Fantastic creatures and the powers of description
A nifty audio project meets a Dürer-esque drawing challenge—open for all subscribers!
Helllloooooo GUTsters!!!!
We had a great time talking with Austin Kleon last week about bringing out our inner child to play. Thanks to his exquisite corpse assignment, the chat was filled with creativity and hilarity (and precious few actual corpses). We love that so many of you roped in family, friends, colleagues, and even pen pals—often for multiple rounds!
You may have also noticed Wendy popping back in here more lately. We are excited to share that she will be fully back at the GUT next week. Stay tuned for all sorts of updates, plus more excellent ideas for summer drawing.
This week we’ve got a small taste of what’s to come…
Audio Flux x DrawTogether!
Our friends at Audio Flux recently had Wendy on the season finale of their podcast! If you’re not familiar with Audio Flux, you are in for a treat. Co-founders Julie Shapiro and John DeLore have amazing backgrounds in radio, podcasting, and sound design, and they created Audio Flux to build a community for innovative, short-form audio storytelling. They work with different creative partners to design themes and prompts for a variety of audio producers to make and submit three-minute audio pieces. On their podcast, they’ve been going back to the audio works that grew out of the visual prompts Wendy gave them, way back when she was their very first creative partner.
In this AudioFlux reunion, Wendy has created a whole new drawing challenge and adventure. This time the prompt is for YOU.
How do you draw something you’ve never seen?!
Let’s start with some backstory: In the early 1500s, Europe was in a tizzy over a new animal that had made its way from India to Portugal. Not since ancient Roman times had there been a rhinoceros on the continent. Rumors swirled, sketches circulated. German artist Albrecht Dürer wanted in on the action, but how could he draw a rhinoceros when he had never even seen one?
Then someone (unsung rhino hero!) wrote up a detailed description. From that, Albrecht created this incredible woodcut:
Look at those details! He got so much so right. But also, some parts are so, so wrong. What can you find that’s right? What do you think he misinterpreted?
Wendy tells the story in more detail on the podcast, and then riffs on it to describe a creature for you all to draw. Part of this assignment is about close listening. The other part is about Wendy’s detailed description. A true collaboration between the looker/speaker and the imaginer/drawer!
The Assignment: What does an imaginary animal look like? Listen closely and draw what you hear.
Folks, this week we’re putting the assignment above the paywall because it’s just too much fun. Time to channel your inner Albrecht and draw something based only on Wendy’s description. We have a feeling everyone will interpret Wendy’s description a little differently—we can’t wait to see them all!
Materials: Paper, pen/pencil, and a podcast-playing device.
Step 1: Listen to the podcast! If you have a favorite podcast app or service, you should be able to find the episode there. Or just click here and listen on the Audio Flux page.
Accessibility note: Many podcast apps can also generate a transcript.
Step 2: Draw along as Wendy describes a creature that no one is likely to have seen: the Kraken! (Sidebar: What do you think a Kraken sounds like?)
Step 3: If you are a member (aka paid subscriber), release your Kraken drawings in the chat! We truly can’t wait to see your creations! Remember, there’s no wrong way to draw a Kraken, since they (probably?) don’t exist!
Until next time! PENCILS UP!
SFX: Kraken laughing, waving.
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