The Drawing Together community convened again on Sunday, September 24. Our session focused on the theme “Seeing One Another” and was led by MK Czerwiec. You can learn more about her work at her website, comicnurse.com
For the warmup exercise, MK shared that at the Small Press Expo last week she was thrilled to find the “Little Ghouls Fortune Telling Cards & Zine” from artist Coco Fox. She was charmed by the cards and their descriptions. Inspired by this work, she asked the group gathered to draw their favorite or planned or a kid’s halloween costume.
To see some of the fun costumes shared, search #DrawingTogetherGM on instagram! 😁
Main exercise:
This exercise is based on the work of illustrator and educator Wendy MacNaughton, who MK interviewed on the most recent episode of the Graphic Medicine Podcast.
In Wendy’s TED talk, “The Art of Paying Attention” she says,
“…we have so much information coming at us all the time that our brains literally can’t process it, and we fill in the world with patterns. Much of what we see is our own expectations…I’m going to show you a little trick to rewire your brain into looking again.”
To implement Wendy’s strategy for seeing one another, we broke into groups of two on Zoom for fifteen minutes. (You can do this one-on-one in person as well.)
Once you get into your rooms, introduce yourselves if you don’t know one another, gather your supplies. I recommend you put your Zoom viewer on “Full screen” so you see the person you are drawing as large as possible. Remember: the goal of this exercise is to focus on SEEING.
Set a timer for 3 minutes.
You are going to draw one another, blind contour, in permanent marker or pen, for three minutes with two rules:
- Do not lift your pen from the paper AND
- You cannot look down at what you are drawing.
Once you have finished, look down and enjoy your drawing. This part is essential. Enjoy your drawing.
Next, color your drawings with the medium of your choice while you chat about the process.
If you would like to see some of these drawings, and perhaps share your own, again, use #DrawingTogetherGM on instagram.
UPDATE! Wendy created this exercise for the New York Times October 15, 2023
This was a really surprising session that really opened doors. I’d love to find the cards you mention, Little Ghouls Fortune Telling Cards & Zine. I checked the artist’s website and store with no luck. If you have any clues, please let me know? Thank you!
I visited your “Drawing Together #53: Seeing One Another” on the Graphic Medicine website, and it’s a compelling exploration of visual storytelling in healthcare. The power of art to convey complex emotions and experiences in the medical field is truly remarkable. Thanks for shedding light on the role of visual narratives in healthcare.