Pavay César en vue. 
Si t'es pas intéressé, tu lis pas.
I simply love creating things. Although I suck at dancing, singing, skateboarding and probably a few hundred other things, my passion is actually very simple: drawing!
And drawing is quite plainly, awesome! Say whatever you want, but in drawing there are little to no limits. Make fun of a teacher by making a doodle of them, draw something nice for your girlfriend, are just a few things you can do with a simple drawing!
And when you think a little further, drawing is a “language” everyone can understand! You know what a road sign with an arrow to the left stands for: go left! Whether you’re from Great Britain or Japan, you know what a drawing stands for.
Speaking of Japan: Manga is a form of drawing I like to practice. It’s from a very long time ago but artists still love it nowadays. If you don’t know, it’s a kind of cartoon that set its roots in Japan, somewhere in the late 19th century.
Let me take you back to the Stone Age, about thirty-seven thousand years ago: when the very first form of art, drawing, originated. The human beings of that age were not as intelligent as nowadays. They were able to speak a kind of language, but they still had a better way of communicating. They were hunting deer and bison and whatever they could find outside the cavern. But what did they do when they saw danger, let’s say a lion?
They made a drawing of that lion to warn the others. And the other cavern men and women understood that drawing! See? I already told you, it is a language!
Okay, now let’s come back to the year 2010, and let’s see why it is my passion; after all, that is what I’m supposed to be doing.
Now back in 2005, I was in France for the holidays, and it was my birthday. My father had bought me two books of Dragon Ball as a birthday present. I started to read them and eventually, copy the images.
After about a year, I started to draw manga without examples.
Nowadays I still draw, but I try to expand my knowledge about drawing. I’m trying landscapes, portraits, animals, pretty much everything. Not everything results in a good drawing, but hey; I’m still learning.
Drawing has become a part of my life. Like eating, something I have to do daily. Perhaps I will get a job that involves drawing, that would be really cool.
What about you? Don’t tell me you have never drawn something when you were a kid. I am sure everyone on Earth has drawn something in their lives! You know, that is what makes my passion so special! Everyone does or has done it!
Oh, changing the subject by the way, I came across a quote the other day, from Keith Haring. You know, that guy that painted the crocodile-DJ-dog thing. Or whatever that was supposed to be. It goes like this: “Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world.”
And I think that’s actually true. As I have told earlier, the cavern men communicated best through drawing. And there is still communication through drawing. You might not notice while reading comics, but probably, the author wants to bring over a message. Simple things, like: stealing is no good, don’t be a bully, don’t mess with Spiderman… stuff Like that!
Which brings me to the artist himself. I want to tell you about two of them: Matsuri Hino and Osamu Tezuka, coincidentally both in the manga department, though both very remarkable artists, and after some research I found out that they are, apparently, both Japanese. (just for a laugh)
Matsuri Hino, to start off with, published her first manga at the age of fifteen. She was an enormous success, came in the top ten of sales in Japan and continued her manga. I beleive she has published four series now.
Now for Osamu Tezuka, often referred to as the manga god or father. Or godfather. He made mangas like Astro Boy which I think some of you might know, Black Jack and numerous other series, and all while being a doctor at the same time. Now THAT is a challenge.
But enough about the artists now. How about I tell you something on how to draw? Ok, so what do you need to draw? A pencil, an eraser, paper.. Many more things, like whiteout, but I’ll explain that later.
Well.. It’s actually really simple. Take a piece of paper, take your pencil and just let it slide on the paper until something pretty comes out of it. If it’s not what you wanted to draw, just erase it and start over!
Now about that whiteout thing I mentioned, it’s a kind of soft paper in the shape of a pencil. You just draw with charcoal first and with whiteout, you can make a smooth transition between the white paper and the black charcoal. It really comes in handy for backgrounds.
By the way: don’t use paper that’s too soft, otherwise you’ll have big problems with the eraser. It can tear up the paper, and I say this out of frustrating experiences.
Well, I better should stop now with this subject, I don’t want this to turn into a tutorial. Just Google it if you’re really curious.
So; well you know what!? Let’s just get to the point: Drawing is awesome and I’ve got all the right reasons for that to be my passion. Don’t you think so? Didn’t you always dream to make something great, like all those famous artists? Well, you can. ...Maybe not that well, but you can.
And for those of you who don’t believe me: think of the two artists I mentioned earlier: they just continued: never give up! Yes we can!
So... I’ll leave my speech at this, because my hands are beginning to feel a bit itchy and I feel the urge to draw something, but as I don’t have stuff to draw with.. I really need to go and fetch them. So that’s it, and thank you very much for listening.
