Materials: black Flair pen, copier paper folded into quarters, a timer, about 45 minutes of uninterrupted time.
Watch the beautiful black and white cartoon Betty Boop in Minnie the Moocher.
Set a timer for one minute, close your eyes, draw one of the characters from memory. Repeat this three more times. Make sure to draw whole bodies.
Set a timer for two minutes, keep your eyes open, and draw one of the characters from memory. Repeat three more times
Set a timer for four minutes and draw yourself dancing with one of the characters.
Repeat but draw yourself having coffee with a different character.
Repeat, draw yourself with a third character and you’re both fishing.
Last frame is the fourth character surprising you with flowers while you are at the stove cooking.
Make sure you draw entire bodies and don’t include any words. These should be silent drawings.
If you’re doing this in a classroom or with a group of people, it’s good to stand up and walk around and look at everyone’s drawing.
The value of this exercise is there are so many different kinds of drawing going on. You’re using the same pen, paper, and characters drawn from memory, but the characters show up in a completely different way when you are drawing them with your eyes closed. When you draw with your eyes open, the line really changes and the type of concentration you experience also changes. When you come to the third part of the exercise and draw yourself with a character dancing, your drawing has to include interaction, you have to imagine the place where the scene is happening and what might be in that place. What kinds of things do you need draw to show that you and a character are having coffee together or you’re out fishing? The thing that’s surprising is that if you just start drawing yourself with a character, the scene seems to unfold by itself. This is a very good thing to experience. This is very good for you.
Drawings made during class by a student in Making Comics 1, UW-Madison