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Most of Us Draw as Children—It’s Still an Important Part of My Life as an Adult
An ode to sketching
My mother brought me the pieces that survived my drastic selection process so I could show them to my kids. I cringed a lot, but it was also a great opportunity to open up about a recurring activity in my life.
Drawing as a child
My mother says that my early childhood doodles were different in the themes I picked and the details they included. I don’t know how much of it is true and how much is just mommy pride.
Fairly early, I discovered I could copy images I liked by tracing them on the window. At some point, it became boring, so my new game was to replicate images with the right proportions without using an example.
My mom took us to the library every week. Initially, it was located in a small and ugly prefabricated building, but they eventually moved to a huge renovated farm. From there, they purchased an insane collection of graphic novels and all the classic movies I had never watched. They also organized workshops with comic artists, people who taught kids how to analyze movies, or how to do stop-motion with paper shapes. I religiously attended every single one of them, and at some point, I helped facilitate, too. I loved this place.
