who remembers as a kid how much you
loved to draw
anybody remember well I never stopped
loving it I’ve always loved to draw and
it’s just been a part of my life I
remember okay okay I remember as a child
growing growing up in the suburb of
Seattle my friend Brittany me loading up
her little red wagon with drawings we’ve
made and peddling them door to door in
her neighborhood
our main goal was to make enough money
to buy a couple candy bars and I
remember that entrepreneurial glow of
pride and we succeeded but I never
thought as a grownup I’d be able to make
it as a full-time artist or illustrator
or I’d be living with my parents for the
rest of my life so when I went to
university I studied Russian thinking I
might be a journalist or a translator so
I went to Russia and I studied for a
year and worked for a year and while I
was there I just was absolutely blown
away by the artwork I saw in the
museum’s there amazing things I’d never
seen in the West or heard of there’s
this huge folklore inspired canvases by
artists like such as Victor rust itself
but I was also very taken with some of
their arm more pared back artwork by
some of the revolutionary and
avant-garde artists people who would
just maybe use one or two colors here
you can see some early examples by Olga
Rosa Nava and Natalia Gunter over and it
may have been just that they didn’t have
a lot of extra money to spend on paint
but working with in their color
limitations it made their work all the
more bold and striking and I was really
inspired by this so when I moved to
London I started trying to work within
my own limitations I started going to
evening classes and after they finished
I’d meet up with with classmates and
we’d set our own projects for ourselves
and I started to make little photocopy
books and then I started to sell them at
comics fairs where I could get a table
for as little as five pounds if I’d
share it with somebody and at the age of
30 I did go to art college and did have
part-time two-year course studying
illustration
and also I set up a blog where I would
try to post a picture every single day
that I’d drawn whether I thought it was
good or bad just as a discipline for
myself so here um yeah so here you can
see some of the work that I’ve done I
did actually become a professional
artist and it’s been a lot of fun some
of these are books that I’ve written and
drawn myself and other ones that I’ve
worked on with other people so that’s me
but I’m curious about you raise your
hand if you like to draw raise your hand
if you think you can’t draw it’s whole
quite a few Oh raise your hand if you
never draw because you’d be embarrassed
if people saw the results oh it’s okay
when I visit schools and talk to kids
very often they assumed I was some sort
of child prodigy some genius at drawing
and I like to tell them a little secret
here you can see my sister me drawing
one Oh my sister Mary this is the secret
I tell the kids when I was a kid I
wasn’t actually that good at drawing I
was okay but nothing special but as the
other kids started growing up and
stopped drawing I just kept going
because I loved it so people often they
sort of look at great works of art and
they think oh my goodness I could never
do that
but often it’s not the big technically
perfect drawings that we really connect
with it’s not say the pictures that we
might share on social media because they
make us laugh I get very inspired by
children’s drawings because they
constantly show me that a good drawing
is not necessarily about photo realism
for example look at this drawing of a
horse it’s fine people say horses are
hard to draw there’s nothing wrong with
this drawing of a horse let’s look at
another drawing of a horse
it’s drying it’s a bit silly isn’t it it
doesn’t even look that much like a horse
but I actually prefer this drawing I
think it’s got more balance that’s got
more energy it makes me smile let’s add
a bit of color yeah I’ll take this horse
any day so for me what I’ve learned is
that getting good at drawing is not
about perfection it isn’t for me it’s
about connection so what do I mean by
connection two things first there’s a
basic connection with the paper itself
and the second one is a connection with
other people so let’s start with the
paper itself I often meet people who
have great ambitions to create an epic
graphic novel maybe 200 pages or more
they’re hiding away with it it’s
daunting maybe they’re drawing styles
even changed since they started making
it like years and years ago and they’re
feeling frustrated very often these epic
projects never happen sometimes the best
thing we can do is to give up the big
plan we can take small steps we can do
little projects giving up doing doing
things in a smaller scale isn’t giving
