Picking Up A Pencil — Jamie Cheung

Lockdown blues were strong the day I decided I was going to pick up a pencil and give drawing a go. At this point I’d already spent two weeks straight trying to learn digital 3D modelling in Blender with mixed results. I really enjoyed the creative process of making something aesthetically pleasing but the combination of being tied to my desk, bleeding retinas and the RSI that I was almost certainly developing in the hand that pushes the cursor around the screen, meant I needed a break. Having not wanted to give up creating completely whilst I let my various faculties rest from the 12 hour days spent in front of a computer screen, I decided drawing might be fun.

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Now let’s be clear, I was no artist (arguably that is still the case). My girlfriend will attest to the atrocious pictures I had produced on the rare occasion that she had convinced me to spend a couple of hours drawing with her. In fact the closest I’d ever been to anything near passable mark making lived in my old Product Design GCSE portfolio and was a very simple isometric drawing of a Barnyard Toyset I designed. It took way too many attempts and I had left the pencils well alone after that, until now. After scrolling through Pinterest and seeing some cartoons that looked fun but relatively achievable, I had a quick browse and ordered a beginners guide to cartooning.

My early attempts were okay. Actually Christopher Hart, the author and illustrator of the guide I used is great at breaking down his characters into simple shapes that anyone can replicate with a bit of practice. So after a few basketfuls of screwed up rejected sheets, I got to the point where I was happy to share some of the things I’d reproduced.

I was hungry for more and simultaneously infuriated by how often I was producing drawings I hated. Having to keep reminding yourself that you are just starting (baby steps) is tiring but important. Often I found myself having to reground my attitude towards art. I couldn’t expect to produce anything like what I was seeing on Instagram, Pinterest or in comic books and guides like Hart’s. Not yet anyway. It was going to take practice, just like anything else, and so that’s what I did. I really had nothing else to do. Last year’s uni work was long gone and the next term’s hadn’t been released yet. I started back at work at some point in that incomprehensible period that was the summer of 2020 but on the days I wasn’t working, I drew (and maybe played just a few video games too).

I soon got bored of simple line drawings and wanted to bring more life to my characters. Lots of the art I was most inspired by seemed to be created digitally and so, of course, I wanted a piece of the action. I did some research, again, and this time found myself an entry level graphics tablet that would let me take my subpar physical sketches and turn them into subpar digital drawings! Now I could bring my sketches to life as more fully fledged, coloured illustrations. I think I was led astray in the belief that technology would somehow improve my artwork exponentially. Even now, in 2020, the age of SpaceX and self driving cars, there is no technology out there that could make my drawings respectable. It seemed I would have to work harder than that… Anyway, my delusional self thought these illustrations were good enough for instagram so I posted them anyway. I think the biggest part of my journey as an ‘artist’ so far, has been coming to terms that it is going to be many years before I get to the point where I am really happy with my art. Those of you who know me will know that I have since discovered the audacity required to tout my illustrations as printed tangible things on Etsy. Don’t be fooled. I am well aware that my art standards are not what they need to be yet, but it drives me to keep going so more on that another week.

Thank you so much for coming back to my blog and reading all the way to the end of this post! I am going to try and post on a more regular basis (God knows this might not happen) and of course I’ll talk about art and how my life has changed since starting a small business, but I still want to talk about books and food and life more generally from time to time. I’m sure it doesn’t make much sense to have a blog as directionless as mine but you guys seem to enjoy it enough to come back and read it so I appreciate that a lot.

Big Love,

J