Childhood Drawings

One of the sections in "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" covered the symbol system developed in your childhood years of drawing.  This apparently interferes with beginners who attempt to draw what they see in front of them; features are substituted with simpler representations in the form of symbols that appear when they recall it from memory.

Before this section the book took a trip down memory lane, trying to dig up a picture of a landscape I may have drawn using a set of symbols when I was five or six.  I don't doubt my involvement in such a drawing at that age, but I wasn't be able to piece it together and thus couldn't follow along when the book asks you to draw that landscape from your early years.  I thought nothing more of that landscape, but a few weeks ago when searching for the kiwi story I brought up in a previous post I stumbled upon a small cache of drawings I forgot ever existed.

The book mentioned how kids, when they grow older, place more emphasis on realism and attention to detail rather than the composition of the drawing.  The pictures I viewed gave that same feeling.  They felt just right, or that would be me fooling myself into thinking that because of nostalgia.  It might be the use of coloring pencils.  I haven't colored since...back then most likely.  It's also true that my drawings from this year are just random things tacked on a sheet of paper.  I haven't tried my hand at a whole picture yet.  I have an initial idea of one thing I want to try, and...I should get started on it already.

Hopefully the volume of pictures in one spot doesn't cause any loading issues.  Then again, I probably shouldn't be leaving ten exanded posts visible on a single page either.  Also, I'm lazy and would rather just drag this stuff on the screen than mess with the HTML, but there's a fair number of these.


So yeah, early stuff.  I won't go naming things here (or maybe I'll do it at the end of the post) since what it represents should be pretty well-known.  Although, I only have a vague idea of what's in the third picture.  I'm surprised I drew the bridge like that.  Also, making use of that 12" x 18" space!  Sort of.



Platformers and RTS games.  I can remember other images I drew now, but there's no telling where they could be.  Had to chuckle at the next two, but at least I was drawing and not dancing around the issue.  And it's possible to make out what's in there, mostly.  I suppose I can be relieved at that.



I guess I had a thing for ants.  Hey, it's actually dated 2003/03/28.  Second one was 2003/06/02.  Just...freedom.  I'm sure I didn't overthink the layout of the colony when I was doing it.  Do it as you go.



This one's definitely a no-brainer.  They looked a little too detailed, and a quick Google image search brings up the same poses I probably copied from.  The version of the fire I drew back then is more creative than anything I can muster right now.  Also interesting to note how I wanted to include the entirety of the right eye when viewing the face at that angle.  To do otherwise is sorcery!



Ah, what to say about this one.  For starters, that is such an unintentionally mean title!  I remember my disappointment over the grade.  I was like, "I don't even like writing and I spent this effort on drawing all while being afraid of how the person would turn out, and you gave me a 90 over this!"



This one is a bit more obscure, especially since there aren't any people around and it's not exactly a recreation of any scene.  And for some reason I labeled everything in the second image so there's actually a dead giveaway if you can read the text.  Dated once more: 2003/07/17, 2003/07/28, and 2003/08/04. 



Yep, coloring pencils.  They really make it feel more genuine.  I thought the last three pages were quite nice; I the miss the idea behind these pictures.  Over the years I haven't graduated; I've just become more deliberate and unable to produce simple drawings at will.  "No, you can't do this.  You're older now.  Childish drawings should be left to children."  Even the "serious" works are still crushed in detail by the complex drawings of nine-year-olds shown in the book.  Who knew they could draw at that level?  I don't know where I sit, then.  My childhood is officially uncreative.

I've already typed enough, though.  Not enough drawing.  At this rate I'll be the Touhou equivalent of that person who plays casually for five years and doesn't have a 1CC of Normal yet.

But real quick first, back to the pictures.  Starting with the first row we have the castle in Super Mario 64.  The third image is probably a mix of the Big Ben and my idea of a fortress of some kind.  Bottom of the first picture in the second row is drawn from the inside of the ship in Rusty Bucket Bay from Banjo-Kazooie.  Credits to the demo screen for ingraining that level in my memory.  Next two are from Brood War, followed by the mission Hell's Fury in Command & Conquer: Covert Ops.  Not idea about the fifth one.  Perhaps something from Raptor: Call of the Shadows or X-COM or a mix.

Third row drawings were inspired by SimAnt.  I always fantasized owning an ant farm where it's thin across the board so you can see the tunnels they build.  Main issue was shipping a queen over.  Fourth row for Pokemon, fifth row for the Amelia Bedelia series.

Sixth row is Ed, Edd n Eddy.  Third picture in particular pertained to the Jawbreakers! game released on the GBA.  Just an idea for extra levels.  And I guess the second picture follows the theme of makeshift...everything.  For the ladder we have: wood, umbrella, pencil, bat, crowbar, and...titanium. 

That should wrap it up.  No pictures about this year's drawing output in this post as I've already posted too much (another reason to delay!).  I haven't found the kiwi story yet.