Appetizer: One Drawing, Two Minds

Hi there!

Welcome to this week’s Appetizer! That’s what I’ve decided to call these between week bonus posts - hopefully they can satiate your hunger for more posts as I work on the next Gap Year update.

Today, I wanted to share some drawings that Sam and I did together.

For us, it all starts with a line. With a crayon or pen in hand, one person will mark the page however they want. Without saying anything, they’ll hand off the book to the next person and let them add onto the drawing however they want. After an hour of passing the page back and forth, we’ll usually end up with a crazy picture neither of us would have ever drawn by ourselves. Would you like to see?

Just kidding, I know you do ;)

Interdimensional Bike

The fun part about our Interdimensional Bike is that there’s a clear delineation between my contributions vs. Sam’s. Can you guess who drew which side?

My favorite part about this drawing, though, is the fact that it looks so much better upside down. I always find it so funny when that happens.

If you take a look at the date, you’ll notice we drew this in 2020. Uh oh, you caught me, this wasn’t exactly done during the Gap Year. But hey! I had to give some background, and I love this drawing too much to not show you.

Interdimensional Rider

Our next drawing was the Interdimensional Rider. There were a few moments where both Sam and I panicked about the direction we were going and actually had to talk to each other about what to do next. That was a fun development in what was becoming our “process.”

I Love My Interdimensional Balloons

I Love My Interdimensional Balloons may have drawn a little inspiration from a certain Star Wars spinoff. If my memory is correct, this was one of the first times we drew while camping. It honestly is one of the best things to do outside while waiting for dinner.

Interdimensional Citizen

Finally, our first collaborative drawing created during the Gap Year! In Interdimensional Citizen, you can tell we got a lot better at working together over the year or so of doing this. Given only one color, I took the orange and Sam used the green. The orange was kind of hard to see, but hey, maybe he's feeling a little transparent today.

Here's that little moment from Week 2. While waiting for Sam to finish his turn, I got the chance to sit back and soak in the warmth of the sun.

Loving Portraits

Sigh. Although these next drawings aren’t exactly done using the same strategy as the previous ones, I feel compelled to share these portraits we made of each other. If you have an iron-clad memory, you’ll recall in Week 2 that Sam and I hid out in the teardrop in Colorado for a while. Well, these monstrosities are the result of that downtime.

At least I kind of tried to make him look decent in the 5 minutes I had to draw.

Meanwhile, Sam comes up with this masterpiece, all while giggling to himself as he draws.

And Her Name Was Prometheus

Going back to our typical collaborative drawings, this time we chose to use the iPad. Going from crayons to digital art was a little messy at first, but it let me mess with certain details in such a way that I normally wouldn’t be able to. Also erasing a mistake was a welcome tool.

And Her Name Was Prometheus is one of our most abstract drawings by far. The beauty of abstract art is that the subject is in the eye of the beholder. I showed our friend Bradley this picture, and his immediate reaction was to zoom into the photo and look at one specific brushstroke.

“This line right here makes me feel things.”

Honestly? Same.

Just Another Wild Ride

Our latest collaboration was drawn a few nights ago. We decided to shake things up and try a different way of drawing together. Instead of drawing one line then passing it on, we gave each other one subject to draw, then switched.

Just Another Wild Ride started with a rock, then snowballed into this absolute beauty. Honestly, this one might be my favorite yet.

---

As we clean off your plates from this delicious Appetizer, I hope you enjoyed learning about one of the activities Sam and I do in our downtime. If you’re thinking of trying your hand at this kind of drawing, please do! Whether you do it with your partner, friend, brother, mother, or dog, I think you’ll have a lot of fun. My only requirement is that you follow up with me and show off your drawing in the comments!

I can’t wait to see what your beautiful mind is capable of.

---

Author's Note

Next week, I’ll be sharing our adventures exploring three of Florida’s national parks. This next post is really special to me, so I wanted to take my time and write it the way I wanted to without feeling rushed about deadlines.

So, if you liked this week’s Appetizer, I can’t thank you enough.

I promise, the wait will be worth it.

Until then, make sure you’ve been added to my newsletter so you’ll be the first to read about our time spent with alligators and the warm Floridian sun. If you aren’t, all you need to do is Sign Up or Sign In at the top of the page :)

Oh, and before I go, let me know which of our drawings you liked best! My favorite has to be Just Another Wild Ride, but I honestly love all of them.

Best,

Kes the Photobean