http://drawger.com/toelke/ Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:21:56 EDT FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://drawger.com/_images/drawger_leo_logo.gif http://drawger.com/toelke http://drawger.com/toelke/index.php?section=articles&article_id=2675 As clearly as if it happened last week, I can remember sitting at my family's kitchen table one afternoon, making Halloween pictures with my sister. I had just turned five; my sister was 9 and a good drawer. Not only could she draw rings around me, but being almost 5 years older, outdid me in every way. I tried my best to keep up. We had pencils, crayons, colored paper, tape, and brown glue that came in those funny bottles with the red rubber tops. I had a new scrapbook, my first one, and so far it only contained pictures I had cut out of magazines. That day, however, I was making my own pictures in it. I drew lollipops in crayon and cut witches out of colored paper. My new thing was doing profiles, and the witches had roundish heads with triangle noses, mouths and hats. They stuck out their arms to stir a cauldron of brew. I kept glancing over to see what my sister was doing. She was drawing witches in pencil. Her witches had warty noses and chins and looked sooo much more sinister than mine. Since I tried to emulate my sister at everything, I decided to switch from cut paper witches to drawing one in pencil. I drew a random bumpy line and put a dot near it. To my amazement, it looked like a real witch's profile, and I remember thinking to myself, "This is a CINCH!" It was just a matter of making the right choices. I was thrilled and finished the drawing which you see above.

Spurred on by this victory, I decided to use what I had learned to challenge myself in creating something sister hadn't thought of. I drew a rectangle on brown paper. At the top, I made lines with circles at the top, and rectangles, all partially hidden by the top of the big rectangle. Wow, it really looked like what I had intended: a trick or treat bag filled to the top with candy. I knew it wasn't a realistic bag, but knew the important thing was that I had made a convincing symbol for one. And it was easy to figure out! It might not seem like much, but it was this two inch drawing and Halloween witch that hooked me on making pictures. I felt I could do anything.

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