Crush County

Earlier this month, my beautiful wife and I took a trip up to San Francisco to celebrate our 5th anniversary. While there, we spent an afternoon at the Walt Disney Family Museum, and I’m still thinking about how amazing and beautifully designed that place is. Also on my must-do list was the Image Comics 20th Anniversary art exhibit at the Cartoon Museum of Art. I’m unashamedly a huge fan of the early Image era (90′s foe life), and getting the chance to see some iconic art from my youth in its original form pretty much blew my nostalgic little mind.

It rained a lot while we were there, and at one point it started coming down during our walk to Ghiradelli square, so we took refuge inside a small gift shop. There, I found a sketchbook with the words “One Sketch A Day” on the front, and interior pages that were slugged by day. Our trip happened to coincided with my birthday, and my wife suggested (insisted) that we buy the sketchbook, and I spend the year filling it with drawings, ending on my next birthday.

I took her up on the challenge, and so far, it’s been a lot of fun. I try not to labor over ideas or spend too much time on any drawing, because I don’t want it to become a chore. Thus far, it hasn’t – in fact, the opposite is happening. I’m finding myself looking forward to sketch time, and I’ve also started digging out old art supplies that don’t get much play in these digital days. My first few sketches were just pencil and ink, but last night I actually rifled through the bathroom trashcan (it was…damp) to fetch a toothbrush I threw out last week, so I could do some watercolor splatter. I’m not reinventing the wheel or anything, but I’m having fun, and – most importantly – I’m getting at least one thing down on paper each day that has nothing to do with my day job.  It’s all too easy, after a full day at the studio, to make excuses and not lift a pencil in the evening. But since each page is numbered, I’ve got to put something down, or forever be left with an empty space reminding me that I didn’t. Pretty cool.

I’m not committing myself to sharing every day’s sketch, but thus far, I’ve been posting them pretty regularly on Twitter and Instagram, in case you wanna follow along. And I’m sure I’ll be rounding up my favorites once in a while and posting them here, too.