Why Big Foot is a Role Model for Our Times

Sketchbook highlights, plus A Dark and Terrible Secret

In this sketchbook round-up: the Artist and the Cryptid (PART I); a Dark and Terrible Secret (PART II); Mindful Doodling with fun and charming results (PART III); a sneak-preview of a zine I’m proud of (PART IV)

Reading Time: 4 Minutes

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PART I - The Artist and The Cryptid

Imagine you are trudging through an uncharted forest of towering ancient trees — trees older than nations — and you reach a small clearing flooded with sun and wildflowers. A rustling sound draws your eye.

A towering, hirsute figure steps into view. They are holding a teacup, and you are struck with embarrassment.

It is Spring, so I have been drawing Big Foot. He’s a cool guy: he’s not on social media, and so maintains an air of mystique. He’s an enigma. He’s anti-capitalist and carbon-neutral, but doesn’t blog about it. He’s a modest hero for our times.

Big Foot in my style (left) and sort-of Edward Gorey’s style (right)

The Big Foot in the scene above is a tribute to the wonderful Edward Gorey, the American writer and artist who would have turned 100 on the 22nd February.

Gorey — who was often assumed to be British, because of his tone and aesthetic — was known for his dark, humorous illustrations. His work was aimed at adults and beloved by emo teenagers (me). His 1963 ‘alphabet book’ The Gashlycrumb Tinies is classic Gorey: one by one, 26 children meet grisly and untimely ends.

“B is for Basil assaulted by bears”

I discovered Gorey when I was a teenager, researching ink illustration styles for my art GCSE course.¹

I’m less morbid than I was then (if my cutesy version of Big Foot is anything to go by) but I still love the kind of dark humour found in the work of Edward Gorey.

An example: the other day I saw this bare, imposing tree (a London Plane) and was struck by its creepy anthropomorphic form…

PART II - My Dark and Terrible Secret

This post was originally intended to be a ‘Comics Collection’, but most of my sketchbook practice this month has been more on the ‘illustration’ side and I don’t have a lot of recent, neat comics.

Having said that, I did draw this comic about the terrible secret I have always lived with…

Fellow fiveheads, do comment below xx

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PART III - Mindful Doodling with Fun and Charming Results

Here’s a five minute creative challenge for you. Pick up a pen (not a pencil). Think of an animal — not a pet, something you don’t see everyday — and draw it without a reference.

Look at this chameleon doodle. I had a fuzzy mental image of the creature; the first thing that came into focus was the weird, conelike eye. Later, I thought of the long toes and tail (for branch-clinging). The limited knowledge forces you to draw slowly and carefully — but without pressure, because you know the drawing can’t be accurate.

This exercise makes me feel like a Medieval scribe (with a fashionably massive forehead), one who has never seen a chameleon, but perhaps has read descriptions. It’s about building a creature with care, adding one part at a time to make a beautiful and twisted whole, like you are an incompetent deity.

What other ugly things can we draw mindfully? In the sketchbook page above, you can see two wonky buildings that I built piece by piece. I started with scattered, floating windows, around which I drew bricks and planks and chimneys and aerials.

These are lovely things to build, particularly if you’re otherwise chilling and want an alternative to scrolling on your phone. Don’t sketch or draft or plan, just feel your way through the structure. Physics and building codes do not apply!

Next up: I’d love to draw some cutaway house illustrations like in this post!

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PART IV - A Sneak-Preview Of a Zine I’m Proud Of

I have been speeding through my latest sketchbook with a mixture of quick ideas, doodles, thoughts and observational drawing, as well as more thoughtful work.

I’ve been exploring a couple of zine ideas, one of which is about the sensation of Big City, Bad Weather.

I want finish the zine by contrasting the overwhelming city with the feeling of getting home to some calm². It was meant to be about cooking — as I wrote about last time — but I will see where the imagery takes me.

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FINALLY

Thanks for reading! Let me tell you what I’ve been reading:

I just finished Old Soul by Susan Barker, a very fun and creepy book about a woman who has lived in a lot of places, never seems to age, and who often causes people to disappear…

I’m halfway through We Do Not Part, the Han Kang novel that won the Nobel Prize for Literature. It certainly has beautiful prose and has taught me some new words:

• lambent - (of light or fire) glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance.

• coruscate - (of light) flash or sparkle

• the offing - the part of the deep sea seen from the shore

Are you reading anything good?

1. I was a bit of a lazy art student and got a C for my lacklustre projects! Now I’m assigning myself coursework with this Substack — how times change.

2. I have no infants or teenagers or erratic pets!