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.
Wonder of Childhood Games
When I am next to children having fun, I realise how different is my adult-mind in comparison to theirs.
I was taking photos while Doroteja and Domas were running in circles and carrying an inflatable pool above their heads. I thought to myself – I would never decide to do that with my friends.
Thoughts on How Children Enjoy Playing
But why wouldn’t I? It just seems pointless. Why is it not pointless for children? Well, they are having fun. Indeed, I could see how fun it is to lift and pull around together such a huge yet light and flexible object. I can imagine how this fun physical engagement could naturally evolve into running. There is a joy of feeling your body moving, the thrill of the wind rushing through your skin, which then gets caught up inside the inflatable pool, lifting it upwards like a parachute. The whole experience must have felt almost like flying.
Meanwhile, I was thinking: thank god my job is to keep on taking photos as I would feel very awkward and uncomfortable trying to play together with this inflatable pool – I just wouldn‘t know what to do with it. But I am supposed to have fun playing like children do. Look at them – they find it so easy! They don‘t even need to try!
Yet, when I took into hands that inflatable pool, my mind was confused, and it couldn’t come up with any ideas what I could do with that blue thing that could feel just like simply having fun playing together.
So, after taking photos, when I joined the children playing, I would simply ask them or just wait until they come up with ideas for what to do next, and I would just follow their lead. To follow children and mirror them playing is easy for my mind (no need to think of what to do), and often I would feel I am having fun. But it‘s not like I had learned from them how to be a child again. Moments of awkwardness would come back and I would feel lost again at what to do next.
Differing Motivations to Play for Adults and Children
Nonetheless, I am very curious how children find it so easy to come up with simple games and fun activities using everyday objects. Perhaps it‘s about the issue of the more you do to it, the easier it becomes. If I would do it often, my mind would learn to come up with various ideas for childlike games. However, I have more motivation in self-improvement, achievement, and contributing something to the world rather than just have fun playing pointless games. Is that an inherent feature of the adult mind?
Not entirely, since it‘s very common for us to switch off our stressful thinking by binging on Netflix or scrolling endlessly on social media feed. Perhaps it‘s because we get busy fulfilling our responsibilities, and during our free time playing Lego is not as effective at switching off our stressful thoughts. Even if we consider healthy hobbies of adults – playing a musical instrument, sports games, gardening, reading books, cooking – they require a certain amount of skill that young children don‘t have.
This brings me to a conclusion, that adults forget how to have fun playing with everyday objects like children do because they have developed their overall abilities and, thus, tend to enjoy games and activities that require a certain amount of skill.
So here, in the photographs of children running around with an inflatable pool, we can see a moment that can only happen during childhood, which is a perfect moment for me because Neverland Portraits are about capturing the childhood spirit.
Thinking Process of Developing a Fairy-tale Sketch
The Boat
Seeing Doroteja and Domas running around with inflatable pool above their heads, I wondered – how could this translate into a visual language of a fairy-tale world? I remembered that me and children were drawing a boat earlier that day during our creative session. Perhaps because of that the photographs reminded me of indigenous people in wilderness carrying a boat.
What could be in that boat? I took inspiration from children’s drawings again.
The Warrior Owl
One of them was the inkblot. I taught Doroteja how to make a symmetrical inkblot image out of wool thread dipped in paint. She chose the colours as well as where to place the painted thread on paper. The resulted image reminded us of an owl with an impression of a stoic and fierce warrior. That could be one of the characters for the Neverland Portrait sketch!
Could we add something else?
The Furious Pirate
I liked the boat drawing by Domas. The task of the drawing game was for each of us to draw a boat (it was Doroteja’s suggestion) (click here to read more about the drawing games we were playing), and Domas, being 5-years-old, came up with something primitive yet delightful – to draw a hull of a boat, which is sliced in half like an apple, with a human figure inside.
Primitive yet Delightful Drawing Style of Children
Young children do not know or remember in detail how an object appears to form a particular perspective. Therefore, they tend to draw in a style of a diagram – a boat has a hull in a shape of a letter ‘V’, and, to give more clarity to what the drawing illustrates, it’s good to add an image of a human figure inside the boat. These types of drawings by children make adults laugh in delight as they show the child’s creativity that resulted from the sweet innocence and the lack of skill.
With that in mind, I added this little human figure drawn by Domas inside the boat next to the owl-warrior. For the head, I added the drawing made by Domas and Doroteja in red and black, which made the figure appear angry or dangerous. Moreover, this whole idea of fairy-tale characters in a boat reminded me of pirates, so I decided to add the bird that was drawn by me and Doroteja, which made the little angry being appear as a captain of pirates with a parrot on his shoulder.
Potential Fairy Tales about Warrior Owl and Furious Pirate
This sketch has a vast number of potential narratives that could be explored with other added details in line or colour. I didn’t want to play with it for too long as it’s only an idea that could or could not be favoured by the family. (As part of my service, I allow the family to choose their favourite from a number of Neverland Portrait ideas for further development.)
Nonetheless, this simple sketch can evoke unusual and interesting narratives.
Once I had a glimpse at a world of spirits,
Though brother and sister were important visitors.
They were in need of a boat to swim across the unknown.
They had a promise from a warrior owl to help them grow,
Teach them how to fight with courage and wisdom.
After all, they need to become heroes, not tyrants in their kingdom.
Yet, unbeknownst to them, a violent influence is coming along.
He‘s like a pirate looking for something to rob,
Steal your peace and happiness leaving you furious,
With a parrot on his arm repeating and mocking what you said wrong.
What? Did you think this journey will only be glorious?
Well, it‘s a fairy tale – happy ending is promised.
But there‘s no assurance that adventures are harmless.
What kind of fairy tale do you see in this drawing?
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