Simple Fun

I've been in a bit of a rut lately when it comes to drawing. Although the Event Caricatures have been progressing well, my pen & ink drawings have been virtually non-existent. Although, I've been getting headaches from all the drawings floating around in the 'ole cerebral matter, sitting my butt down at the drawing table and having those drawings flow from the brain (down the neck, through the formerly cancer infected shoulder, down the arm, though the fingers, being one with the pen, filling the nib) and spilling onto the paper, well...it's been a hot minute (as my son would say). I think I'm making this drawing thing, too complicated.

However, inspiration has arrived via a life-long friend, and Author, Daniel W. Shegrud and his, "Fun Words to Say!". Let's take a look…

Daniel W. Shegrud, Fun Words to Say!

I love these videos! They're Simple and fun. I've been missing that in my life lately. Growing up with Dan we had  a lifetime of simple fun. It was a riot! It seemed like everything we did was simple and fun (although the majority of our peer group would disagree). Fuck 'em! We didn't care. We lived our life for us and our amusement. Not that life these days are bad, it's just missing the simple fun that Dan and I enjoyed. As I was watching these videos of Dan’s, I realized that he’s still living that lifestyle and I’ve gotten off track. Life wasn't meant to be complicated. We’re here to enjoy life and obviously, Dan is still enjoying life. I need to find my way back to that life and Dan’s my inspiration.

Hold that light up for me Dan, I need to find that path back to the simple fun.

Uncomfortably Comfortable

I find myself uncomfortably comfortable these days. This is worrisome because I think it affects my creativity. I find that when I'm comfortable, my creative drive diminishes. To those of you who follow my art, you may have noticed this in my work...or lack thereof (the exception being my event caricatures). This  comfortableness is a product of minor success, in both my side-gig (The Daily Planet) and my increasingly successful event caricatures. Sure, the event caricatures can be creative, but the creativity is limited due to production expectations of the person who hires me (they're paying me by the hour, so they rightfully want as many as drawings as possible) and the self esteem of the subjects I'm drawing (i.e., I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings). You may ask, "...but Michael, don't you worry about those things with any caricature you draw?" Well, yes and no. No, because I don't intentionally over-exaggerate a person's features, in a caricature, to make them feel bad. However, when I'm drawing a person across the table from me (as opposed to a "celebrity" that I am drawing in my fortress of solitude) I can see their feelings and feel their emotional reactions through every stroke of my pen, which (sorta) limits my creativity, because again, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I just want to make them smile.

Anyways…the point I was trying to make was, I need to to make things less comfortable and more creative. To achieve this goal I need to expand my creativity to a point that makes me uncomfortable. The other option is to give up one of the things that are making me comfortable. As I previously stated, the two things causing the comfortableness are the side-gig (mild mannered fueler for a great metropolitan fueling conglomerate) and the burden of being the second greatest Caricaturist to have ever walked God's earth (Thank you God and thank you, Al Hirschfeld for the inspiration). Since I am carrying the burden of being the greatest Caricaturist, obviously I'm not going to quit drawing event caricatures, that would be like asking Billie Piper to quit being so damn perfect...

(am I right, or am I right???)

The other option would to leave The Daily Planet. While that has always been the plan, is this the right time? Good question 🤔 That's a question that I'm planning to answer soon. That answer will depend on a couple of things. Number one is the size of my gonads (that's what she said) and number two is the success of the rest of my repertoire. Since I've had no complaints about the prior, I'm going to increase the latter, by taking more chances.

More to come, Stay tuned!