Picture if you will, I am working at my desk, fountain pen in hand drawing on a thick sheet of paper; I am not thinking about anything except the scratching noise of the pen tip on the paper and every now and then I stop to check the progress of the full project, squint my eyes, sit back for a minute, rub my shoulders, before going back to the paper again. All of a sudden, what seemed to be out of nowhere, Shannon is standing next to my desk, lunch in her hand, saying in an irritated voice, “Knock! … Knock!”
We have this routine when she walks into my office. She stands at the door for a second and says, “Knock Knock!“ It’s a thing we do for each other where she is announcing herself in the room so that I am not scared to death as I am either, engrossed in a project and/or have my back to the door.
“Hello?“ she says, standing right next to my desk, food in hand. “Are we in there somewhere?”
“Sorry,” I said as the smell of chicken sandwiches start to fill my office. “I’m just trying to get this project finished.” A white lie, I have lost track of time again and I’m clueless to even what time it is.
“Well, while you are on top of drawing on your paper, how are you coming on the list I left you?”
I begin sweating.
It’s a classic move in chess, Bishop takes pawn! I have to be careful of my response. I try not to show panic as I start rummaging through mental notes. I say to myself, “garbage day? No, that’s not until next week; move the laundry basket to the laundry room? No, I just did that.” I am now beginning to sweat more as my wife is staring down her nose at me with a chicken sandwich in one hand and a glass of pop in the other, being seized at shoulder height, as if being held hostage until I produce an answer.
In an answer to prayer, I look down at my desk and see from behind the sheet of Bristol paper I have been drawing on, a small corner of a Post-it Note peeking out at me as if to say, “Psst! Down here!” I grabbed the small edge of paper and brandished it like a five-year-old saying, “Yup! Got it right here! It’s on my list of things to do!”
“Terrific,” she says hesitantly. “Since you have been on top of things so closely this morning, tell me, what exactly does it say on that note?”
I began sweating all over again.
Over the last several weeks, I have found a new way to draw, well new to me. It literally takes all different aspects of my background, training and studies and ties them up together with a pretty bow. It’s a style of illustration that I rediscovered on the Internet and it has a way to give me rest, yet at the same time challenge me physically and emotionally literally until my body gives out at about 5:30 in the morning.
I have been re-introduced to a form of Illustration that I’m sure has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years; a form of “ink and wash free-flow drawing“ that literally when the pen touches the paper, takes up all of my attention and all of my awareness and seems to calm all the voices around me that are screaming for my attention daily.
I have been having so much fun with this that, after finishing all my client work, this will keep me up until the wee hours of the morning, which is fine on my days off, but I have to learn to control some of this on work nights. It is hypnotizing to watch as it’s being created, it is restful to do as I progress, and it feels great when you look at a full sheet of paper and realize that you have filled it. I truly feel like I have accomplished something and it is a blessing when others see it and are excited about it. To be quite honest, it is reassuring when I put whatever is inside of my brain on a piece of paper and somebody responds positively to it; it’s kind of an active trust. I intend on doing many more like this and to study other master Ink Artists, locations, illustrated portraits, and who knows what else.
Started at 2am and finished 10:30pm next day.
Here’s my challenge for you, try something new. Be open to possibilities and be supportive of those around you who are in their search for the same as you. Look for something that answers a calling inside of you, fills in a gap, checks you ‘out’ then brings you back and makes you feel rejuvenated. Go find your answer, hunt it down relentlessly …
… go make your mark!
