Over the years, as I've drawn at many live events, one of the most common phrases I've heard is "I wish I could do that" So I began live drawing lessons and had frequent classes as a result. However, the covid pandemic slowed things down considerably and subsequently I haven't focused on revisiting the drawing lessons. That is until now. I'm going to re-establish live drawing classes but until it really gets off the ground' I'll be promoting it through online drawing tips and this blog may be filling a big role in that endeavor. It's a great platform to provide drawing lessons and may encourage others to join in or even enroll in the live classes. Of course, the premise or theme behind the class will be to encourage others to draw even if they don't consider themselves an "artist". No matter what a person's age, drawing is a learned skill and under the correct tutelage, anyone can get great at it with practice especially if I can tell them how I learned. It took me many years and I can help others get to where they want quicker than I did by skipping most of the trials and errors. So stand by.
0 Comments
I've been to dog days at dog parks, doggie day cares and dog day at Minute Maid Park but never in all the years I've been drawing have I ever been to a birthday party for a dog. This was truly a first. It was a party with all the typical trappings like decorations, balloons, the buffet and all their friends were invited.
I'm not complaining. It's simply something I've never seen. Thank goodness it was work for me as well as the balloon artist. In January of the new year I've had the pleasure of performing at KT Antiques in Katy Texas and also the first Houston Astros Fan Fest of the year at Minute Maid Park. I wish to give a special shout out to Twist it Up Balloons and Best Entertainers for their indispensable help in providing venues for me to work my craft.
An interesting thing happened at my most recent event at a Lamar Consolidated ISD Christmas party. I was there with my colleague, Jody, and early on, I noticed many of the customers in line preferred to wait to be drawn by him instead of me. This was a real head scratcher, and it isn't actually the first time it's happened.
As the evening wore on, the tide turned and some of the customers actually chose me over Jody, so it all evened out but still, the question remained as to why more people were attracted to his artwork as opposed to mine. There were times when I had to actually go halfway down the long line of customers before I found someone willing to take my hot seat. After pondering the issue for two days I realized much of it was associated with the perception in the customers mind of what to expect and how they envisioned themselves. Jody's drawings were well drawn, to be sure and the customers, mostly women, saw them (and themselves) as flattering and cute if not drawn in a good likeness. It's what the masses prefer, much linked why the majority of the population chooses McDonalds meals over home cooked variety. My drawings, on the other hand, may not have been as flattering and traditionally "cute" but the likeness was there, as some of the customers said as the evening continued. It comes down to my preferences. Do I want comments like "that's cute" or would I prefer "that looks just like you, Betty". The answer to me is clear. It's my intention to draw in my own style, differentiated from the others and even though the other artists are very talented indeed, I prefer my own style and frankly, so does the clientele I seek. However, it is important to attract people, especially in an environment as a live gig. So how can I do so without sacrificing my own creative style?
This past weekend was the typical pre-Christmas busy time with work on Friday, Saturday and a marathon session on Sunday. A promising time.
I was drawing at a Christmas party over the past weekend and at the end of the evening, as I was preparing to leave, I noticed a small table and sitting on it was a drawing of a gentleman I drew much earlier that night. In fact, it might have been the first drawing of the night. I knew something was amiss when I showed him the drawing upon completion and his first remark was "Is that me?" Afterwards he repeated often to others, "this doesn't look like me".
I was a tad surprised because I considered it to be one of the best drawings I did all night. It actually took me 50 years to draw it and his reaction was "it doesn't look like me". It doesn't bother me or offend me in the least because as an artist who is a performer as I am, I learn very quickly that pleasing everyone is an impossibility. It goes to show that we all have a self perception that is different from how others see us. It's not unlike when we hear ourselves on a recording and we ask "do I sound like that?" I have been invited to be a guest on the Inside Houston Real Estate podcast next Friday and even though the date is still pending, I'm excited to be invited. The first thing I told the inviter was "My profession has nothing to do with real estate." He said it doesn't matter.
However, he mentioned how he has heard me say on a number of occasions "learning to draw helps you do everything better". Therefore, the subject of Friday's conversation may be how learning to draw can help someone be a better real estate professional, maybe. If that is the line of questioning, then I have just the answer. Learning to draw, at least from the point of view of my philosophy, is that to be a successful artist, one must learn the fundamentals. No one starts out already knowing how to draw. One must start from the beginning. Doing so takes planning, focus, attention to detail, problem solving and more. Those are the skills it takes to master any undertaking so why should a real-estate professional or anyone else learn to draw? Why not just use those skills on one's current endeavor? Because sometimes removing ourself from familiar surroundings and embarking on a task unrelated to what we normally do can help in the creative process and see our job in a new light. It doesn't have to be drawing. Some people run, hunt, write, work on cars, paint or any number of other things but drawing is particularly helpful because it isn't necessarily an easy thing to do, and one can utilize mindfulness to a much larger degree. I hope it goes well on Friday. Thursday Night Football is a weekly occurrence these days but it wasn't always that way. Prior to 1970, Sunday was designated the only day of the week when pro football played their games with the exception of Thanksgiving Thursday. It had become an American Thanksgiving tradition to enjoy a big turkey dinner and then fall asleep while watching the traditional holiday game on the last Thursday of November. That is until 1939 when President Roosevelt decided to give the depressed economy a boost by moving Thanksgiving to the 3rd Thursday of November in an attempt to increase the shopping season by one week.
Consequently, because the NFL season was already decided upon, this meant that the game to be played on Thanksgiving would end up being played on just a simple Thursday. Games played on any day other than Sunday and Thanksgiving was an anomaly back then. The public in general never took to it either, football not withstanding, so in 1942 the original 4th Thursday of November was reinstated as Thanksgiving Day. I've been quite busy at the ALCS and World Series over the past couple of weeks as the Houston Astros swept the Yankees for the pennant and defeated the Phillies for the championship. I was a guest of the Astros, drawing caricatures for the fans during the street fest celebrations at Minute Maid Park prior to the games and it was a great honor for me, not to mention the energy and excitement during game days. It was a unique opportunity for me to be included in a MLB World Series.
The day after the game, I was also invited by the marketing department to draw for many of the fans who showed up at the Team Store at Minute Maid Park to purchase Astros merchandise and the crowds were heavy. There were so many people in one small area I noticed a kind of mob mentality among the patrons. There were lines for everything. Lines for the team store, lines for face painters, lines for balloon artists and even a line to simply look through the glass doors leading into the stadium. The fans wanted to see where the magic happened the night before. On one particular occasion, a group of people were standing in a shaded portion of Union Station, resting, when a group of people began forming a line behind them. I thought it was particularly amusing because the column of people extended to as much as 20 or 30 feet and it led nowhere. The mob mentality was such that if people were standing somewhere it must be a line. Finally, some of the line standers realized how silly it was and decided to leave which incited others to do the same thus perpetuating the afore mentioned mob mentality. All in all, it was an exiting and fun couple of weeks. I want to thank Best Entertainers for arranging this adventure and also my fellow artists who also participated. In particular Joe Brownd. The American League Championship Series between the Astro and Yankees at Minute Maid Park hosted the Fan Feast where I was invited to draw the festive attendees.
Later that same week, there was an Art Festival in Fulshear Texas and a customer appreciation party I was also privileged to attend. |