up doing what we love say you love books
and you want to make one you don’t have
to prove your commitment to books by
starting with that epic novel I like to
tell kids that all you need to make a
book is a single sheet of paper so here
you go this is not a book but if you
fold it in half it’s a book it’s got a
front cover a back cover and room inside
for pictures and words how do you
publish a book you might ask well you
take it to the scanner at the
photocopier you put it down you run off
say 20 copies you fold them and you’ve
got a nice little edition of books that
you can share with friends give as gifts
here are some examples of some books I
made while I’ve been learning how to
draw and many of them aren’t more than a
you photocopied pages long so if you
make say two of these books a month you
get we get so much more experience doing
this than we do if we just contemplate
that epic novel for twenty years but
never actually do anything so there’s a
second secret I tell kids and it’s this
one draw
bad books make really bad books and
their teachers off and kind of look at
me a bit funny but you’re never gonna
get the good books unless you do the bad
ones so say your first book you make it
and it is terrible I mean really really
terrible the second books pretty
terrible too next books kind of bad
third books a little better next one
maybe even a little bit good and you’re
never gonna get to that great great book
unless you make all the bad ones so
except we are going to make bad books
revel in it maybe even make a book
that’s spectacularly bad just to prove
it just to see what happens because you
can and that’s the thing is keeping
sense of humor about our work but also a
sense of forgiveness what do I mean by
that well I made a comic and it features
rabbits but you might be able to relate
to it anyway so here’s what a rabbit
joins picture looks at it goes ah stupid
note drawing no good I said quit forever
went to sit in a ball throws at the bin
plunk can anyone relate to that I can
imagine now that you did that to your
child
say your kids doing the math homework
they’re struggling a little bit they hit
a hard spot they ask for help so you’re
gonna come up and you’re gonna go oh
you’re so stupid I can’t believe you’re
any child with mine get out of my house
and never come back throw them down the
street and slam the door behind them
would you do that to your kid no of
course not as bad parenting well you’d
probably do is you come up and you’d
sort of give them a bit of help then
you’d if they have a meltdown you’d give
them a hug just to show that it’s okay
you know they’re having problems that
you’re there with them you’re gonna
stick with them you love them you know
it’s it’s all right
and sometimes we need to do that with
our drawings we need to look at them and
say hello little drawing you’re not very
good I know but you’re good enough for
now and don’t worry I’m not gonna hurt
you you’re safe with me maybe give it a
little hug inside you deep inside you
and I’m not saying to be childish about
your work even if you’re making work
that aimed at children what I’m saying
is it takes a lot of maturity to realize
if something deep in you that’s
vulnerable and growing and it needs
looked after just like you would a child
so that’s very important so connection
I’m actually connecting with the paper
I’m doing a hug but what about
connecting with other people there’s
that connection thing sometimes we need
to send our drawings to playgroup we
need to let them run around fall over
meet other kids it’s you know growth
explore if you draw a picture it’s not
perfect but it makes somebody else smile
that’s a really good feeling or if you
come up with a joke together and you
both have a laugh that’s such a boost so
I want a studio group online it’s a
virtual studio on Twitter called studio
tea break and a lot of people gather
there – these drawings who might just be
feeling a little bit isolated and the
drawings that we’ve posted very simple
here’s one called shape challenge and I
just put up its shape and people turn it
into something
so this one I’ve turned into a robot
there’s another one on Thursday it’s
called portrait challenge and we redraw
or reinterpret an old masterpiece and
there’s lots of people in our group we
have everyone from as eight year old to
professional artists to grown-ups who
just love to draw but I’m just looking
for an idea of what to draw and the idea
isn’t to create a perfect work of art it
stick it’s to try things out new styles
see how other people tackle things just
kind of have fun cuz often for me it’s
the goofball drawing I’m not trying too
hard I’m being a bit silly and I’ll
suddenly think oh my goodness I just
discovered a whole new way of drawing
and I’m hoping you might be able to
