IT’S ME: 31 Self Portraits, 2021-2024

The beginning of Lynda Barry’s book Making Comics includes an exercise in which an artist uses a pen and note cards to draw quick self portraits based on a random prompt. The point is to loosen up, draw whatever comes to mind, and put oneself in a spontaneous, from-the-heart mindset. 

Because I am an artist who started in traditional mediums but is now stuck with digital for commercial efficiency, I’ve returned to this exercise (though loosely following Barry’s guidelines) every once in a while to remind myself why I love drawing. The satisfaction of holding a physical note card smelling of ink with an image I drew simply for the joy of creating will never be matched by the impersonal feelings of making art with a tablet pen on a screen.

IT’S ME is a collection of all the self portraits I’ve made with this method so far, spanning a variety of genres and subject matter. They’re silly, they’re authentic, and they’re some of the most fun I’ve had drawing in the past few years. 32 pages, 4.25″ x 5.5″, available digitally here.