The Thing I Draw When I Don't Know What To Draw

Strippers and Dogs

If you’re an artist, of literally any form, you have that thing you turn to when you have no other ideas. It’s like a comfort food. A safe space of doodles. Now I’m not sure what it is for you, but for me, it’s strippers and dogs.

A lot of these doodles have turned into other things for me. That’s the magic of doodling, of letting the pen run free. My piles of dogs turned into a very popular t-shirt and print (that you can still order!). Or the doodles inspire me to write a joke based off of them. It’s not that something needs to come from the doodles, if there was that kind of pressure I’d probably never draw. Not saying it’s easy to remove that pressure. As creatives we all live under an immense amount of pressure to have constant output, never-ending new ideas to fill the algorithm and in turn hopefully give us a tiny paycheck to survive off of. I’ve written on here a lot about the anxiety that lives inside of me to be drawing at all hours, simply to get by. I think that’s why I cherish my stupid silly doodles. They’re literally just for me.

Ok, as soon as I typed that the devil’s advocate on my shoulder whispered “Nothing is really for you, because you share everything online, you narcissistic monster.” So it’s TRUE yes I say they’re just for me, yet here I am posting them — but the act of doing the doodles is for me, because they never feel like work. A lot of my art is work, it’s laborious, it requires writing, editing, and worrying over. I have to have these moments of doodles to live for, to make the laborious art feel more bearable.

I once wrote on a postcard to a man who I never saw again, “I always want to make the art I’m not supposed to.” Not sure he appreciated how insanely poetic I am…

Anyway, what do you doodle? What’s your art safe space? Please comment below! Also, you can purchase a print of Strippers Hanging Out here, if you’re so inclined.

Before I go… have you got your tickets for tomorrow night’s show? I’ll do a free doodle portrait for any subscribers who attend!

Thank you for reading! New posts every Friday!

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• ICYMI: I had a painting in The New Yorker this week!

• Current free trial: BritBox

• Reading: Navied Mahdavian’s This Country

• Obsessed with: the clouds

• On repeat: Why You Wanna Break My Heart by Crucial Taunt

• Most of the cartoons in this newsletter are available on Etsy!

• Are you using your What Did I Do Today? journal? I would love to hear from you!