relate to that whatever field you’re in
the benefit of sharing ideas of being
able to find a space with other people
where it’s okay to be vulnerable and to
try things out where things very well
might go wrong and it’s okay so it’s all
about connection not perfection we’re
here at this conference because we all
want to connect so we can listen to
motivational talks all day but until we
actually do some of these things we
never learn so you’re very welcome to
join us at Studio T break on Twitter but
let’s get started sooner than that let’s
do a drawing right now grab your pens
and papers and I’m going to teach you
how to draw a monkey
in fact it’s a sea monkey from my book
with Phillip Reeve Oliver and the sea
wigs let’s see okay
and if you’re watching this online I
mean you to grab a pencil and paper and
come draw with us
okay everyone got a pen hold up your
pens yep okay first thing you do to draw
a sea monkey is to do a head it’s a very
big head just like that okay
now we’re going to draw the nose and
it’s a bit like a letter M but it’s got
three bumps so it goes boom boom boom
and you can make the sound if you want
sometimes that helps oh okay now we’re
gonna do the muzzle and you just take a
line here go down there come on here and
go down there now we’re gonna do a big
staring I say sea monkeys are very silly
quite mad creatures and if yours looks a
bit wobbly that’s even better because
they are kind of that way right we’re
gonna make the other eye even bigger
just to make it look a bit stranger so
make a really really big I might even go
off the side of it now you can decide as
your eye might see monkey looking up
down left right cross-eyed wall-eyed
you decide and draw two circles for
pupils so I’m gonna make mine cross-eyed
these two circles and Colour them in
quite dark
okay I was looking at you okay next
thing we’re gonna do is the ears and
they’re a little bit like the letter C
so there we go you’re on that side and
then a backwards C on the other side now
you just do another little C inside for
the inner ear now you get some we get to
make on the mouth and it could be it
could be like it just a little smile or
it could be a line all the way across or
it could be lowering with massive teeth
or it could just be going Oh which I
think I’ll do Oh circle maybe put some
teeth in those now I have a really cool
way of drawing bodies that just kind of
you don’t have to worry about necks and
shoulders and all these things you just
draw an upside down you so like that
yeah it’s very easy and then do another
sort of shadow are you inside that and
you have a body that was pretty easy
okay now we’re going to draw the feet
and they’re a bit like little skis to
ski monkey say there we go two little
lines like that and then you stick two
more little lines on them like chicken
feet so it that that that and it Oliver
in the sea legs they’re at their
sea-monkeys their aquatic so we’re gonna
give them a webbed toes webbed feet so
web put some webbing between their toes
now we’re gonna draw the arms and
they’re really easy they just go
shooting off his body like that no
complicated elbows or anything you don’t
need them people often say hands are
hard to draw but if you have a clenched
fist you don’t actually see any of the
fingers so make a little clenched fist
all these little tricks okay and now he
needs a tail or she needs a tail so it
could go any direction I’m gonna have
mine kind of curling down here and then
just make a little bit thicker line or
just do a second line alongside it to
make it a bit thicker now sea monkeys
are pretty scruffy creatures so we’re
gonna give them a lot of hair give them
some hair scruffy as you can you can
spend hours doing the hair or you could
still really fast on the head too
and they’re so gross and disgusting they
kind of crack crawl out of seaweed so
we’re gonna have some fleas coming off
at least one flea coming off fleas are
really easy to dry you just go – – – –
dot there you go that’s a flea and there
you have it that is a sea monkey so hold
up your drawings and let’s see these
these creatures you’ve made there’s army
of sea monkeys oh my gosh these are
amazing brilliant hooray so those of you
who said you couldn’t draw you can you
can draw a sea monkey so it’s all about
breaking things down into simple shapes
and learning how to draw it’s about
setting yourself small achievable tasks
like learning how to draw one cartoon
monkey so if you enjoyed this you can
keep going you can maybe one cartoon
animal at a time so the reason we’ve
drawn is because we’re all in a room so
we’ve connected it’s all about
connection not perfection so I hope this
has inspired you and watching you draw
has inspired me right back thank you
very much
[Applause]
you
loved to draw
