"I turned myself from a 97lb weakling into the World's Most Perfectly Developed Artist..."When I was a kid and used to read imported DC and Marvel Comics (home of Superman, Spiderman et al) I was always fascinated by the adverts on the back. For just a few cents (whatever they were) you send off for wondrous treasures that would let you see through girl's clothing, establish an undersea civilization populated by Sea Monkeys or stop thugs kicking sand in your face.
Charles Atlas was a byword for bulging biceps, and even though he died in 1972, his 'before' and 'after' adverts were the dream of all wimps who wanted to stand up to the school bully. As I would discover in later years, there were to be a fair few boys no doubt dreaming of something else entirely as they gazed on Mr Atlas's hairless glistening torso...
Ahem.
Anyway, the point of this homoerotic tangent is to preface the second entry in my blog, chronicling my artistic self discovery.
When I used to be a trainer, at the start of a Presentation Skills courses we used to make delegates each stand in front of a video camera and deliver a short unprepared piece on a set subject. This was done on the pretence of being the 'before' and could be compared to the 'after' at the end of the week. We trainers could then sit smugly as our delegates sat amazed at their transformations from stuttering shambles into proud presenters - job done. Although looking back, we were no better than the sand kickers.This is part of the reason behind the Preinstruction Drawing exercise on p.10 of DotRSotB (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain). It provides you with evidence of how rubbish you were before the wonderous transformation into the new Picasso or Dali. I may be setting myself up for a fall here, but you get my drift.
The four drawings I had to do were:
- The head of someone else (a self portrait is fine) but from life, not a photo;
- A person, but without looking at anyone;
- Your own hand;
- A real chair (again not from a picture).
Well, I've done all of them and yes, I do indeed have a long way to go - as if I needed any confirmation of this fact. When I was 3 years old someone told my mother that I had the drawing ability of a 5 year old. I am now 42 and still have the drawing ability of a 5 year old. My next blog entry will be my own assessment of each of these drawings, just as Betty* told me to do. The delay is partly to introduce an element of suspense, and partly because I do not have access to a scanner at the moment.
Either way, you'll have to wait.
(*Betty Edwards is the the author of BotRSotB)
