An Introvert Drawing Dogs With Other Introverts
What a Zoom drawing session, a cake mix emergency, and Mason Currey's Daily Rituals have to do with your creative practice
I've been following my fun lately.
For me that means drawing dogs.
Drawing Dogs of Substack, sketchbook detail - Lisa Sonora
Last week, I zoomed in to Beth Spencer’s Introvert Drawing Club for a Dogs of Substack edition co-hosted with cartoonist and author Jason Chatfield of New York Cartoons.
We drew photos of dogs on a timer, the way you’d draw a model in a life drawing class with poses that change every few minutes.
Throughout the session as Jason and Beth were talking, I jotted down things they said and put them in speech bubbles coming out of the dogs.
“Don’t even think about opening another tab,” regarding the overwhelm of the internet. Once you’re in a browser, “there’s no leaving.”
Beth asked Jason about his creative habits and routines.
He does his cartooning creative work first, before email and admin.
“You have to protect your time and attention.”
“It’s just responsible to do the creative work first.”
He also limits his creative time to less than four hours a day, and they discussed anecdotes of artist and writer routines from Mason Currey’s book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work and Daily Rituals: Women at Work. Note that book links are affiliates. If you purchase through them I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
I highly recommend Mason’s work if you’ve been trying to white-knuckle yourself into creating on demand for long stretches at a time.
It turns out that prolific creatives throughout history share something in common that we can all try ourselves: limiting creative work to three to four hours a day, preferably before the distractions of life consume your entire day.
That’s my drawing of Mason Currey’s dog Uno, in green, above.
Putting overheard snippets of conversation into my sketchbooks is one of my own creative habits (or minor obsession?) that helps me be in the world as an introvert and as an artist.
I especially love the reaction from people when I show them their words living inside speech bubbles forever in my sketchbooks.
They always look a little astonished and I wonder why.
Is it because it's so rare to feel truly listened to?
Or that someone cares about something we’re sharing enough to write it down?
Maybe they’re just thinking that I’m a total weirdo and are just politely smiling at me?
What do you think?
Near the end, Mason told a story about a dog who broke into the pantry and ate a whole bag of cake mix. Now out of space, it got written in like a tattle from the chihuahua. (Tattle Tail?)
For anyone who’s a dog parent, this is both hilarious and harrowing. Apparently it required an emergency vet visit as the cake mix expands in the gut, like an internal oven. Who knew?
Now I’m wondering if I should keep Katy’s treats in an upper cabinet, in case she learns how to open the lower cabinet door where I keep her food and snacks.
Keeping a sketchbook with snippets of quotes, conversation and observations helps me take away meaningful moments and ideas that I want to remember and use.
Like Jason saying he doesn’t recommend drawing in Times Square.
Oh really? Don’t you kind of want to try it for yourself and see why?
It’s also a great way to be in the room with other artists as they create.
I love seeing what happens. Even though we’re drawing the same dogs, everyone is drawing them in their own way, using their favorite materials and techniques.
My dog Katy has her own story of moving with me from Mexico to France and sketchbook appearance here.
If you want to create together in person, I have two workshops coming up:
Creative Practice Week in Paris — spaces are full for June, but you can save your place for this Fall or next April. Or write me if you want to book a 1:1 creative practice experience at my studio.
And Voice & Vision in Italy, a five-day workshop in Frascati near Rome, co-led with Gudrun Bühler, June 23-27.
How are you following the fun in your own creative practice lately?
And if it’s not feeling fun, what’s getting in the way?
What’s you take on my speech bubble question, above?
If you were also on the Dogs of Substack drawing sesh and spot your dog, let me know. I didn’t capture all the dogs names. Thanks for sharing your pups!
Hello Lisa,
I don’t know if I will travel outside Australia in the future but your workshops definitely draw me, especially that one in Italy, it sounds amazing.
I love the speech bubbles attached to the dogs, my guess goes to ‘people rarely experience being properly listened to’ … it is such a gift to be deeply listened to… for me I let out a deep sigh that I didn’t know I was holding when someone reflects what I have said.
Thank you for all your recent posts.
The algorithm gave me your feed; and I’m glad.
Thank you so much for your honesty and thoughtful reflections.
Debbie
Many thanks for the restack!