Animation &Books 21 May 2011 07:18 am
Drawings From The Left
The book’s cover.
- Many years ago – I think I was 12 or 14 – I was consumed with animation and drawing. My parents took us ice skating. Of the brood of five children, I was the only one who refused to get on the ice. I purposefully brought my 8mm camera along. It was more important for me to record the event than to participate in it.
When I got home, I questioned my inactions. Why was it that I wouldn’t ice skate? I realized it was a deep fear that I would fall and someone would skate over my right hand, and I wouldn’t be able to draw again. That was when I religiously started trying to teach myself to draw left-handed. Every chance I got I put into that ice-skating fear by practicing left-handed drawing. It didn’t take long for me to stop trying. I could see some small progress in what I was trying to draw and left it at that.
This psycho-memory of mine flashed across my brain recently when I discovered James Tim Walker‘s book, Drawings From The Left or Parkinsons Pictures. I received a call from Tim and a copy of his book soon thereafter.
The book really looks like a sketch book. In fact, when I took it from the envelope I actually wondered if it was an original or had it actually been printed. The textures on the cover made the pen and ink over red pencil drawings look real. After running my finger over it, I realized that it was published.
I’d read about Tim’s story on Cartoon Brew and The Blackwing Diaries, and I was curious to see the book. I’d looked around a couple of shops in NY but hadn’t seen a copy to peruse. I knew it was for sale on Amazon, but I like thumbing through books before I buy one.
Tim had been an artist, animator and director for many of the LA studios and had a rich and solid career. Then Parkinson’s disease hit him. (Since my father died of complications from Parkinson’s, I’m all too familiar with the debilitating disease.) Tim has Lateral Parkinson’s, meaning only one side of his body was affected. Naturally, this was the right side, and the right-handed Tim had to face up to the fact that he wouldn’t be able to draw again – unless he taught himself to draw left-handed.
A good example of the many drawings by Tim in his book.
Four years later, and this book of Tim’s “Left-handed drawings” was published. The drawings are all bouyant and lively cartoons of a series of original characters. They’re all posed in many positions, like model sheets, showing the versatility of an animator at work. There’s as much life here as in any of Fred Moore’s drawings. As a matter of fact, I learned from Jenny Lerew’s site The Blackwing Diaries, that Tim is a fan of Fred Moore’s work and has a collection of Moore art.
It’s a testament to the strength and endurance of a solid artist to be able to overcome the difficulties life has dumped on him. As a matter of fact, I think in some way that anyone who has made a career out of animation is practising this same endurance, albeit on a smaller level, to overcome the odds of a changeable industry.
The page that Tim drew and autographed for me.
on 25 May 2011 at 12:59 pm 1.Robert Schaad said …
This book looks great, and I’ll have to pick it up. It reminds me of a book I picked up (at the recent concert) of Edwyn Collins, who continues to make steady (miraculous) recovery after suffering two cerebral hemorrages in 2005. The book, titled “Some British Birds” depicts the gradual improvement in Edwyn’s illustration abilities after being forced to switch over from right to left handed (having lost the use of his right hand/arm completely). Remarkable…worth getting as well.
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