Gibberings
Dad told me never to use XTREE when he wasn’t in the room.
November 21, 2008 ~ 12:19:48 PM * -08:00ST
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Log # 231
Eye-Hurty Kids #2: Xerulean
Drawing these (there are three) informed me on my own methods quite a
bit. These little skinny bodies with their odd half-realistic, half-
cartoonish, vaguely mutated anatomies, they are built of all my
shortcuts and enthisiasms. The collarbones, the way the jaw
stretches the neck skin, the angle of the antennae, the painfully
long necks and deranged posture. I can remember learning these
things, or making them up and adopting them as habit, but I can’t
remember the circumstances around doing so. When did I learn to
indicate the series of plateaus that make up the profile of a
suckered tentacle? I recall a time in middle school when I was
obsessed with drawing feet and the backs of legs. I became expert at
it, and then moved on to something else. I don’t think I’m as
effective now with those body parts as I was, and I often wonder how
efficient my learning really is. How much of this picture will I
forget? How much of it is reflex or muscle memory, and how much is
conscious decision-making? When I’m strung out on paper like this,
drawing a picture is like typing a sentence without looking at the
keyboard. It is the closest thing to instant gratification that I
have yet to experience.
