ebert says you can draw, and so do i

many of you probably already know how admiring i am of roger ebert. he's part of the reason i'm at grad school - i fell in love with criticism through watching his show as a kid (how that translated to literature is a different question for a different day). i read all of his reviews as well as his blog, and i was recently touched and inspired by a post called you can draw, and probably better than i can. "everyone can draw until we are told or convince ourselves that we cannot," he writes. we start out drawing everything we can see until the day comes when it is pointed out that our drawing of a dog, for instance, looks nothing like a dog. Then we begin to believe we cannot draw." his point isn't that we can all draw realistically and accurately, but that that needn't be the goal. instead, here is what he suggests:

begin with a proper sketch book. finish each drawing you begin, and keep every drawing you finish. no erasing, no ripping out a page, no covering a page with angry scribbles. what you draw is an invaluable and unique representation of how you saw at that moment in that place according to your abilities. that's all we want. we already know what a dog looks like.

i find this incredibly inspiring and have been thinking about it a lot over the past few days. i love to draw (although i lack any and all representational abilities), and i should do it more. on the hunch that maybe you do, too, i've gathered us some supplies.

1. artist's scarf. because cold necks stifle creativity
2. derwent graphic pencils
3. pencil pouch
4. moleskine sketchbook
5. (french) seagull tote for carting your supplies to all of the lovely and interesting places you want to draw
6. Inspiration by the immortal quentin blake (plus klutz books!)
7. watercolor sketchbook kit for when you're feeling especially inspired

go forth and create (and leave the eraser at home). cheers, loves.