For the past month or so, graphic novel publisher SelfMadeHero has beeen running a social media campaign where artists “support our bookshops during lockdown with a quick sketch, drawing, or masterpiece of their local favourite store.”
Maybe the idea of playing Pictionary sends you into fits and convulsions; maybe you have a graduate degree in graphic design. Either way, this sounds like too much fun to pass up….
With theatres dark, concert venues closed, cinemas silenced, and galleries shut during lockdown, it is time to re-brand our bookshops as an essential service, and recognise the existential crisis they are facing. Now more than ever before, in the delayed run- up to Christmas, bookshops need to be seen and celebrated on social media, through all possible means – and the most possible means is through the unique combination of word, image, and print that is comics art.
Sure, SelfMadeHero probably had “real” aspirational artists in mind when they came up with this challenge, but who cares?
See? No training necessary. ‘Ya just gotta have h-art.
But training helps. (Click on the image—it’s animated!)
This project was featured recently on BBC Radio London. Ceck out the Twitter feed #DrawYourBookshop here.
It’s a joy to scroll through the Instagram feed. And you can see the images on Facebook as well.
Let’s get this trend to jump the pond! Get drawing!