anybody remember well I never stopped
loving it I’ve always loved to draw and
it’s just been a part of my life I
remember okay okay I remember as a child
growing growing up in the suburb of
Seattle my friend Brittany me loading up
her little red wagon with drawings we’ve
made and peddling them door to door in
her neighborhood
our main goal was to make enough money
to buy a couple candy bars and I
remember that entrepreneurial glow of
pride and we succeeded but I never
thought as a grownup I’d be able to make
it as a full-time artist or illustrator
or I’d be living with my parents for the
rest of my life so when I went to
university I studied Russian thinking I
might be a journalist or a translator so
I went to Russia and I studied for a
year and worked for a year and while I
was there I just was absolutely blown
away by the artwork I saw in the
museum’s there amazing things I’d never
seen in the West or heard of there’s
this huge folklore inspired canvases by
artists like such as Victor rust itself
but I was also very taken with some of
their arm more pared back artwork by
some of the revolutionary and
avant-garde artists people who would
just maybe use one or two colors here
you can see some early examples by Olga
Rosa Nava and Natalia Gunter over and it
may have been just that they didn’t have
a lot of extra money to spend on paint
but working with in their color
limitations it made their work all the
more bold and striking and I was really
inspired by this so when I moved to
London I started trying to work within
my own limitations I started going to
evening classes and after they finished
I’d meet up with with classmates and
we’d set our own projects for ourselves
and I started to make little photocopy
books and then I started to sell them at
comics fairs where I could get a table
for as little as five pounds if I’d
share it with somebody and at the age of
30 I did go to art college and did have
part-time two-year course studying
illustration
and also I set up a blog where I would
try to post a picture every single day
that I’d drawn whether I thought it was
good or bad just as a discipline for
myself so here um yeah so here you can
see some of the work that I’ve done I
did actually become a professional
artist and it’s been a lot of fun some
of these are books that I’ve written and
drawn myself and other ones that I’ve
worked on with other people so that’s me
but I’m curious about you raise your
hand if you like to draw raise your hand
if you think you can’t draw it’s whole
quite a few Oh raise your hand if you
never draw because you’d be embarrassed
if people saw the results oh it’s okay
when I visit schools and talk to kids
very often they assumed I was some sort
of child prodigy some genius at drawing
and I like to tell them a little secret
here you can see my sister me drawing
one Oh my sister Mary this is the secret
I tell the kids when I was a kid I
wasn’t actually that good at drawing I
was okay but nothing special but as the
other kids started growing up and
stopped drawing I just kept going
because I loved it so people often they
sort of look at great works of art and
they think oh my goodness I could never
do that
but often it’s not the big technically
perfect drawings that we really connect
with it’s not say the pictures that we
might share on social media because they
make us laugh I get very inspired by
children’s drawings because they
constantly show me that a good drawing
is not necessarily about photo realism
for example look at this drawing of a
horse it’s fine people say horses are
hard to draw there’s nothing wrong with
this drawing of a horse let’s look at
another drawing of a horse
it’s drying it’s a bit silly isn’t it it
doesn’t even look that much like a horse
but I actually prefer this drawing I
think it’s got more balance that’s got
more energy it makes me smile let’s add
a bit of color yeah I’ll take this horse
any day so for me what I’ve learned is
that getting good at drawing is not
about perfection it isn’t for me it’s
about connection so what do I mean by
connection two things first there’s a
basic connection with the paper itself
and the second one is a connection with
other people so let’s start with the
paper itself I often meet people who
have great ambitions to create an epic
graphic novel maybe 200 pages or more
they’re hiding away with it it’s
daunting maybe they’re drawing styles
even changed since they started making
it like years and years ago and they’re
feeling frustrated very often these epic
projects never happen sometimes the best
thing we can do is to give up the big
plan we can take small steps we can do
little projects giving up doing doing
things in a smaller scale isn’t giving
up doing what we love say you love books
