LEARNING FROM WOODKIN (pt.2)

(cont'd from yesterday)

I decided to see, several months later, if I might be able to draw humans, but even if it was a simple pose--two midwives talking to each other--not fighting or exchanging objects/forces in any complicated way--I wasn't sure of myself, so I ended up drawing them as mannequins again.

Then in '22, I drew Woodkin asking, "NOT a bongo drum?" when Mike tells him the steak sauce container is not the musical instrument he mistook it to be.

 

Can't tell by looking at him, but Woodkin is a Softie for babies. Here, he got so taken up with playing with one (sorry; the face got smudged) he forgot completely about his once-treasured ping pong paddle.

Woodkin in Pinocchio's outfit was kinda cute, but when he heard about people's dentists and taxes, he decided he'd rather stay Woodkin and play ping pong than become a real live boy.

That's all. Maybe I 'd fare better leaving matters just as God gave them to me instead of thinking I'd be happy if only I could make them different, you know?

LEARNING FROM WOODKIN

Um...I have a wooden mannequin who's screaming it wants to be given exposure on my blog, I think. But I looked at all my pictures, and there's too much, and I can't really decide...I know. I'll divide it into a post for today, and a post for tomorrow. There!

TODAY:

I felt comfortable drawing scenery and animals, but I had a hard time with humans. Advice online said to get a mannequin and learn to draw it in all sorts of poses. When you can do it in your mind then start adding clothes to it--voila--you'll be able to draw people too. So I asked Kinya to buy me a mannequin and set to work putting it in all sorts of ridiculous postures.

  

It was Aug. '21 when the mannequin arrived, and the Japanese Ping Pong team was raking in olynpic medals; so, of course, the first pose was a ping pong service ace.

The mannequin shouldered the free pencil extender that came along with the order and motioned to a short story I was composing at the time, asking, "You're writing this?"

Then, he shouldered a pair of scissors after cutting a paper kitty and katori piggy. The ping pong paddle on his other shoulder? I made it for him. The gold neck band he likes is actually a rubber band from my medicine.

 

Woodkin heard volleyball was popular with Japanese girls and wanted to spike...but that's the mike I use for ZOOM!

And Woodkin, that's not a ping pong ball, but Katori piggy! Oh, you're just posing? But you scared him silly--see? He's all blue in the face!

   More from Woodkin tomorrow. The "medal" hanging on his neck? A cellphone strap without the original mascot. A lot of surprising things can be detached from our lives!