In the first post, I briefly described my creative session with children Doroteja (8) and Domas (5). In this and future posts, I will tell you how the drawings by these children, their interpretations and photographs inspired me to create a variety of ideas for a Neverland Portrait.
After our drawing session, we went outside to play for a fun photoshoot. Doroteja and Domas had a blue inflatable pool in their yard. It turns out there are so many fun things what you can do with it beside just swimming.
When children were carrying it together like that, so many potential fairy-tale stories went through my head. What do you imagine they could be carrying instead of the inflatable pool in a land of magic?
Our imagination can feel like dreams – highly impressive and grandeur. But once you try to make a drawing of that dream, everything seems bland. I came to realise that the world depicted on paper has to obey certain laws of composition and mark making in order to give a good impression. (It would be an extraordinary success to make an artwork appear as impressive as it felt in a dream.) Therefore, time and time again, I have to leave dreams in the dreamland, and start from a scratch when it comes to making an artwork.
Fortunately, a more effective source of inspiration (not like dreams or imagination) is a large variety of sketches. In this case, I used a drawing that was started by Doroteja with pink and blue brush marks, and then finished by me in the same colours of felt-tip pens. (Click here for more details about this type of drawing game.) Back then, I saw the paint brush marks as very light and intangible. Therefore, remembering the fairy tale about the spirit from a bottle that I told Doroteja earlier, I decided to add to the drawing a bottle and emoji-type faces expressing differing emotions, this way creating a drawing of various emotional spirits steaming from a bottle.
So when I looked at the photograph and at the sketch, I got an idea to draw the children carrying a magical pot. I had to ponder how I could make the pot appear more magical so that the image would evoke fairy-tale world. With the help of Uncle Google and sketching, I decided to use a shape that’s very ancient and out of use in today’s world (back in Roman times it was used for wine).
I was pleased with the result as the final sketch made me think of a fairy-tale narrative where siblings steal a magical pot of spirits from an evil witch.
However, I was ever more impressed with the parent‘s interpretation: Doroteja and Domas carrying a boiling pot of their joy and disagreements.
To see how I develop other ideas for a Neverland Portrait, you can follow me on social media or subscribe to my newsletter.
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