What Do I Draw?
If you want to be an artist, the first step of it is learning how to draw. You learn how to draw in different forms of shapes and lines, whether you are drawing a human, an animal, or an object. In animation, drawing is the very important part of the industry, and the main job in drawing in animation is bringing a character to life with a pencil and paper, and have the lines communicate for the character’s performance in acting and movement. A character will be designed in different kinds of shapes and lines, based on traits and personalities of it.
Cartooning has always been my type of an art style. I learned how to draw my favorite animated characters at a young age. If you want to learn how to draw cartoons, whether you are studying to be an animator or cartoonist, or even both, like me, you go out and practice your drawing skills. You may get frustrated with this art technique, but believe me, I’ve had my frustrations. The more you keep practicing, the more you will get better.
So, if I am into animation and cartooning, what do I draw?
For me, I would do tons of drawings that are based on my many interests and obsessions I’ve always liked as a child, even as part of my autistic traits, and turn it into my animation style. I’ll do drawings of ballet, fan art, and illustrating from stories, like Harry Potter and Anne of Green Gables.
Ballet
I love ballet. I have been a big fan of ballet since the first time I saw Canton Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker in 2001, when I was seven. I used to dream of being a ballerina, and so, my mom used to take me to a ballet class. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up staying, and the dream never happened. However, it didn’t stop me for going to see the ballet every once a year. What really inspired me to draw ballet in animation was having to do an interesting watercolor project with three ballerinas I worked on, when I was a senior in high school.
That was the start of it. The more I learn to do ballet art and drawings, the more I became very interested and fascinated as a young teenager, which helped me getting the inspiration of drawing ballets in animation form. So, I hope you will find my art drawings and animation of ballet very fascinating as much as how you have seen it in a live performance. My favorite dancer is Kathryn Morgan.
Fan Art
Once in a while, I will work on fan art drawings, but mostly, I would use watercolor as a very fun medium. I’ll do fan art pieces on one of my favorite animated movies and/or TV series. Of course, I’ll sometimes do a fun review of any movie or TV show that relates to a disabled character, and I’ll work on a fan art of it.
Illustrating
For any cartoonist who loves to draw nothing but cartoons, it’s also very nice to do fun illustrations with characters drawn in your animation style, taken directly from one of your favorite books. The most fun stories I would do tons of illustrated drawings, even as a fan art piece, are Harry Potter and Anne of Green Gables.
I am a nerd when it comes to Harry Potter. I have always loved the series created by English author, J.K. Rowling, and exploring the magical adventures with Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I never read the books, until when I was just twenty-two, but my introduction of it was from the movies. My favorite is The Prisoner of Azkaban, and my second favorite is The Order of the Phoenix.
My favorite characters are Remus Lupin and Luna Lovegood. Both Lupin and Luna are the most characters whom I can really identify with, because they both understand the feeling of being different from any other wizards or witches. Lupin’s case was that he was a werewolf, and in the Wizarding World, they look down upon werewolves as monsters, which led Lupin as an outsider, but he’s very gifted as a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in Harry’s third year. For Luna, she is a quirky and witty, and mysterious Ravenclaw student, but what I love about her is that she doesn’t care, if people make fun of her, she likes being a weirdo and is very accepting of herself. Those characters reminded me of my autistic personality, it can be hard to feel like you don’t belong to that kind of society, but overall, it’s better to accept yourself who you are.
Anne of Green Gables is my favorite of the classic literature, and like Lupin and Luna, the main character of Anne Shirley is one of the characters I can absolutely related to, created by Canadian author, Lucy Maud Montgomery. I’ve read the book, when I was eighteen years old, and watched the 1985 miniseries by Kevin Sullivan that stars Megan Follows as Anne. Anne is a fun character to draw, just because she is just a quirky and yet, an ordinary eleven-year-old little girl, who has a gift of using imagination to help her survive from the terrible struggles.
I would like to do illustrations from other stories someday, whether it’s digital drawing or watercolor, and it would help me to lead the inspiration of make an animated film in the future.
The Autistic Animator's Desk 