Episode 6: Jennifer draws

Jennifer likes to draw dragons. Fantasy monsters and people, elves, things out of fantasy books. Animals. (Her sketch of Batgirl was my smartphone wallpaper for weeks.)

"I get ideas in my head of something that would look cool of a scene or an animal, and I like sharing that idea," Jennifer says.

Like many artists who don't do it for a living, she usually doesn't need to hit deadlines that aren't self-imposed and doesn't need to draw stuff she doesn't care about. Much of her art is for her, her own heart, her own interest and the interest of friends and supporters (like the folks at her workplace who were encouraging and kicked off her adult art kick). Before, when she drew as a kid, she says she "didn't have the support system. It was getting in my own head a lot. Being very negative toward my own stuff."

"Becoming more involved with the internet ... has helped that too," she says, "because I'll throw my art out into the world and people will ... click 'Like' on it. And it won't be a lot of people, but it'll be a few people, and I'll [say,] 'Oh, I don't know that person, and they liked my art, so I ... made a random stranger happy by posting this.' That brings me joy."

Jennifer discusses the power of pre-work before art projects (when she doesn't, sometimes she notices "this one thing is off, and I could have changed that, but in order to change it ... I have to start over"), what making art feels like and how coworkers' and friends' support brought her back to art as an adult.

Note: After about 39 minutes, this podcast peters out a bit into Jennifer and I bandying back and forth, as we search for stuff on the internet to recommend (all below in "Want to know more?") and I mangle the spelling of her online handle.

 

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

• Find Jennifer on Instagram (drawntofury), Patreon (caeodos) and Twitter (caeodos1)
• Want to try an art challenge or exercises? Especially 'cause most of us are stuck at home during the pandemic? Jennifer mentions ...
  • Intokber (art prompts and shared results)
  • The Etherington Brothers (unique art style and drawing ideas)
  • the Jake Parker weekly e-newsletter (with prompts and more)
  • The Sketchbook Project (with DIY sketchbooks and the chance to send them back to a library to be digitized and shared)
  • Sketchbook Revival (a free regular event with Karen Abend and others)
• Toothless from the "How to Train a Dragon" movies based on a cat? Yeah. Want to see a Tortle? Yeah you do.
• Curious about Dungeons & Dragons? It was the gateway drug (check out this flowchart at Wired) for so many middle-aged nerds today, and it maintains its strength as the dominant tabletop role-playing game in the market with its new owner Wizards of the Coast (which also owns the Magic: The Gathering card game, which I play online). Jennifer also mentions Critical Role, a very popular online show featuring voice actors playing tabletop D&D.