Yeah…it is me. -_- Last night someone asked me to tell them something about me that they did not already know. After some thought, I admitted to her that I have a sketchbook. I actually have several of them. Drawing was something I used to do all the time. In fact, I used to draw as much as I write now.
Being such a fan of comic books when I was a kid, drawing was something I just loved to do. I think over the years I had gotten better and better. I was able to understand shapes and shading. I just had serious issues drawing women (which I have since overcome). However, I have stopped drawing seriously and concentrated on my writing. Truth be told, I never considered myself all that good with a pencil.
However, I will doodle pictures and objects in meetings. Some of my co-workers have looked at me and told me that they cannot believe that I drew a certain picture. I have even go so far as to sketch people during the meeting. I must say that I am productive at work it is just that sometimes I just need to keep my hands moving. While I do have a love for drawing, I really do not think I am all that good.
Something that I do not think I have admitted either was is the fact that when I was in high school I aspired to be a comic-book writer. I was so deep on this committal that I created hundreds of characters with stories behind them. I will not take the entire credit myself, I did have a good friend help me with many of the stories. I am not sure why I did not follow through with this. I think is was mostly that I did not know how one becomes a comic book writer. As a matter of fact, I still don’t.
I look back at it and many of the characters and stories were of Latino and African American characters. Sure, I had white people, but the world that I created was much more about realness of people of all backgrounds. So, even as a high school nerd I still had some sort of social consciousness in me. In either case, I look at how comics are being written and I am happy because I know that I would have written those books in a very similar way.
I do find interesting that I feel the need to express myself in some sort of way. I just find the use of words to be easier for me then to actually draw something. However, I did sketch the above photo this morning. It is supposed to be me and I know that I am off in a few place. It was a quick thing that I just did. I have to laugh because I took a picture of myself with my cell phone and then drew this. As, I am sketching myself I am looking at all my features. I start thinking: damn, I have a big nose…whoa my lips are kinda big….is my forehead that large?
I think I now know why I stopped drawing: I over analyze EVERYTHING! 🙂
Anthony Otero 