Drawing Bins

Last week I met up with illustrator Aimee Stevens! We chatted about illustration for a while and had a sandwich, then settled down to draw.

Oxford is very beautiful, but I don’t enjoy drawing it particularly. Everything is stunning and gorgeous, with symmetry and oldness and tradition, with manicured gardens and quads. If I try and draw that, all my drawings come out incredibly bland, bordering on naff and twee. It’s a strange situation to be in. There’s just too many sweet buildings.

I actually prefer to draw the the mundane things, like vans or traffic islands or scaffolding. When we arrived at Christ Church, the first thing that caught my eye was a flat bed truck, parked next to the college building. ‘Hooray!’ I thought. ‘I can draw that’.

Then I drew the enormous green Biffa bin that was directly in my eyeline, next to some picnickers. I took out my giant green posca pen and another green crayon and blobbed on some hideous emerald green ink.

I wonder if had have sat there for so long, persevering if I’d been on my own. I wonder even if I’d have decided to draw a bin. I remember saying ‘I’m going to draw that bin now.’ And we thought it was a bit of a laugh. If I’d have been on my own, my inner voice would be saying, ‘no Sarah, you must be serious. You must draw the amazing Christ Church College building, and behave like a proper artist.’ Instead, I had a friend with me, and I listened to her instead, with a much better outcome.

Often taking a companion on trips like this is so valuable - it stops you getting stuck in your own thoughts and listening to your inner critic too much. People say that being an artist is a solitary pursuit, but more often than not, I’d say the opposite is true.