DIS-cussion
Let’s talk about DrawingIsSimple. I love to draw, and when my son decided that he wanted to learn to draw we decided to get him some how-to-draw books. Unfortunately, the books we found were too difficult to follow. He quickly became frustrated and was on the brink of giving up on drawing. From my personal experience, I knew that the process of drawings was all about taking basic shapes and combining them to create complex forms. I figured that the simplest way to make a basic shape was to trace a coin. It fits in your pocket and it’s readily available.
The first test for the DrawingIsSimple method was at the Star Wars Celebration event in 2012. I had been invited by Lucasfilm to create a new art print for their Celebration Event. The team that organized the show created a specific area for all-ages activities called The Family Room. They asked the art show participants if they would be interested in doing a how-to-draw session in the Family Room and I jumped at the opportunity. I made up a flyer for the show and brought a bag full of quarters for the students to trace around to start their own drawings. The class went great! Everyone was able to follow along with the instruction flyer. Below is the first wave of characters that I worked on with the DrawingIsSimple method and the flyer that we handed out at the show.
I had everyone examine the writing on the back of the quarter. I pointed out that the first and the last letter of, “United States of America” marked the center diameter of the coin. As they traced around the coin they could mark the center and know where to place their character’s eye line. Even though it was much cheaper to use quarters I knew at this point that I would have to look into having custom coins minted. Each time I would attend an event an present the DrawingIsSimple method I would make a new flyer to had out. The collection of flyers can be found in the blog posts.