Amazing Paintings Using Children’s Artwork
Most people believe that kids’ drawings are poorly drawn or strange. In 1997, David Devries looked at some that his niece had done, but he had a much different reaction. He saw how the original, unselfconscious, and creative they were: “The goal of illustration has always been communication. A child, however, ignores the idea of mass communication by creating images solely from his or her mind. Often, a parent must ask the child to describe what exactly the young artist is drawing.” Pablo Picasso’s entire artistic style was based on that notion and he has been quoted as saying: “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
Devries began working with children’s drawings and created paintings that were based off of the drawings his niece did. He began doing demonstrations at schools and universities, and over time he was able to distill the process into a few simple steps. To begin he projects the original drawing onto a canvas and traces each line. Using the outline he fills in the rest using acrylic, airbrush, or colored pencil until he is satisfied. The result is surreal, child-like art that at the same time is quite sophisticated. After completing the painting he interviews the child who drew the original and asks about their reaction to final product. You can scroll over the picture to the right (if you have flash installed) to see the before and after result of one of his drawings.
He has written a book called “The Monster Engine” which includes drawings, paintings, photos, and interviews. The book has won an honorable mention in the “Ten Outstanding Books of the Year” section of the Independent Publisher Book Awards, a Certificate of Merit from the Society of Illustrators, and has won a Spectrum Silver Medal for being the best in contemporary and classical art.
There is a gallery of some of his paintings below, and you can find more at themonsterengine.com.
March 8th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
pure genius. kind of reminds me of Deepwoods characters
July 12th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
[...] David Devries does a similar thing but instead of editing pictures, he uses the outlines of drawings to make incredible paintings. You can read more here: Amazing Paintings Using Children’s Artwork. [...]
December 25th, 2009 at 9:17 am
This is wonderful! I have children and have always thought that their drawings could look like artwork once framed – this really brings the creativity from the imagination of a child to life!