and you want to make one you don’t have
to prove your commitment to books by
starting with that epic novel I like to
tell kids that all you need to make a
book is a single sheet of paper so here
you go this is not a book but if you
fold it in half it’s a book it’s got a
front cover a back cover and room inside
for pictures and words how do you
publish a book you might ask well you
take it to the scanner at the
photocopier you put it down you run off
say 20 copies you fold them and you’ve
got a nice little edition of books that
you can share with friends give as gifts
here are some examples of some books I
made while I’ve been learning how to
draw and many of them aren’t more than a
you photocopied pages long so if you
make say two of these books a month you
get we get so much more experience doing
this than we do if we just contemplate
that epic novel for twenty years but
never actually do anything so there’s a
second secret I tell kids and it’s this
one draw
bad books make really bad books and
their teachers off and kind of look at
me a bit funny but you’re never gonna
get the good books unless you do the bad
ones so say your first book you make it
and it is terrible I mean really really
terrible the second books pretty
terrible too next books kind of bad
third books a little better next one
maybe even a little bit good and you’re
never gonna get to that great great book
unless you make all the bad ones so
except we are going to make bad books
revel in it maybe even make a book
that’s spectacularly bad just to prove
it just to see what happens because you
can and that’s the thing is keeping
sense of humor about our work but also a
sense of forgiveness what do I mean by
that well I made a comic and it features
rabbits but you might be able to relate
to it anyway so here’s what a rabbit
joins picture looks at it goes ah stupid
note drawing no good I said quit forever
went to sit in a ball throws at the bin
plunk can anyone relate to that I can
imagine now that you did that to your
child
say your kids doing the math homework
they’re struggling a little bit they hit
a hard spot they ask for help so you’re
gonna come up and you’re gonna go oh
you’re so stupid I can’t believe you’re
any child with mine get out of my house
and never come back throw them down the
street and slam the door behind them
would you do that to your kid no of
course not as bad parenting well you’d
probably do is you come up and you’d
sort of give them a bit of help then
you’d if they have a meltdown you’d give
them a hug just to show that it’s okay
you know they’re having problems that
you’re there with them you’re gonna
stick with them you love them you know
it’s it’s all right
and sometimes we need to do that with
our drawings we need to look at them and
say hello little drawing you’re not very
good I know but you’re good enough for
now and don’t worry I’m not gonna hurt
you you’re safe with me maybe give it a
little hug inside you deep inside you
and I’m not saying to be childish about
your work even if you’re making work
that aimed at children what I’m saying
is it takes a lot of maturity to realize
if something deep in you that’s
vulnerable and growing and it needs
looked after just like you would a child
so that’s very important so connection
I’m actually connecting with the paper
I’m doing a hug but what about
connecting with other people there’s
that connection thing sometimes we need
to send our drawings to playgroup we
need to let them run around fall over
meet other kids it’s you know growth
explore if you draw a picture it’s not
perfect but it makes somebody else smile
that’s a really good feeling or if you
come up with a joke together and you
both have a laugh that’s such a boost so
I want a studio group online it’s a
virtual studio on Twitter called studio
tea break and a lot of people gather
there – these drawings who might just be
feeling a little bit isolated and the
drawings that we’ve posted very simple
here’s one called shape challenge and I
just put up its shape and people turn it
into something
so this one I’ve turned into a robot
there’s another one on Thursday it’s
called portrait challenge and we redraw
or reinterpret an old masterpiece and
there’s lots of people in our group we
have everyone from as eight year old to
professional artists to grown-ups who
just love to draw but I’m just looking
for an idea of what to draw and the idea
isn’t to create a perfect work of art it
stick it’s to try things out new styles
see how other people tackle things just
kind of have fun cuz often for me it’s
the goofball drawing I’m not trying too
hard I’m being a bit silly and I’ll
suddenly think oh my goodness I just
discovered a whole new way of drawing
and I’m hoping you might be able to
relate to that whatever field you’re in
