Note: this is not an official, sanctioned version of Matthew Draws. There is no survey mechanism. You are not being asked to actually do any guessing (though I will not fault you if you are inspired to do some gagging). On our first evening in Japan, sitting on the floor of Reiko’s apartment with Alden, fighting sushi and fatigue and looking for ways to remain conscious, I accepted Alden’s challenge to draw a few of her favorite celebrities (note that the slashes across some of the eyes, noses, and beaks are Alden’s contribution to the composition).
My usual approach with Matthew Draws is to find a photo to use for reference and then try to duplicate it as exactly as I can. With the above sketches, I drew from memory—thus the ensuing horror of my style. Fortunately, the figures above are sufficiently iconic to remain recognizable in spite of my desperate, flailing lines.
It might be interesting to see what would happen if I tried to draw actual people from a mental image. I fear that unless they had distinctly recognizable visual ideosyncrasies (Mr. T’s mowhawk, for example), I wouldn’t get very far. Perhaps I’ll try it. Or perhaps I won’t.
Perhaps some things are better left for those fleeting moments in Tokyo when you’re out-of-your-mind tired and know you already ate too much raw fish but really want to eat some more.
