I have recently read various articles about psychological drawing tests and drawing contests on various websites that have inspired me to test my own from-memory drawing skills. Since he was the topic of several of the drawing challenges that went around the internet, and since he is a well-known character recognizable by almost anyone, my first topic was Homer Simpson.
I had to draw him from memory, and here is my version compared to the original:
I’ll have to be very honest and say there is something very ‘off’ about my version of Homer. It’s as if the beloved character mated with Donald Duck to produce a hybrid creature, since even the fact I nailed (?) the eyes (only!) hardly compensates for the beak, degenerate ear and horsetails growing out of the top of his head.
It would seem my from-memory skills were not as good as they could be. How would I do with other, perhaps more well-known (by me) characters? To find out, KLS gave me three challenges, which I’ll now present in order.
The first was Keroro from Keroro Gunso, unquestionable one of my favourite characters. I love the design of this little frog, which is simple, clean and unforgettable, especially to a great fan like myself. Here’s how I did:
Oh my! The assembly of dozens of Keroro model kits seem to have ingrained his chest emblem into my mind, but when it came to drawing him from memory I seriously struggled to remember what his head looked like! I can hardly believe I forgot the hat and the chin, not to mention the way I destroyed his eyes. Let’s face it, I drew a light-bulb! Across from my desk I have hung a Keroro mask on my wall for many years now. To not remember what it looked like is shameful.
What about another manga character? Someone even more iconic than Keroro, known and beloved by virtually every manga fan in the world? Dear readers, I present to you – from Dragonball Z – Goku himself:
Goodness gracious! While the more generous critics may point to the fact that I somewhat captured the spirit of the character in (very) broad strokes, the more honest would say that even the hair is a pale shadow of Goku’s actual hair and no other aspect of the drawing resembles the famous character. This is a disaster, through and through.
Now at this point you’re thinking: “He’s just having us on!” And I assure you I am not. I really tried to draw these characters as closely as possible to how I remembered them. But as history has shown time and time again, I can’t draw.
So I assure you that when I sat down to sketch Mickey Mouse I tried my hardest to produce a work that closely resembled the character beloved by everyone:
It’s those teeth that will likely cause the most nightmares 😉
