“Visual storytelling of one kind or another has been around since cavemen were drawing on the walls.”
Frank Darabont
I like this quote about the long history of drawing back to cave men prior to the birth of writing.
For about the past five years I have been working on a ten-drawings a day project with different mediums such as black ink and brush, watercolour Artline 200 pen, colour pencils, lead pencils, oil sticks and sometimes collages. Most of the time they are small A 4 size but sometimes very large mainly made while doing residencies at the Big Ci in the Blue Mountains thanks to the hosts Rae and Yuri Bolotin.
I was getting annoyed with myself over the years with my ten drawings a day project becoming derivative but then after a while realised that it was repetitive like mantra repetition particularly when I constantly drew Saint Francis and Mary MacKillop over and over hundreds of times.
Sometimes particularly I used quotes and text with my drawings and once again most often Mary MacKillop and Saint Francis.
“Keep your mind in peace whatever happens.”
Mary Mackillop
I like this quote by Australia’s saint Mary Mackillop and I feel it’s a valuable lesson as often when everything doesn’t go my own way, I lose my peace of mind and feel discouraged. Also, it’s through the message in my drawings being attempts at illustrating positive thinking that the ten drawings a day project is most beneficial.
“A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.”
Francis of Assisi
I have used this quote from Saint Francis many times in my drawings with text and in my essays but it still speaks to me and his quotes and image drives away my many shadows.
In conclusion I think repetitive drawing with or without text helps me try to strive to have a stronger spiritual backbone with positive thinking.
