Daily Journal Workshop:

Part 1 JUST WRITE

Part 2 DRAW OUT THE WORDS

Part 3 HEART

Part 4 SPILL OUT COLLAGE

Part 5 NAKED SCREAM

Part 6 INVITE ALTER STRETCH EXTEND

Part 7 ARISE AROSE IN 3’S

Part 8 SELF-PORTRAIT. HUMAN

Part 9 WORD CRAZY QUILT

Part 10 VINTAGE WORKOUT

Part 11 GESTURE DRAWING

Part 12 DEAR WORLD. SECRETS

Part 13 NEGATIVE – POSITIVE

Part 14 BE THE MAP

Part 15 GUEST SPEAKER

Today, I want you to copy/recreate a comic panel.  You can check in the funnies section of your local paper, find something online, or if you’re like me, dig in your comic book/ graphic novel collection.  I used to take my dog and my sketchbook and a bunch of Archies and Donald Duck comics into the forest when I was 14/15 and copy copy copy.  It was the best art school.

So grab a favorite panel from a favorite comic by a favorite artist and copy copy copy.  Be a kid again!

My greatest hero, Lynda Barry, is my inspiration today.

She is always my inspiration.  My idol.  My number one.  The greatest- PERIOD.

Source:

Lynda Barry has worked as a painter, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator and teacher and found they are very much alike. She is the inimitable creator behind the seminal comic strip that was syndicated scross North America in alternative weeklies for two decades, Ernie Pook’s Comeek featuring the incomparable Marlys and Freddy, as well as the books One! Hundred! Demons!, The! Greatest! of! Marlys!, Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel, Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies!, The Good Times are Killing Me which was adapted as an off-Broadway play and won the Washington State Governor’s Award. Her bestselling and acclaimed creative writing-how to-graphic novel for Drawn & Quarterly, What It Is, won the Eisner Award for Best Reality Based Graphic Novel and R.R. Donnelly Award for highest literary achievement by a Wisconsin author. D+Q plans to publish a multivolume collection of Ernie Pook’s Comeek, Barry’s next prose novel, and the follow up and creative drawing companion to What It Is, November 2010’s Picture This: The Near-Sighted Monkey Book.

What It Is is based on “Writing the Unthinkable” which is based on a tried-and-true method creative method that is playful, powerful, and accessible to anyone with an inquisitive wish to write or remember. Lynda explores the depths of the inner and outer realms of creation and imagination, where play can be serious, monsters have purpose, and not knowing is an answer unto itself. Barry currently offers her workshop “Writing the Unthinkable” all over the place. 

The original:

My page:

Recommended Lynda Barry links:

COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL

WRITING TO REMEMBER AUDIO ON YOUTUBE IN SEVERAL PARTS

Creativity, imaginary friends, writing, memory, inspiration, mental health, the importance of play…

I’m actually digging menopause by the way…

At the centre of any artwork we do there is something alive…

DOODLE YOUR WAY OUT OF WRITER’S BLOCK RADIO INTERVIEW ON NPR

“When it comes to writer’s block, author Lynda Barry believes the key to unblocking your thoughts is right in your hands.”

Hands are the original digital devices run on biofuel.

PURCHASE LYNDA BARRY AT POWELL’S BOOKS!

HER SPECIAL DAY Video excerpt from Comic Book Confidential (1988)

Studio visit!  See PICTURE THIS originals!  VIDEO