Drawing every day life - we chat to @bad_drawings

by Startacus Admin

Every now and again we post on the Startacus Facebook page (handy link included there!) a quote, an image or a pic that we reckon will offer you a little inspiration, motivation, or simply a wee chuckle. After all, there can be a lot to laugh about when starting a business - from the attempting, the starting, the messing up to the hopefully succeeding.

So, when we stumbled upon Bad Drawings of my Daily Life, not only did we rather love these daily pictures that are building a growing audience, but we also thought we should find out a little more about the mysterious author / artist / sketcher who’s behind it all. So we did! We had a little chat...

Startacus is all about people doing that thing that they love - and we just loved Bad Drawings of my Daily Life when we happened to stumble across it. So go on...tell us, who are you and what do you do when you are not drawing your daily pics?

That's a tricky one.  No one knows who I am. I draw my daily life in secret. I do that because I want to be able to draw people I know - the good and the bad, to draw the things they say and also my own secret thoughts.  It's liberating to be invisible.  But if people figure out who I am that's fine. Although it has been noted that me, Daft Punk and Banksy have never been seen in the same place.

Why did you start your daily drawings? 

I've been doing these drawings for about 15 years.  I used to buy loads of sketch books and write and draw little stories in them.  I'd just draw and make up the stories as I went along. There's one about a sandwich going to heaven, one about a giant that gets the NEC stuck on her head and one about a man obsessed with drawing mice.  Not very many people read them and I keep them in the attic.

Then about 2 years ago I set up my Tumblr and started posting the drawings on there. The thing I like best about it all is the interaction. I like it that little things happen to people that they would normally just forget about, but instead of forgetting they think 'That could be a Bad Drawing' and then they get in touch and I draw it.

It's all the little bits we might forget and that's what is magic about it for me.

We reckon there would be a lot of potential for your pics to be sold as cards / birthday cards etc. Do you agree? Do you sell your work or is this purely a hobby? If not, have you any plans to commercialize what you do?

I'd love to make a fortune from the drawings but also want to keep the way I make them as it is. I only want to draw things that are real and that I see or feel in my daily life.  I've written a feature film where the lead character is based on me and my drawings.  You never know someone might give me the money to make it - that's the first time I've told anyone about that.

Finally, how long do you think your daily musings can continue?

I think it will continue for as long as things are happening in my daily life that cheer me up or bring me down. I think it's about noticing.  I want to keep noticing.  But maybe one day I'll just think- 'I can't be bothered doing this any more', and I'll stop.  But not today. Today I've drawn some teenagers in the park talking about what would happen if One Direction were all killed in a car crash.  As long as there are things like that going on around me I'll keep drawing as badly as possible.

Well, we reckon your daily drawings rock, so keep doing it as long as possible we reckon Mr or Ms Self Starter and a big high five from us too!

If you like this post you might also like:

• If you are a fan of home making and handcrafting programmes, you will dig  "My Make Do and Mend Year" Jen Gale's guest article on Startacus highlighting her quest to make, made do and mend, and buy nothing new for a whole year. 

• Making a TV pilot - we take a look at Gradulthood

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• #publishing
• #art
• #drawing
• #inspiration

Published on: 26th August 2013