"I don't know where you are going with this," my husband said about my cartooning adventure. I don't intend to become a cartoonist. The field seems already crowded enough. It's about thinking outside of the box, as the popular saying goes. My "box" has always been drawing what I see as best as I possibly can. Drawing from imagination, out of my head, was impossible, not alone desirable.
As I become older (past 50, gulp!), I find myself less and less adventurous. In my 20's, I used to be absolutely fearless, perhaps too fearless. Now it's becoming harder to try new things. The comfort zone is so well-defined, the calculating mind always busily figuring out what's doable without much risk to my self-esteem and public reputation.
So I decided to do something about it by taking a cartooning class. I was in a mild state of shock when I first found myself surrounded by a bunch of kids (mostly boys), aged between eight and thirteen. The teacher,
Dana Yang, at
The Art League School, is young enough to be my daughter.
The two-page comic strip I am sharing today is the most ambitious project I have ever done. I even colored them with markers. The T-Rex motif came from my recent discovery of James Gurney's
Dinotopia series. By the way, this amazing illustrator/writer is also a terrific fine artist. Check out his latest book--
Color and Light--as well as
his blog, which is rated one of the top ten art blogs in the world. I had a hard time getting some of the T-Rex poses right. I can't get over the mind block of thinking as a realist painter, worrying about the anatomy. Your getting a small laugh out of my first serious attempt at cartooning is my sincere hope.
Have a great Memorial Day!
