A drawing lesson

An illustrator who I met recently gave me a drawing lesson yesterday. She’s talented, and also sweet and soft in her approach to teaching.

“Let’s start with a face.” She pointed out the geometry of how our features line up. Eyes just above the middle of the face. Ears show only a hint. Ends of the lips in line with the irises.

Then we drew noses. Then lips of various shapes. We sketched the plant on the table in front of us. She taught me tricks for 3D lettering.

I asked her questions, “should it go like this?”

“It can go however you want,” she said.

Unexpectedly in the middle of drawing a nose, a wave of emotion came over me. Looking down at so much blank space, sharpened pencil in hand, brought tears to my eyes. The freedom! I was taken with how much possibility lies in a simple sheet of paper and a pencil: The opportunity to draw a reality we’d like to see, to think outside everyday structures, to dream. The uniqueness of each person’s creation. The magic we can create.

I’ll be staying in, drawing and crying tonight.