Art Lessons From My 5 Year Old Self

I was a better artist back then, oh crap

Since we've been doing a massive cleanup of the house, I’ve rediscovered huge stacks of drawings I did when I was little. I opened one of my journals and found this…

by 5 year old me — The writing in blue must've been what I asked my teacher to write

what?

I love it. No explanation.

That’s why my five-year-old self was so awesome. She had no idea what rules were. She never used an eraser. She never tried to be anything that she was not. She was just living in the moment.

Why I don’t want to grow up

I wrote about this kinda stuff before, check it out ^^^

But anyways, what I love about these drawings is that they're not perfect. And they don't try to be. It just is what it is. The me now would never think to draw so many hearts in a row and make them rainbow. But why not? :(

I think part of it is that back then, I wasn’t a victim of overthinking yet.

I just wanted to draw snoozing on the grass. It was that simple. And because of that — I was able to capture the feeling honestly. I didn't need to study “figure drawing” for hours, or worry about realistically capturing light and shadow — I just drew snoozing on the grass.

Since then, I've learned about perspective, lighting, colour, shape, design, composition, etc etc.

some truly horrific anime art from 13 year old me

When I started to learn more about different kinds of art, naturally I wanted to copy what I was into. But to do this I had to try hard to be something I wasn't yet.

wooa comic-style 2008–2009? (age 13/14)

Although I have no idea what’s going on here it is pretty funny. Love those laser eyeballs and the arthur fist panel.

As I got into high school I started to practice drawing and painting A LOT. Usually by drawing from life, or by copying existing work.

15-years old

I really enjoyed practicing though. I realize now though that it was like meditation. I love staring at an object for hours (as weird as that sounds) and seeing it transform before my eyes. It would go from something very mundane, to something incredibly intricate and beautiful. Learning how to draw and paint more realistically really transformed my whole way of seeing things. Suddenly everything and anything became beautiful. And this was in great part thanks to my amazing teacher, Dillon Huang. (check out his website, teehee)

2012 (age 17)

2013 (age 17)

2016 (age 20)

So what I'm trying to say is, I'm really grateful for everything I've learned. Yet I still realize that in order to truly express myself — I have a lot to unlearn.

Like Picasso said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

5 years old

6 years old

So below are some paintings I did recently. I'm really working on loosening up, not trying so hard to “be good”, and just enjoying it all more - geez.

2017 (age 22)

2017 (age 22 NOW!)

So thank you little me, for the weirdness, confidence, and inspiration.

yes i do like ur design lol