{"id":5658,"date":"2015-10-27T12:34:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T10:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oeb.global\/OEB_Newsportal\/?p=5658"},"modified":"2016-07-21T13:15:30","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T11:15:30","slug":"bryan-mathers-visual-thinkery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oeb.global\/oeb-insights\/bryan-mathers-visual-thinkery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Monthly Meep: Deconstructing a constructive journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bryan\"<\/a>In the beginning there was a thought. A\u00a0funny<\/em>\u00a0thought. A thought about a guy called \u201cPants Man\u201d, which really needed to be a story\u200a\u2014\u200aa\u00a0visual<\/em>\u00a0story\u200a\u2014\u200aa comic story.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>A guest article by Bryan Mathers, visual thinker, <\/em>learning\u00a0technologist and entrepreneur <\/em>@bryanMMathers<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The thought trickling its way through the lobes of my 10-year old son\u2019s brain, coincided with him getting his hands on a new set of Sharpies (permanent markers) and some very thick white paper. Tools that\u00a0demand <\/em>you to create\u200a\u2014\u200athat feel so good to create with. You can\u2019t go back to blunt pencils and off-white paper now\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My son is very talented at drawing. Of course, I\u00a0would<\/em>\u00a0say that \u2013 I\u2019m his dad. And when I say talented, what I actually mean is that he\u2019s worked very hard at drawing (not that\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0would see it that way\u200a\u2014\u200ahe just thinks it\u2019s fun). He persists with an idea until he\u2019s happy with it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I love encouragement. It\u2019s verbal sunshine. In teams I\u2019ve run, companies I\u2019ve created and friendships I\u2019ve fostered, I see myself as someone who encourages; an encourager<\/em>. And, of course, my wife and I (and his two younger brothers) encourage my son, and praise his hard work and creative effort.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And so, one funny visual story soon becomes two\u200a\u2014\u200aand before too long, there are new characters, including \u201cMr Stoopid\u201d and my personal favourite \u201cThe Spider who farts a lot\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So I do the things any father would do and say: \u201cif you make a whole comic, I\u2019ll scan them in and I\u2019ll run off a few copies.\u201d My son thinks about this proposition for a nanosecond, and realising this could fund his chewing-gum habit for quite some time, immediately gets busy creating what he calls \u201cThe Monthly Meep\u201d. The title page (with a \u00a30.50 price tag), a puzzle page and a competition page are added, and before long it is complete\u200a\u2014\u200aall 14 pages of it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After talking with my web-friendly comrade\u00a0Doug Belshaw<\/a>, he suggested that we (note the \u201cwe\u201d, dear reader!) sell an e-version on Gumroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the time of writing we have sold 10 digital copies and five hard copies to uncles, aunties, grandparents, next door neighbours, kids at school and friends with kids of a similar age; and my 10-year-old son is roughly \u00a310 richer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But, more importantly, what before was just a funny thought somehow has turned into a\u00a0thing<\/em>. A\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0thing. And as a result of some sales, he also has the self-confidence to build upon it. Who knows where this might go?<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Monthly Meep: courtesy of Bryan Mathers<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2026meanwhile, back at the ranch\u2026<\/h3>\n

So why am I telling you all this? Well, as this comic adventure unfolded, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder about the parallel ingredients in my son\u2019s creative journey and my own fairly recent experience of learning some new skills.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I began to draw a few years ago, mostly out of idea articulation, frustration and also because I was curious. Someone exposed me to the iPad + Paper 53 combo, and I thought \u201cThat\u2019s amazing\u2026! Now what can I do with that?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But\u00a0curiosity<\/strong>\u00a0on its own isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I needed a\u00a0purpose<\/strong>\u00a0to start creating in a certain direction. At first, there was just one purpose\u200a\u2014\u200aa presentation about the principles of corporate software development (I\u2019m getting sleepy just thinking about it\u2026) Later the purpose was articulating my idea for a youth centred social business. Now the purpose changes every day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the early days of my drawing, I found Twitter really helpful as a\u00a0feedback channel<\/strong>. I realised that people (if they actually came across your creation) would either resonate and retweet, or simply ignore.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a tipping point somewhere in a skills journey where you\u2019ve mastered enough technique to be able to actually achieve something\u200a\u2014\u200aand this somehow makes going further with the skill become more enjoyable. Let\u2019s call it the \u201cLook mom\u200a\u2014\u200ano hands!\u201d moment.<\/p>\n