Then and Now

One of the fascinating things about rummaging through the endless piles of paper I’ve accrued over the last fifteen years is discovering old drawings I did during that time.  Many of them are surprising to me, almost literally shocking, because they’re far better than I remember them being:  they possess either a diversity, or a level of energy, or a level of technical skill (sometimes all three) that I doubt I have anymore.

Here, for instance, is a random sketch that was tucked into a pile of notes on an anime parody/genre mash-up:

Here, by comparison, is the sketch I did sitting outside with Jack yesterday, at Starbucks:

(*laugh*  You know, I just realized, Cloak Girl there looks like a mellowed out version of Andréa from Daria.  Can’t imagine why that would be…)

Maybe those two sketches aren’t exactly the best choice for point-counterpoint–  I’m sure all five of you reading this will like the bottom one just fine, if not much better than the top one.  And the top sketch isn’t exactly random;  it still existed for me to discover NOW because I found it sufficiently likable THEN not to immediately crumple it up and throw it away.  Still, I feel like there’s a point trying to make itself heard there.  Something silly and weighty about how drawing is like life, in that it isn’t a straight line from A to B, where B is better than A.  You wander all over the place, gaining some things and losing others, and where you wind up in the end isn’t necessarily any better than where you started out.  Unless you think it’s better.  For some reason.