


Did it come as you would have wanted it to? Was it all it was cracked up to be?Did you make sure to come in your Sunday Best.A bow tied smile and a sun flowered dress.
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Pen/Pencil
These images were all created using PaperMate pens,pencils and Prismacolor colored pencils on paper.
I first started drawing at around age 5.I lived with my grandma and her sons (my uncles).The youngest uncle was 7 years older than me and he used to draw. I cant remember what it was he used to draw but I wanted him to teach me how to draw.I remember wanting to be like him I thought he was cool then,I still think hes cool.
Right before he was off to school or work or something that had him leaving for hours,he would make a pencil sketch on a piece of white paper and leave these instructions with me."When I come back I want to see an exact replica of what I have drawn here"where hed point to another blank paper. I felt like I had just been given a very important assignment and couldnt wait to get started.He showed me how to copy his work line by line,not tracing but making a duplicate of it off to the side, one mark at a time."Look at a line on my paper and make the exact same line on yours,look over to mine,look to the next line and make the exact one on yours" and on and on
I would wait for him to close the door on his way out and Id sit at the living room table.With my pencil or pen Id begin drawing away using my "lessons"and I remember feeling like I had just been entrusted with something important.I knew my work would be evaluated when he got back and I wanted to impress him.He would always praise my work when hed get back and in the next year I got very good at copying his sketches.I branched out to doing my own drawings and always enjoyed the place drawing took me.For those couple of hours while drawing,I would be transported away from my surroundings and into the piece of paper.The blank piece of paper could be any place,anything..my own teleport machine.For a dirt poor kid,drawing to me was a wonder filled get-away.
I remember those first lessons every time I am drawing something from reference.