I was (attempting) to clean up my room and stumbled across some old childhood drawings. I always think I’ve changed so much from who I was, but then I look at these oddly doodled characters in the margins of elementary school notes, and compare them to my university lecture notes, and realize that nothing much has really changed.
In 2009, I was in grade eight and applying to art high schools. This was my self portrait. It was painted with acrylics on those plastic-y, pre-primed canvas boards. I was going through my “hat phase” and wore that red monster hat nearly every single day (cringe).This fairy was from a sketchbook from 2008. I was just figuring out how scanners worked and proudly posted it as one of my first Facebook profile pics. This is a re-scan of the image, but to combat the original’s poor quality, I edited it on iPhoto, which gave it a sepia tint.
This is from 2010 or 2011—a little too recent if you ask me. I headed to the streets and started putting graffiti stickers across the city (obviously trying to stick it to the man). I used the secret identity, “Scarred,” because I had a huge gash on my left knee (still have it today) from a serious surgery the year before. Reflecting on the situation now, I guess this was a way to combat the pain that I was in because of my leg, and to turn it into a positive, creative project.
This was made in 2007 or 2008, when I frickin’ loved anime!!!! I honestly have no idea what’s happening here, other than I just bought a fancy blue fountain pen and managed to create more ink blotches than actual drawings.
In 2006, my school teacher, Mr. Marks, gave us an assignment called the independent study project. It was almost like a mini-thesis, where you had a semester to work on a project of your choosing. I decided to write a comic about my cat, Ziggy, who meets this friend called Minky the Duck. They go on an adventure to try to find a mystical mirror that will grant them three wishes (spoiler alert: Ziggy asks for thumbs so he can open cat food tins, and Minky asks for an endless supply of worms, and to live with Ziggy forever). This was also my first introduction to the photocopiers at Kinkos.
Not sure when this is from—probably around 2004? I was learning how to draw the typical “sausage” people. I never liked to write a lot, and always tried to fill up my composition notebooks with drawings.
I made this in 1999 or 2000 (really feeling old). I had an imaginary friend who was a pink poodle—I can’t remember its name, though. I used to run around in the back field by myself playing games and going on adventures with it.
2005: I didn’t even watch that much Sailor Moon (I was more of a Powerpuff girl), but I found this li’l drawing of her on a piece of paper that they gave all the students at the beginning of the year—“Class Conduct and Rules and Responsibilities.” As you can probably tell, I was REALLY interested in that conversation.
6 Comments
I love seeing how you progressed from then until now. It’s always cool to look back at old pieces of art to see what was going through your head then, even with things that are only a few years old.
Powepuff girls unite! Also, all of these are so cute!
This reminds me of my own doodles from back when I was in elementary school! All my textbooks and notebooks were chock full of weird drawings of animals and flowers and cool girls. Also, it makes me realize how I’m artistically stunted. I draw pretty much the same things even now, and I’m in the eleventh grade. Oh well.
I love this. I’m trying to remember whether I liked drawing. Diaries seem to be the only memorable objects I refer to, but what about all those forgotten absentminded doodles?
-M
this is so good! i love looking back at my old stuff and seeing how far i have come!
it’s so cool to see how your drawings developed over the years, and they are all lovely! <3