Drawing to Hone Creative Sensitivity

Name: Drawing to Hone Creative Sensitivity
Uploaded: 2020-10-30T04:09:47Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: Yustinus Anang Jatmiko freely shares his knowledge and skills with anyone who visits the reading garden at his house in Magelang regency, Central Java.

Yustinus Anang Jatmiko freely shares his knowledge and skills with anyone who visits the reading garden at his house in Magelang regency, Central Java.

REGINA RUKMORINI

· 5 minutes read

Yustinus Anang Jatmiko, 49, is spreading the joy of expressing individual creativity through drawing to many people. He freely shares his knowledge and skills with anyone who visits the reading garden at his house in Magelang regency, Central Java.

Anang has been a professional cartoonist for more than a decade, winning many accolades at national and international cartoon competitions. The resident of Ngablak village in Ngablak district, Magelang regency, freely shares his knowledge to anyone who comes seeking him.

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Known as “Nank Ngablak”, Anang has won awards at a number of competitions, including Honorable Mention at the 17th Daejeon International Cartoon Contest (DICACO 2008) in South Korea and a Special Jury Prize at the 2nd Gold Panda International Cartoon and Illustration Competition in 2011 in China. Most recently, his cartoon titled “Global Warming” won first place in the Environment and Growth category at the 15th Festival of Economics in Trento, Italy, which took place on 24-27 Sept. 2020.

In “Global Warming”, he criticizes the behavior of human beings who continue to construct buildings and neglect nature, thereby causing habitat loss for many species of animals. The cartoon shows a polar bear and a penguin, clearly worried, talking about the melting ice and not knowing where they should live.

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Anang has been freely sharing his drawing skills since 2008. It all started with a friend\'s request to offer drawing lessons at a library located on the slopes of Mount Merbabu in Semarang regency, which then expanded to providing drawing lessons for children at a library in Pakis district. More than 100 children in these two places have benefited from his tutelage.

https://cdn-assetd.kompas.id/RP1OjG1MiNMvnoSppDtHmEO3upo=/1024x1419/https%3A%2F%2Fkompas.id%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F10%2F20201029EGI05_1603973208.jpg — ARSIP PRIBADI
Yustinus Anang Jatmiko

To most, Anang is simply helping them learn how to easily draw objects that are difficult or complex. For others, he helps free their creativity so they can express themselves.

Regarding color use, for example, he never instructs the children to use the “normal” color for any object.

"The leaves can be pink, the sun can be purple. [The children] are free to color them however they like, because each child has their own story and reasons for why they choose unusual colors," said Anang.

The leaves can be pink, the sun can be purple. [The children] are free to color them however they like.

He often discusses with the children on the objects and colors they want to use in drawing on paper. He deliberately allows the children to express themselves freely, so as to help them develop their creativity. Anang said that this method simultaneously trained children to think “outside the box” and be more observant of their surroundings.

"I hope the children\'s minds will become more sensitive and rich. They must realize that a landscape painting is not just a picture of two mountains, with the sun in the middle and rice fields below,” he laughed.

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He doesn’t just teach at libraries, and teaches people how to draw at his house. Some people continue to visit him at home in the midst of the pandemic. Some are new high school graduates, while others are fellow artists.

They ask Anang to teach them how to draw caricatures. Usually, before starting their sketches, he invites them to discuss the issues they want to illustrate with their drawings.

"The discussion is expected to encourage them, generate ideas for them to draw something funny to address the issue," he said.

Anang said he was happy to continue to share the joy of creative expression and to share his knowledge in drawing, especially caricatures. He said that cartoons and caricatures were a good way to entertain many people.

"Cartoons are still needed and must exist, because people still need to smile and laugh," he said.

Artistic talent

Anang has been fond of drawing since he was a child. Over time, he became interested in drawing cartoons and caricatures, and imitated the drawings he saw printed in newspapers and magazines. In the 1990s, without any assistance from anyone, he tried to draw his own cartoons.

Feeling that he had developed his skills enough, he sent his cartoons to a variety of print media. After repeated rejections, he was surprised and delighted when his cartoon was finally published in the Bernas newspaper. The achievement spurred Anang\'s enthusiasm to continue to draw and send his work to more media.

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Amidst his busy studies, Anang continued to set aside some time to draw every day. After graduating from university, he worked at a cooperative for a year. However, on realizing that he was not doing what he wanted, he switched back to drawing.

In 2002, he moved to Bali to look for work. Anang believed that he could continue to develop his drawing talent in Bali. Anang continued to draw and send his work to a number of magazines and newspapers while he worked as a product designer at a furniture company.

He chose the job because he could do it while he continued to draw cartoons. However, he grew disappointed because the two fields did not align with each other.

“When designing furniture, I have to draw using a ruler and with precise measurements. Meanwhile, when I draw cartoons, I draw whatever [comes to mind] using a pen or pencil,” he said.