Here is a picture that I took of the previously mentioned Graveyard War, as drawn and explained to me by a young boy in one of the drawing classes I teach. I’m honestly not trying to exploit a kid’s artwork, I just really think that this is just too awesome not to share! Click for a larger version.

There are some other things going on here that are pretty interesting. I think the gun on the right side is meant to be a water gun, and the random ovals above are from water balloons, which made it rain somehow.

The tombstones read from right to left. The first one says “Imposter“. I had to help him with the spelling on that one, but it looks like I spelled it wrong. It should be “Impostor“. Whoops. The other tombstone is actually a response to the one next to it, and says “No I’m not“. Talk about getting the last word! I think this has something to do with how this Graveyard War first started. What appears to be a dog or a rabbit towards the left is supposed to be a mouse, if I remember correctly. I don’t remember if the mouse is dead or alive.

Another interesting detail to make note of is the barely erased remains of a prior drawing attempt around the upper-middle region. I had suggested that everyone orient their papers horizontally instead of vertically so that they had more room to draw many characters standing together. So he (sort of) erased the little bit that he had already drawn and started again without being bothered at all by the ghost of the drawing that could have been.

I just think this is a really cool peek into the mind of a creative kid who has let all of his ideas keep spilling out onto the page, yet still has everything making sense in his own mind. He has no regard to how his own skill level and dexterity can’t keep up with his vivid imagination, nor should he at this age. Some kids let that spark fade away and get stressed out about how their drawings don’t look like how they want them too. Others just never really had the spark in the first place, and aren’t interested in getting it.

Anyway, our friend here was in my class this weekend, and he was drawing a ninja. He asked me who a ninja should fight, so of course I told him to draw a pirate. He didn’t believe me so I said it could be a Karate Pirate. He did end up drawing a pirate, and then he drew himself fighting both the ninja and the pirate. This is epic. Clearly, too epic for any camera-phone to capture, so my description will have to do.

Sayonara.