prompts from my young mind
I found perhaps an odd source of inspiration recently. While I was cleaning and organizing my childhood home, I came across a stack of drawings I had made when I was about six years old.
They memorialized an assortment of things: my love of flowers, fancy dresses, my family. And as I flipped through them, I found myself being inspired by what I was seeing. The freedom, the daring of my childhood imagination was infectious, and I wanted to seize onto it again.
So I collected my favorites and pulled out a sketchbook I haven’t used in months and began to copy the designs I saw.
I started with the flowers. They honestly might have been the most surprising element I had come across, not because of their shape or style, they were very much the typical flowers that anyone might draw in an instant, but because of their color.
At this point in my life, I am not very fond of purple. I may even refer to it as my least favorite color. But apparently child me would have disagreed, as purple was the predominant color I found in these flower drawings, and honestly seeing my obsession with lilac, I grew to appreciate it again.
My favorite drawing though was the depiction of a flower bush with light blue and pink flowers. I feel like it was my attempt at drawing a hydrangea bush or something, but it made me realize that light blue, pink and light green are a really pleasant color combination.
And then I dedicated a full page to recreating a drawing I’m still very fond of. I’ll admit I had no idea that I had drawn a pond with cattails around it until a family member pointed it out to me, but along with that I drew a lilac house covered in ivy, a flowery trellis and a sunflower garden. Well, that’s at least how I interpreted it all to be when I drew it again. I do wish I had maintained the order I had originally set it all out in, as the original drawing was a bit more cohesive looking, but I did manage to create a lovely little scene.
I have yet to attempt to recreate the dresses, which is a pity as they were definitely the most inspiring. But I am not exactly experienced in drawing fashion, and by not experienced I mean, I’m not certain I have ever really tried. So it may take a while before I attempt to recreate them, as I want to be sure I will do them justice.
But on the whole I found this little project wonderful. I loved the experience of submerging myself into my childhood whimsy again and forcing myself to think outside the box and outside my mature sensibilities for a change.