Finally, after a much-too-long hiatus, here is my entry for Day 14 of the 30-day Drawing Challenge. Why the ginormous delay, you ask? I’ll answer that with a question of my own: What happens when you mix equal parts perfectionism and indecision?
That’s right. Nothing.
And that’s essentially what happened. I wanted to think of the perfect idea for this drawing. For some reason, Day 14 had to be a slam dunk with the punch line to end all punch lines. When nothing inspiring came to mind, that left me with – in my twisted perfectionist perspective – a handful of mediocre ideas. Time passed. I thought about my possibilities. Didn’t like any of them. More time passed. Got discouraged.
I really can’t remember how I stumbled upon with the idea for the drawings below… probably sparked by past conversations with my brother about negative stereotypes in American Evangelicalism. Whatever the case, it was a far cry in terms of originality from my first batch of ideas (How to tie a bowtie, how to cook steak – just to name a few.) I liked it, so I decided to run with it.
That was two weeks ago.
It took that long for me to get the idea out of my head and onto the page. Why? Once again, it was that old double-edged sword: perfectionism. I spent many mornings, lunch hours, and evenings fighting distractions and thinking about how to make this idea perfect. And you can guess how that went.
It was around that time that I met with an old friend to try kickstarting my creative juices. In the course of our conversation, he suddenly brought up Nike. “I think they’re onto something,” he told me. “Just do it.”
Such simple advice, yet – at times – incredibly hard to carry out.
So, even though it’s been nearly a month since my last posted drawing, what you see below is the result of only a couple evenings worth of actual work. True, my idea might have been radically different had I wasted less time procrastinating. It might have been worse… perhaps better. Who’s to say? The important thing is that I learn to check my perfectionism at the door, stop procrastinating, and just do it.
Now, before you enjoy my drawings below, here’s a quick disclaimer: I am a Christian, and I believe that God works powerfully through street evangelism – even when it is done without tact. People don’t change hearts. God does. Still, as in any human interaction, you want to make a good impression. The following cartoons are therefore not intended as a mockery of street evangelism, but rather as an exaggerated commentary on when it is done poorly. With that in mind, I hope you like it. Of course, I welcome any constructive feedback or comments you may have. Enjoy!
That’s it for today. I actually had many more ideas for this one that aren’t shown here, so I might revisit this topic in a future post. Next up on the 30-Day Drawing challenge: an animal with a super power. What do you think? Any ideas?
God bless, and good night!
-Daniel
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