superpower!
Gunwallace at 12:40AM, Aug. 25, 2016
This reminds me of an old comic I have somewhere in a box. It was narrative stories with b/w images very similar to yours. I was afraid of clowns before that comic. I was more so after.