the benefit of sharing ideas of being
able to find a space with other people
where it’s okay to be vulnerable and to
try things out where things very well
might go wrong and it’s okay so it’s all
about connection not perfection we’re
here at this conference because we all
want to connect so we can listen to
motivational talks all day but until we
actually do some of these things we
never learn so you’re very welcome to
join us at Studio T break on Twitter but
let’s get started sooner than that let’s
do a drawing right now grab your pens
and papers and I’m going to teach you
how to draw a monkey
in fact it’s a sea monkey from my book
with Phillip Reeve Oliver and the sea
wigs let’s see okay
and if you’re watching this online I
mean you to grab a pencil and paper and
come draw with us
okay everyone got a pen hold up your
pens yep okay first thing you do to draw
a sea monkey is to do a head it’s a very
big head just like that okay
now we’re going to draw the nose and
it’s a bit like a letter M but it’s got
three bumps so it goes boom boom boom
and you can make the sound if you want
sometimes that helps oh okay now we’re
gonna do the muzzle and you just take a
line here go down there come on here and
go down there now we’re gonna do a big
staring I say sea monkeys are very silly
quite mad creatures and if yours looks a
bit wobbly that’s even better because
they are kind of that way right we’re
gonna make the other eye even bigger
just to make it look a bit stranger so
make a really really big I might even go
off the side of it now you can decide as
your eye might see monkey looking up
down left right cross-eyed wall-eyed
you decide and draw two circles for
pupils so I’m gonna make mine cross-eyed
these two circles and Colour them in
quite dark
okay I was looking at you okay next
thing we’re gonna do is the ears and
they’re a little bit like the letter C
so there we go you’re on that side and
then a backwards C on the other side now
you just do another little C inside for
the inner ear now you get some we get to
make on the mouth and it could be it
could be like it just a little smile or
it could be a line all the way across or
it could be lowering with massive teeth
or it could just be going Oh which I
think I’ll do Oh circle maybe put some
teeth in those now I have a really cool
way of drawing bodies that just kind of
you don’t have to worry about necks and
shoulders and all these things you just
draw an upside down you so like that
yeah it’s very easy and then do another
sort of shadow are you inside that and
you have a body that was pretty easy
okay now we’re going to draw the feet
and they’re a bit like little skis to
ski monkey say there we go two little
lines like that and then you stick two
more little lines on them like chicken
feet so it that that that and it Oliver
in the sea legs they’re at their
sea-monkeys their aquatic so we’re gonna
give them a webbed toes webbed feet so
web put some webbing between their toes
now we’re gonna draw the arms and
they’re really easy they just go
shooting off his body like that no
complicated elbows or anything you don’t
need them people often say hands are
hard to draw but if you have a clenched
fist you don’t actually see any of the
fingers so make a little clenched fist
all these little tricks okay and now he
needs a tail or she needs a tail so it
could go any direction I’m gonna have
mine kind of curling down here and then
just make a little bit thicker line or
just do a second line alongside it to
make it a bit thicker now sea monkeys
are pretty scruffy creatures so we’re
gonna give them a lot of hair give them
some hair scruffy as you can you can
spend hours doing the hair or you could
still really fast on the head too
and they’re so gross and disgusting they
kind of crack crawl out of seaweed so
we’re gonna have some fleas coming off
at least one flea coming off fleas are
really easy to dry you just go – – – –
dot there you go that’s a flea and there
you have it that is a sea monkey so hold
up your drawings and let’s see these
these creatures you’ve made there’s army
of sea monkeys oh my gosh these are
amazing brilliant hooray so those of you
who said you couldn’t draw you can you
can draw a sea monkey so it’s all about
breaking things down into simple shapes
and learning how to draw it’s about
setting yourself small achievable tasks
like learning how to draw one cartoon
monkey so if you enjoyed this you can
keep going you can maybe one cartoon
animal at a time so the reason we’ve
drawn is because we’re all in a room so
we’ve connected it’s all about
connection not perfection so I hope this
has inspired you and watching you draw
has inspired me right back thank you
very much
[Applause]
you
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