I have always been a very visual person.  Growing up I would write and illustrate my own stories about Silly Lily the Mermaid and Rose (who was a rose).  These stories would be written and drawn out in old exercise books, the excess pages torn out, and then handed to my Mother who was always suitably impressed. I read an interview recently where an artist claimed to be self publishing at the age of 11 because she found a Zine she had made in her attack years later.  If we go by these rules I have been self publishing for well over a decade now, but I think it's codswallop so we'll move on.

You should know by now that I am taking a drawing class alongside my writing ones. It is the introductory drawing class at Columbia College and leads onto more advanced classes each semester.  I was really hoping to sit in on a life drawing class during my time here but as I will be leaving after my first semester it's not feasible. Visually art and illustration are food for the soul but one of the brilliant things that writing does that image cannot is get across sound and smell.  Visually art engages us but writing reaches out with the ghost of our other senses too and so together they're like a dream come true, for me anyway.

So why am I taking a drawing class really?  The answer to that is quite simply, comics.  I love comics.  I read comics.  I study the way they are written, the way they are drawn, script out my and constantly urge my illustrator-type pals to draw them out for me.  But I kind of, well completely, want to write and illustrate my own.  Some people would be happy to focus on the writing alone but I guess I just wont be happy until I've given this a good solid go.  And that means attending my Drawing 1 classes.

The first piece of work I was happy with in class.

Heres an idea: All writers should take an art class regardless of whether they want to make comics.

You might think that this is wildly unnecessary but I think it's something that could catch on.  You see, I've been noticing that the more I draw and the more aware I am of how my work responds and works with images the more I have been focusing on details.  Some people might be lucky enough to have a highly detailed writing style anyway but I have a tendency to get carried away by plot and dialogue.  By paying attention to not only my own drawing but by the work of others I am finding myself drawn to the textures of things, how they might feel in my hand or where they are place on the page.

But it isn't just seeing the story on a visual level. When I draw I get into a specific frame of mind, I find it much easier to ignore other people and focus on the tiny details that I might have otherwise missed. If you can find a familiar state of mind when writing you should be able to avoid distractions that can break your train of thought.

I would have loved to take some more classes that combine word and image, Columbia has an exciting selection taught by the likes of Audrey Niffenegger and Patty McNair. Let's just hope I get to continue my 'artistic journey' when I return to Bath Spa.

P.S You can see some of my scribblings here...boom.