Yes, You Can Draw!

Have you ever noticed that whenever a teacher draws on the board to explain something to the class, it always comes with a disclaimer?

“Well, I can’t draw, but…”

This was true of all of my teachers, and it always confused me. “You can’t draw, but you’re drawing right now to explain this thing to the entire class?”

I understand the impulse. Drawing is creating and sharing a drawing makes you vulnerable to judgment. What if they don’t like what I drew? What if they can’t tell what it is? What if it isn’t rendered perfectly?

I think that’s the issue. As we grow out of childhood, we seem to adopt a belief that we have to draw perfectly to be able to say we “can draw.”

I just don’t think it needs to be this way.

The teacher who draws on the board does it to get a message across. And usually it works. Your friend who draws on the bar napkin does it to communicate something. And usually it works. That’s drawing.

I get it, though. Ten years ago, I was also saying, “I can’t draw,” as a defense mechanism. I’ve never been able to render anything perfectly, and 2D Art was my worst grade in college. Even now, I draw quite regularly, but some of that “it’s not perfect” fear has crept back in.

In my sketchbooks lately, I have been scribbling. This is partly because when the toddler does it, it looks extremely fun (it is fun, I endorse the activity), and I’ve noticed the variation available in plain, old, Crayola-crayon scribbles is fascinating.

But I also think the scribble phase is happening because I let myself become intimidated again by drawing from life.

I didn’t realize this until a few weekends ago, when I met up with a friend1 to draw, in all places, a cemetery. When we sat down, I was intimidated by the scene: an infinity pool stretching down to a chapel. I was pretty sure I would not like whatever I attempted to draw.

But the advantage of going drawing with a friend is there’s a bit of peer pressure. I had no choice! I had to come up with something! I remembered the advice I’d picked up from various art books:2

• draw the lines as you see them

• try to connect them

• really look at what you’re drawing

• try not to look away

• ignore any “this is ugly” thoughts

• give into your wonkiness

and committed to the drawing. I had packed my favorite pen, some watercolors, and a travel brush filled with water. The watercolors were the best part.

It was a little wonky, but it got the message across. And I was obsessed with the watercolors. So I kept going.

I even found myself drawing the boring chair in my house that evening, no peer pressure needed.

I share all this because, even though I am the first to say, “Don’t tell me you can’t draw!” I’m actually not far off from that teacher drawing on the board with the disclaimer. The difference is that I’ve practiced suppressing the disclaimer, discovered it’s more fun this way, and want everyone else to feel free to do the same.

So go grab some random materials (the more random, the better), a friend, and give drawing a try!

And thanks for being here!

How do you say "blob" in Italian?

Did you know that “blob” in Italian is “macchia”? I didn’t know that either, and I am relying solely on the internet here, so I could be very wrong.

I do hope it’s right because I just translated “The Blob Book” into Italian, and now it’s full of “macchia/e.”

One of my favorite baby gifts is a picture book about a little red fish. It is a Japanese picture book that my friend translated by hand into French. (Karine translates Japanese manga into French for her work, so she knows what she’s doing!) I’m not sure the toddler realizes that when I ask her, “Où est le poisson rouge?” and she points to the red fish, that I am speaking to her in French. Maybe someday she’ll have an aha moment and tell me it’s not a poisson rouge, it’s a red fish!

This week I was in search of something to send along to my “Italian parents” who hosted me almost 20 years ago for six months of high school. When host mom Gabriella first picked me up at the train station, she didn’t speak English and I could only say “pasta,” “pizza,” and “spaghetti.” (This was also all I envisioned eating while I was there.) We spoke in French as she drove me “home” and showed me around the house for the first time.

I didn’t say much at the beginning, as I was trying to absorb as much Italian as I could. I would sit in my tiny room using my Italian-English dictionary conjugating verbs in Italian and then practice speaking with 3 year-old Pietro whose language was only slightly more advanced than mine.

Blobs were never part of my vocabulary back then, but I did absorb enough Italian eventually to be able to translate this little book (ok, ok, I did get a little help from the internet). In retrospect, it would have had some helpful messages for a high schooler who gets plopped into a different culture, where she doesn’t yet speak the language.

This was one of the first handmade books/zines that I made, as I was slowly developing a style and creative confidence as an adult. It’s still one of my favorites, and I would love to turn it into a board book one day.

Oh, I also translated the Book of Mom, which I’ve shared here before. The mom saying “MANGIA” is even more true in Italian than in English. They never really had to force me to mangia my pasta, but “mangia le verdure, Maddy!” (vegetables) was definitely one I heard many times. I do mangia my verdure now, for the record.

A Nuanced Approach to AI, in Comic Form

Would you rather read a research paper or a picture book? How about a research paper versus a comic?

If you’re one of many visual learners out there, then you may find yourself bogged down by dense, educational text. I am one of those people, too. In a recent project for Laude, I broke down the concepts of a nuanced paper about the potential future of AI (Shaping AI) into a series of text and images. These were then turned into a comic book, complete with ads and a shiny cover. You could call it an infographic of the paper, but split into multiple panels. The comic book explains the topics from the paper (How should AI be regulated? How can AI positively impact science? How should a computer science lab be designed? How will AI impact media and art? What is AI’s role in employment, healthcare, education?) in text and image allowing you to get the paper’s message in a fun, engaging way.

When the folks at Laude go on tour to talk about how the organization can help computer scientist researchers ship their work and tackle tough problems in AI, they give out this comic book to the audience.

For more images from this project, see here.