8 Drawings from my Childhood, age 8-9

More anomalies from my childhood output.

#13: pencil drawing on 8.5″ x 11″ paper, the first on standardized paper. Jam-packed with details that were beginning to make appearances in earlier work, but are here much more full blown. I’m sure this was created in school, as it is the first of the series on paper dedicated to drawing, not on repurposed paper.

#14: A figure like this is called… a school drawing project on 8.5″ x 11″ paper, that includes written script above each of the three rows of drawings: A figure like this is called a circle; A figure like this is called a square; A figure like this is call a oblong” Annotated by Aunt Charlotte as “Grade 3”, when i was 8 going on 9, the paper had been obviously crumpled up, then flattened out, so I’m guessing I was not that pleased with the drawing initially, but Aunt Charlotte was.

#15: Ride ’em Cowgirl! annotated “Alden Apr. 15, 1953″ – Two pencil drawings on either side of a single sheet, 8.5″ x 11”, possibly prescient of the television show Annie Oakley that debuted on TV the following January, and probably in imitation of my cousin Margie who owned a horse and was becoming a horse-woman.

#16: Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief… Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief. Pencil drawing on 7″ x 11″ paper, my first literary illustration, from “Tinker Tailor” – a traditional nursery rhyme counting game that was first published in England in 1695.

#17: Saddled up and ready to go! Pencil drawing annotated “Alden July 53″ this was obviously trimmed down to the odd size of 5.5″ x 5”. Looking at it carefully I noticed that the saddle blanket has two sigils that look like the sign for the planet Venus, and the saddle looks more like an English riding saddle than the traditional Western saddle.

#18: Equus, an 8.5″ x 11″ school drawing, in which I return to color with pencil and crayon. The odd little male figure reveals that I was struggling to capture proper proportions, and had made some headway compared to earlier figurative representations.

#19: I Talk to the Trees, to the Birds, to the Bees… and let’s not forget the Squirrels, the Swan, the Chickens, and the Ducks Flying in a Row… another anomaly, the one and only double-spread, two sheets taped together, indicating my vision was enlarging as I worked, 11″ x 17″.

#20: Cornucopia – to Mary and the Family, pencil drawing on 8.5″ x 11″ bond paper, undated, style indicates this was drawn as a school project, possibly some time in November 1953; inscribed to cousin Mary Waterhouse, who often spent Thanksgiving with the Cole family.