Short story. Hey, get back here! It's short!!:
One day long ago my Mom took me to an orientation to meet my future kindergarten class teacher. Mrs. Senor was soft-spoken and kind. After the grownups talked, Mrs. Senor asked if there was something in the classroom I would like to play with. I looked around the room and saw kids drawing with crayons as big as Prest-O logs, building with monolithic wooden blocks, looking into picture books that, to me, smelled like buttermilk and so on. Then I saw a girl standing in front of an easel. She was painting a house with a sun in the sky.
"I want to do that!," I said pointing impolitely at the talented girl. So Mrs. Senor took me over to an easel that held a large pad of newsprint paper and a tray of gritty water-based poster paints in old mayonnaise jars. She put an apron on me and turned me loose.
I asked Mom what I should draw. Paint as a verb isn't in a child's vocabulary. All illustrations are still drawings at that age. Mom said to paint whatever I wanted. I stared at the blank paper. I couldn't think of anything.
"Mom, I don't know what to draw," I whined.
I stared at that blank paper for what felt like an eternity. I stirred the brushes in the paint jars admiring the colors but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what to paint let alone how to paint.
So I did what all frustrated kids do. I cried.
All day long I felt miserable. I really wanted to draw a painting but I couldn't figure out how and I regretted not having tried harder. This memory stayed with me all these years and I can recall it all too well even now.
Yet here I am, an artist. And I get paid to draw.
Admit it. All artists have bad days. I mean really, really bad days. Days when creating something is like pulling teeth from a shark. We become crippled by creative blocks. We become intimidated by a blank canvas. We stare at our canvas or sketchbook, lump of sculpting clay, camera, piano, etc... and can't think of what to draw. We procrastinate, allow ourselves to be distracted and make excuses. We cry.
All artists know the solution: put paint on your brush and just do it. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes we just need to push ourselves harder than usual. We create. That's just how we're made. So what do I do when this happens?
Meet my alter-ego.
His name is Dab.
He's a hedgehog.
He's an artist.
His nemesis is the dreaded Blank Canvas.
Blank Canvas often has a mind of his own and will intentionally foil Dab.
Dab needs to paint but he is often troubled, creatively blocked and easily distracted.
He is me.
This is the first of many cartoons to come. My goal is 52 comic strips, one for each week of the year. I will post a new one each week but only once the set is complete. Hopefully I'll fulfill this goal and find a way to publish these.
I hope you enjoy it and please, wish me luck. I don't know what to draw.
