Drawings à la Carte

My wife and I go to too many restaurants. Of course, part of it is enjoying the NYC life—there’s always a new place around the corner! But mostly we go because for us, it’s a date. It’s a moment to sit together, to talk about ideas, about life. We are always talking! And really, is there any better way to talk than sitting face-to-face, sharing some food?

Since we’re both Europeans, it’s also not unusual that we end up eating at times that are not very “American,” which means we often get to experience the quietness of the places just for ourselves, in a more intimate way. And we’re so relaxed that we end up talking with the people working at the restaurants.

The truth is, we really enjoy these moments, and when it’s time to pay, aside from leaving a tip, we often write a big THANK YOU!!! on the receipt. And since I work as a professional illustrator—why not add some smileys to the zeros in the tip as a small gesture of gratitude? That’s what I can do! I have a degree in illustration!!! I’m highly capable of doing that!

A doctor can save a life if someone is choking in a restaurant. And as an illustrator, I can do my part—by adding smiley faces to the zeros in the tip. And if a doctor happens to be the one choking in a restaurant, I can definitely help… by adding some smileys to his tip. Or maybe to the ambulance tip.

Anyway, lately I’ve noticed the servers bringing digital devices for signing when paying. I don’t feel particularly attached to my signature, so for a while I’d just draw a quick line—something fast, something meaningless. But if I was in the mood (and if the waiter wasn’t looking too closely), I’d sneak in a smiley. Just two dots and a curve. Very basic, but very efficient!!

When I introduce myself as an illustrator, I’ve found that many people reply with something like: “Oh my God, Illustrator? I love the New Yorker cartoons!!!” And me too—but I’m not that kind of illustrator. I usually tell them that I actually can’t draw!! Which is even more confusing. So, to make things easier, I show my work on my phone. My illustrations are more like digital collages—you can check my portfolio to see what I mean.

But after more than a decade of doing that, I started to wonder: Can I do something different? Is there more to life than this?! So I picked up some pencils and markers again after decades—and I started to draw. Like, for real! On one hand, it felt liberating. On the other, you quickly realize that without practice, you pick up your drawing skills exactly where you left them as a child: very simple motifs—a smiling sun, a smiling rainbow, and a smiling car. And soon I began stacking them like a totem, one on top of the other, in that order.

And when you draw with your hands, suddenly everything looks like a canvas. So when I see one of those payment devices with all the white space for my signature, I actually see… a canvas!!! Which is why, as my signature, I’ve started drawing: a smiling sun, a smiling rainbow, and a smiling car. When a server brings the device, sometimes it sparks a conversation. If the place is crowded and the server looks nervous, I just do a quick line. But if they leave the device on the table, I take my time and enjoy drawing something. Sometimes I even ask directly, telling them I’m an illustrator and asking if it’s okay to draw.

Most of the time, to my surprise, it’s received in a very joyful way. One time, a server even took a photo of me drawing and said: “We need more of that in the world these days.” And I thought: Relax!!! Don’t put that pressure on me, I’m not the Mother Teresa of illustrators! It’s just a smiling sun, a smiling rainbow, and a smiling car (in that order!!). But of course, I knew what she meant—it does add something to the air.

And funny enough, after a decade of getting paid for illustration, this is the first time I’m excited about doing something nobody pays me for. In fact—spoiler alert—I’m literally the one paying for it!