The Best Thing I Ate
For the past several months I’ve been working on researching and writing my next comic book cookbook. (I promise the next newsletter will be an update on the new book!) There is a stack of books on my table that I’ve been manically referencing and cross-referencing. I have multiple text documents laying out the book’s structure, table of contents, recipe lists, equipment and techniques.
What I’m saying is, it’s been a lot of months of reading and writing, and not a lot of drawing.
Since I started making a career out of art, it’s been difficult to give myself permission to draw for nothing but the joy of making marks on a page. If I have time for that, I have time to get ahead on the next paid project! It’s not a great habit and I’m trying to break it. Which is why I started this project.
If there is one thing that I know about myself and my place in the world, it’s that I really love drawing food. There’s so much about food, about preparing and sharing and consuming a meal, that feels so universal and and human and pure and joyful to me in ways that I can’t really express in words. But I sure do like expressing that by drawing. :)
So I decided to start drawing my favorite thing that I ate every week. It started with the wedge salad at Void.
I did not expect the salad to be a standout of a 5 or 6 plate dinner (plus dessert!), but this wedge was so great that we were still talking about it the next day. I’m not 100% happy with the drawing, but it made me so happy to draw a dish that I was so happy to eat.
So I kept doing it! Sometimes the best thing I ate in a week was from a restaurant, like Cellar Door or Bixi.
Sometimes the best thing I ate was something we (mostly Niles) made at home.
I don’t want to stress about it. I won’t force myself to do one every single week. I want to make sure this exercise never feels like a chore. I guess maybe someday, if there are enough of them, they could be fun to collect into a minicomic or something, but I’m not that interested in monetizing them.
Although I guess I accidentally monetized them a bit. After I drew some pizza slices from Paulie Gee’s, I was commissioned to draw their 2018 Pizza Cup Winner for a holiday present. :) Hopefully they don’t mind me sharing it here, I’m pretty dang proud of how it turned out.
Anyway. It feels so good to draw things just for the simple joy of drawing them! I kind of hate that I have to remind myself of that! It's a downside to having my dreams come true and becoming a professional artist, so I am not complaining. :)
The good news/bad news part of this story is: last week I turned in the manuscript for the new book! Which means the writing/researching part of it is over. Now the drawing begins. I've got about 8 months to draw almost 200 pages, so I'll be busy! I might not have as much time to draw these Best Things, but I'm definitely going to try.
What else is new? I redid my portfolio site, which was long overdue, please enjoy. Also Hourly Comic Day approaches! I was expecting to sit this one out since I’ve got the new book to work on, but last night Lucy Knisley reminded me that it falls on a Saturday this year. So ok! If I manage to hit my weekly thumbnail page count during the week, I’ll do some hourly comics. :)
Hope you’re having a great week! Til next time!