Wrongfidence Workshop in Cihangir

I really got back into sketching this year after realizing I was almost exclusively working with Procreate or on my iPad. The problem is that when you work digitally, there are just too many options and expectations. Over the past few months, inspired by Fran Meneses and other illustrators, I've found an analog drawing technique that works for me, so I don't overthink things so much. I call this way of drawing Wrongfidence. It doesn't mean you have to be confident, but rather that you have the courage to deliberately put "wrong" lines on the page.

Wrongfidence is about working with a permanent drawing tool, such as a gel pen, instead of a pencil or a digital pen, which, after all, makes it possibly to undo everything. (Philosophy: In real life, you can't undo anything, and you just have to live with that.) It's about working graphically, that is, with line and shape, and using the three "colors" black, white, and gray (texture) to create a visual interest (like a love interest, but visual!). In Istanbul, I first incorporated Wrongfidence into a workshop and spent three hours drawing with the participants of the CoCreate workshop week organized by the cultural platform Maviblau in the Cihangir district of Istanbul.

For this project, we collected individual objects (not people, animals, or architecture) in the form of a visual diary: We filled a page with objects, text, and our own symbols, following the lines of the drawing. Objects are very well suited for beginners because they don't move, and freestanding objects are easier to capture than for example buildings. Later, through iterations, we further refined the characteristics of the subject, making it suitable for use as a tattoo design, for instance.

The idea behind this is that recognition is achieved through realistic details rather than perfect proportions. If a line is "wrong," you simply draw over it — or leave it as is. We aren't obligated to perfectly reproduce the subject; instead, we decide how to depict it, depending on the story we envision, by exaggerating its features, black-and-white contrasts, textures, and scale. Everything wrong = everything right.