Project Autism vs Artism

Both my son and I have ADHD and my son also has autism. Both are often mistaken for diseases, but I prefer both are another way of thinking and experiencing the world differently. In Dutch the abbreviation ADHD is often funnily translated: Alle Dagen Heel Druk (all days being busy), but All Day Heaving (lots of) Ideas, is a better way to approach it. ADHD is a therefore a more creative way of thinking. Between ADHD and autism are more similarities than differences, but the difficulties of not understanding social rules is especially related to autism. I often have tried to stay in contact with my son by using this common rules everybody uses, but what he finds difficult to understand and what often leads to discussion and conflict. But then I focus too much on autism. When I focus however on our imagination and stay in contact by our drawings, I focus on our similarities in being creative. Artism instead of autism.

Project autism vs Artism works as follows: I make my interpretation of an original drawing of my son. I can change perspective, composition en put details which are necessary for technical reasons, but I can't change the original concept.

Sonic.EYX 2

Sonic.EYX 2 (Original from Booker)

Sonic.EYX 2 (Interpretation Marcel)

In this second version of Booker I could see how the claws looked like, but it was still difficult to see that he had 4 legs. In honesty, I also liked his first version better, so I decided to use that one and stayed very close to the original.
Since Booker does not draw any background, I asked him for advice fot this one. I also decided to do it full digitally, so I could practise drawing on my new Samsung Galaxy Tab 8 plus.

Sonic.EYX 1

Sonic.EYX 1 (Original Booker)

Sonic EYX 1 (Interpretation Marcel)

After a periode of drawing hybrid dinosaurs (Which were too hard to draw and even now I'm working on one) Booker his style and subjects started to change. He found inspiration in fan games and became better in using colour and details. I liked this drawing very much, but I made a big mistake. Booker showed me pictures of Sonic.EYX, so I made a interpretation of someone else his drawing, not his one. I drew him with two legs, but according to Booker, it had four legs. We decided both to make a new version.

Wormmonster

Wormmonster (Original Booker)

Wormmonster (Interpretation Marcel)

This drawing consist of two different drawings of Booker. I had his permission to put those together, because I wanted a prey for the wormmonster. It was a little bit hard to get all the details right. I had to asked Booker several times for advice. After I got the inking done, I wanted to practise my digital colouring skills and decided to make it full colour.

Squidzilla

Squidzilla (Original Booker)

Squidzilla (Interpretation) Marcel

I immediately liked this one. What the hell was this? It was much fun to make my version of this one. He probably named him Squidzilla because I introduced the Godzilla-movies to him.

The rules of our project became clearer to me: I had to redraw what I saw, not wanting to do it my way, but there had to be room for interpretation, because I used other perspective en added more details. I often asked Booker for advice. Sometimes he was very strict and sometimes I was allowed to choose myself. To practise my inking-skills (Which were rusty) I decided to finish the drawing with ink.

Flowie

Flowie (Original Booker)

Flowie (Interpretation Marcel Thijs)

Flowie was the first drawing of Booker that stroked my intention. As a little child he could not draw at all. Then suddenly he started to draw block figures like the figures in Mine Craft. Then he came with Flowie, some kind of monsterplant.

I hadn't draw for a while and I just wanted to have fun in drawing, not making a new product. I succeeded in both: I had a lot of fun and it was not one of my best drawings, but finding back the pleasure in drawing was great enough for my.