Growing up is mind-blowing...especially when you've kept multiple journals and old projects in tact from when you were 6 years old, and then find said memorabilia 17 years later. I suppose that's what makes time capsules so incredible.
But I don't have a time capsule. All I have are boxes and plastic tubs filled with things I don't want to discard. Mom calls me a pack-rat. I am. I like shiny things, and I justify keeping junk around by telling myself I'll definitely need it later...for God knows what.
Eventually, I toss some crap here and there, but one thing I'm glad I kept is the memory of the beginning of my life as an artist.
Even without the physical reminder, I remember it very distinctly - the day I decided I wanted to illustrate constantly. It was 1996, my family was sitting in church on the right side of the building. My dad had bought me a thick, brown planner so he could start to teach me organization in everyday life and also encourage me to take notes on the sermon. Back then, my version of "taking notes" was drawing pictures of what the pastor was saying. My mother didn't like it; she said it was "fooling around" in church, but Dad understood it was how I interpreted the message. But that one particular day in church, I did wander from the sermon when I caught a glimpse of a girl in the row before me drawing a stick figure with curly hair.
Why on earth that triggered it, I have no idea. But it did. I wanted to draw like that, but better. So, I did. Right there in church I started sketching the best damn stick figure I ever had, and she had long, flowing curls. but it didn't stop there. She needed a companion. So she met a guy, and 12 weeks later, they got married...not only that, but they had kids within 5 months..........I couldn't understand why my parents laughed when I told them this.
But their story progressed, and the family went on adventures as my family experienced them throughout the years. From the occasional trips to San Diego, to the Y2K scare. Back in elementary school, I was under the impression that fathers going off to war was a normal thing, so my stick figure family went through it, too. I highlighted all my favorite times in life, like the excitement of getting hotel room service, building a fort, and doing crazy stunts with wagons on hills and in a flooded street. Except, that wasn't good enough for the story. They needed even crazier twists to them. This family built their fort underground and lived there sometimes, they went on hiking trips and found freaking diamonds...they built a log cabin with whole trees and super glue, their wagon had an engine on it, they got two birds that followed them everywhere, and found a...magic carpet named Meri (I don't know why I seriously had a thing for that name).
I kept writing those things up through late middle school and stuck with the stick figure style even though I'd already advanced passed that...until the last two books...when the two kids go to college.
But in that same planner, all the way in the back...
...are some of my very first Legend of Zelda drawings which are the very things that made me WANT to move past stick figures badly enough to do so. 'Cause...you know...N64 graphics were fricken awesome back in the day. :] The first few there were done in 1998 (9 years old), and the bottom one was done in middle school (~11 years old). Let's add one more to the timeline of Link art here.
But I don't have a time capsule. All I have are boxes and plastic tubs filled with things I don't want to discard. Mom calls me a pack-rat. I am. I like shiny things, and I justify keeping junk around by telling myself I'll definitely need it later...for God knows what.
Eventually, I toss some crap here and there, but one thing I'm glad I kept is the memory of the beginning of my life as an artist.
Even without the physical reminder, I remember it very distinctly - the day I decided I wanted to illustrate constantly. It was 1996, my family was sitting in church on the right side of the building. My dad had bought me a thick, brown planner so he could start to teach me organization in everyday life and also encourage me to take notes on the sermon. Back then, my version of "taking notes" was drawing pictures of what the pastor was saying. My mother didn't like it; she said it was "fooling around" in church, but Dad understood it was how I interpreted the message. But that one particular day in church, I did wander from the sermon when I caught a glimpse of a girl in the row before me drawing a stick figure with curly hair.
Why on earth that triggered it, I have no idea. But it did. I wanted to draw like that, but better. So, I did. Right there in church I started sketching the best damn stick figure I ever had, and she had long, flowing curls. but it didn't stop there. She needed a companion. So she met a guy, and 12 weeks later, they got married...not only that, but they had kids within 5 months..........I couldn't understand why my parents laughed when I told them this.
But their story progressed, and the family went on adventures as my family experienced them throughout the years. From the occasional trips to San Diego, to the Y2K scare. Back in elementary school, I was under the impression that fathers going off to war was a normal thing, so my stick figure family went through it, too. I highlighted all my favorite times in life, like the excitement of getting hotel room service, building a fort, and doing crazy stunts with wagons on hills and in a flooded street. Except, that wasn't good enough for the story. They needed even crazier twists to them. This family built their fort underground and lived there sometimes, they went on hiking trips and found freaking diamonds...they built a log cabin with whole trees and super glue, their wagon had an engine on it, they got two birds that followed them everywhere, and found a...magic carpet named Meri (I don't know why I seriously had a thing for that name).
There are 26 books total. All made in that planner my dad bought me. That yellow you see in the woman's hair...isn't a coloring attempt. These things are so old the paper's oxidizing. :] However, I did get into the habit of highlighting certain parts of the drawings with colored accents. The technique carried on to the Sailor Universe manga I started in 7th grade (2003). Yellow highlighter and a pink gel pen are used in the image below in conjunction with my usual black ink. Yes, they're scaling a deadly mountainous terrain with loads of somehow pre-refined diamonds on a magic carpet...now we know when my insanity started.
But in that same planner, all the way in the back...
...are some of my very first Legend of Zelda drawings which are the very things that made me WANT to move past stick figures badly enough to do so. 'Cause...you know...N64 graphics were fricken awesome back in the day. :] The first few there were done in 1998 (9 years old), and the bottom one was done in middle school (~11 years old). Let's add one more to the timeline of Link art here.
Anyway...I rediscovered all these beginnings as I get ready to move again. Unpacking things just to repack them again always helps me to purge my clutter (making Mom happy) and reorganize my life (going off Dad's values).
And, lo, I've found something precious. Perhaps someday I'll re-illustrate the books and compile them in an anthology for kids (maybe rewriting some of the madness...or not). But we'll see.
I also found a journal I was required to keep as a sophomore in high school (2005 - 2006).
And then another velvet (and rather dust-covered) journal written from a character's point-of-view since I was in 5th grade (early 2001).
That was fun. :]
IN ANY CASE...it's past 1am and I still have a bit of packing to do before I finish some summer school assignments. And class is in t-minus 7.5 hours. Yay~
The trip down Memory Lane was fun tonight, but the present demands my time again.
'Til next time...
Uni out~!
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