You Draw Like a Child! Interrogating Aetonormative Tendencies in Imitations of Children’s Drawings in Graphic Narratives

Abstract

This article examines ideas about children and childhood in contemporary comics makers’ creative practice. Starting from ‘children’s drawings’ made by adult artists, we try to assess if aetonormativity (adult normativity, a term coined by Nikolajeva [2009]) is present and how it influences contemporary comic-making practice. Next, we propose a way to engage with diverse graphic styles. Based on this, we interviewed comic makers and identified six categories of ideas influencing artistic practice that are relevant for interrogating biases around children’s drawings. Confronting such assumptions with different theories of children’s drawings gives insights into where those concepts come from. Finally, we present an experiment in which we explored how the act of imitating children’s drawing evokes a disruption in adult’s and children’s expectations about children’s drawing practice. The experiment opened a shared space between the adult and the child which was also an experimental space where new lines of thought could emerge. Through this we explore the possibility of a different relation to creating children’s drawings, and to creating drawings in general, and suggest new ways in which children’s and childlike drawings can be incorporated into artistic practice.

Keywords

• drawing
• comics
• aetonormativity
• artistic practice
• practice-based research
• graphic narratives