What’s the oldest memory you have of making something without following someone else’s instructions? I mean, we all made craft projects in kindergarten. But what about on your own? When did that kind of creativity start for you?
I know I always used to draw. Mostly on leftover computer paper that my dad had around the house, or the back of old mimeographed worksheets from my parents’ teaching jobs. My siblings and I drew a lot of hot air balloons, since that was big in my hometown. One thing that stands out for me is at a slightly older age, when I started to realize that I could copy pictures out of books fairly accurately. Of course it was mainly cars at the time.
My friends and I would go to the public library, about three blocks away, and check out a few big books from the small “transportation” section. We’d then sit on the porch of my house and practice drawing cars and trucks from the pictures in those books. It’s the first time I recall noticing foreshortening and perspective in a photograph. I didn’t know what those concepts were called then, but I can clearly remember thinking about how certain parts of a car looked compressed or weirdly small when it was sitting at a 3/4 view. It was an intellectual concept as much as it was a creative one, in hindsight. But either way I was learning, on my own.
I don’t think I have as many clear childhood memories as the average person, for whatever reason. So I suppose it’s significant that I remember this kind of thing well.