Raw, Honest and Beautiful – Drawings of a Five-Year-Old

Wherever she goes, this girl has in tow her pen and paper. She takes them with her everywhere, even to the meatshop. J

The first day that she got to use a crayon, she already got a firm grip on it, and would make heavy strokes with it. I had a feeling that it would not be difficult to teach her how to write. I was right.

She doesn’t tote a doll or a blankie. Instead, she’s hoarding pens and markers, requesting for more fancy, girly notebooks, and spends almost all her me-time drawing, even in the car.

When having difficulty with her Math drills, arranging numbers from least to greatest (or the reverse), adding, or subtracting, she’s wont to stop and distract herself. And at times like this, there’s her pen and paper giving her relief from numbers. Gab, by the looks of it, could be right-brain dominant – expressive and creative. 

Interestingly, she has, on two recent occasions, demonstrated how she could wield her pen and paper to her advantage, using them to make new friends.

At a school fund-raising concert, she drew on a paper, quietly approached the two girls (fifth graders) on the row in front of us, and gave her drawing to one of the girls. The girl asked her name, and got interested upon knowing that she was Garrett’s little sister. Gab then asked the girls to write their names on a paper. Soon after, all three girls were crouching and drawing in the dark, and had altogether stopped watching the show.

A similar incident happened one Friday afternoon when I brought Gab along to fetch Kuya from school. Gab again had sheets of paper and her pen with her. While waiting for Kuya to finish a Science club meeting, I was seated on a bench near the school gate while Gab ran around. Minutes later, I saw Gab at the center of the school’s mini stage, seated squatting in her printed floral dress, surrounded by students. Gab was drawing as the students (mostly Kuya’s classmates) looked on. Gab was obviously enjoying the attention. She was a natural, I could see it. 

It was a happy, precious sight to me. It made me confident that Gab would not have problems moving to this (big) school and making friends. Back in my time, I had difficulty blending in or hanging out with the cool kids. I could see that Gab would not have to deal with the problems I had. I’d anticipate she’d only have to adjust to the longer school hours.

Her drawings have been noticeably improving, from the stick figures to images of princesses and princes elegantly dressed and crowned; from just a smiley to angry faces in different degrees and angles.

We have accumulated a thick pile of her drawings. Her drawings from last Saturday pasted below are worth keeping as they tell a story – funny to us, but not to this five-year-old girl. I first shared them on my facebook page as below:

Interesting show of anger and love via Gab's sketches.

Prior scene - Gab reprimands her dad on always using the aircon.

1st drawing, right frame - Gab's dad standing by the bedroom door, telling Gab that she's banned from the room.

Gab retreats, still mad and draws the first of the sketches below.

Left frame - Gab surprised, suddenly fumes with anger, points her finger at his dad and says, "Ikaw ha, you are a very bad 'woman' (Garrett and I laugh hard).

Hours later, Gab says sorry and draws again, this time full of hearts and I-love-you's. Our funny, passionate Gab... Scares us of times ahead.

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Here is a gallery of some of Gabee’s latest drawings (maybe over the last 3 months). There are more versions of her princesses and princes, portraits of me, Let and her kuya, sketches inspired by fairy tales and some movies she has watched, and lots of others only Gab could tell you the story behind. To my eyes, they’re masterpieces. It’s great that by taking photos of them, they’re instantly converted into digital files for keeping.

Let’s take a tour inside Gab’s mind and heart through her drawings. Cheers!

This got me laughing. I think she meant to write "Vincent Van Gogh." She made it for her teacher, T. Maris, who has introduced her to some of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings.