Can you see "clues" in your art?

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I've been digging out the files of school reports and artwork from age about 11-22. I thought it'd be impossible to find artwork "evidence" of Aspie traits in my childhood because I thought I had always hidden the meanings behind my drawings/art/design, even at uni, through being conditioned into me (if you get too "deep" then try to verbalise why you've drawn something as a child, you ramble on and people just interupt with "oh, thats a nice tree"). I thought I had always been forced to draw mundane things at school- still-lifes of fruit, but it turns out a lot of it was quite relevant.

For example, I did a LOT of self portraits, all the same, and all expressionless and face-on.

-I have an example of how i used to draw from a group photo for example, but only ever put features on/effort into my own face. Most of these got thrown out as unfinished and unacceptable.

-There are a lot of tiny details in most pictures; I drew all of the plait-like pieces of wool on a life-size picture of a hat, and the same with bark on a tree, and there is one example of the "natural pattern" curve/spiral pictures I repeatedly made.

-An art class when i was 11 involved re-designing the front cover from our favourite book. Mine is something like "Mysteries of the unexplained: mind, space and time" and it is half me/half alien face! haha.

-The manga picture that peed off a friend who said "I've been learning that for a year and you just did it when I told you how once!", then stormed off and didn't speak to me for a week :/

Even my college sketchbook notes are of my fascination with details/textures and "moods", and my writing about my work is far more soul-searching than any of my teachers or friends were ever privy to in conversation. In school you're always forced to reference other artists, and show how you got to the concepts to get marks I just needed to make something as soon as I thought or "felt" an idea was important to capture.

What did you all use to draw repeatedly as kids?

When I was a kid my teachers were amazed at my ability to draw and encouraged me to do so with projects and such.

I would draw faces and hands. I was very focused on proportion and not emotion. I also focused on each line, to the point I would try to draw each eyelash.

Ditto. Also kinetic human figures, mostly female. I always preferred images in motion, rather than static, decorative still life pictures. My idols were great comic book artists, like Bernie Wrightson, Frank Frazetta, Jose Gonzalez, Jack Kirby and Jeff Jones.

None of my pictures of faces had any facial expression.

Many detailed drawings of the same 2 or 3 subjects, I was into one manga series and drew characters a lot and as for facial expression I had one default one sort of on the border of expressionless/serious deep thought.

I have lots of line drawings of hands too, and my mum was obsessed with them in her childhood art too. I was obsessed with da vinci's proportion work, but I think this actually hindered me- when I stuck too rigidly to the "rules" of drawing people.

Yeah, the female body is much more expression-full so I focused on that too- and my pen style is scratchy- I have to get a "feel" for the movement and form, and "find the line" by going over it again, evolving a picture gradually- Manga, to me, didnt allow for me to get any "movement" or emotion into the people, but then I know some arty people find it's the other way round- they can show more emotion with more controlled, precise pen/brushstrokes.

That's exactly how I think mine look- my eyes are piercing but blank, and I'm thinking very seriously. My real emotions might have appeared disturbing to others or too embarrassing to accidentally let anyone know whats really inside!

I had a few goes at what I considered to be "real" art for school homework- atmospheric scenes or unusual angles, (which are my favourites as I look at them now), and I'd get worse marks than ever. One teacher wrote "Unusual, very "dark"- hard to grade- B?"- literally the worst mark I'd ever got, and I was devastated about being so bold because it had ruined my record. I mean, what were they trying to teach me about creativity? Best to dumb everything down and draw puppies or fruit in the "style" of someone else :/

Its funny you bring this up. I am a qualified visual artist, been drawing all my life. Only got my dx last year at 41. And when I look at my art, yes I definitely see clues to my ASD nature - alienation is a theme that comes up again and again. I also like that I have a visual lexicon of my own, a language of symbols that developed from my practice. And I am obsessive in my hyper realistic preferences. I always envy the abstract types - it is beyond my ability.

It wont be beyond your ability at all- its just that it didn't have positive emotions when you tried, so you gave up. Try using a big brush on a small canvas and just experimenting with silhouettes, or sculpt clay without tools, to get you used to an "unfinished" look- if you can do the hyper-realistic bit, you can definitely visualise and create abstract art! You just need to do it confidently!

How did you feel when you were diagnosed? Did you know before that? Did you present some of your work when being diagnosed?
Im not sure how they would take my own opinions, but I think only the artist can evaluate their own work properly.

Alienation seems to be a massive underlying theme for me too, although that's not a word I really related to as a child- I felt pushed into society, not out of it. My college work included a life-size white plaster me, fed up, in a box with a glass front. I didn't dare talk about WHY i had done this (it seemed so cheesy, because i was a "goth" and theyd judge me for trying anything too deep or dark) so I did other pieces more suited to the teachers tastes, then focused my background research/work on hyper-realism- the technical side which i was also obsessed with. Ron mueck is a genius!! ! I made my realistic sculptures out of wax because it was the only available material that would sculpt like skin (but was a nightmare) Thank god I can afford the correct materials these days!

I was so embarrassed about people recognising the real meanings behind my art, that I did not collect any of it when I left school/college etc. My final project's sculpture caused me so much stress (people would have read the description in the gallery, so they'd KNOW what I was thinking), that I just left it in the foyer, went to the pub and never saw it again- have no photos or anything :/

The only clue I can see is that I known I am different than anybody else and quite depressed but still willing to live and have friends. But surprisingly the characters in my stories (since it looks like I was creating short, comic stories) both me and the others show emotions. Face and body language. Wierd... I guess I was already a sharp observer back then.

There some of my arts (I drawn them when I was about 13 year old, don't have any art from earlier stage):

[Story about overcoming depression]
[Story about Devil (me) hiding from an Angel and finding a human friend]
[Wierd story about protecting human friends from a Grim Reaper]

Last edited by Kiriae on 02 Apr 2014, 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

I was so relieved to get the diagnosis... me and a friend kind of figured it out about six months before I got my diagnosis, but prior to that I always knew there was something askew, not quite normal, I knew I was different in some way I could never quite understand, and the attitudes of others reinforced this belief. I didn't have the word-concept for alienation as a child, but definitely felt it strongly. I could not identify with or relate to the group dynamics I was under constant pressure to conform to. I kind of "failed" at family togetherness or school spirit or whatever lol.

I had to take a look at Mueck's work, wasn't familiar with him. Excellent work!!
It's not that I can't do abstract art, I just feel so dishonest when I attempt it, so I can't enjoy the process and give up.
I used to be embarrassed by my art too. I remember burning my high school folio on the beach after graduating. All my non-artistic friends were quite upset by that.
It is nice to have the best materials, isn't it.

Your self-portrait sculpture sounds wonderful, although i can relate to you abandoning it.
I hope you keep at it - never give up!

This is basically the theme of everything I did, now that I think of it.
I did obsess about details, specially of faces. I don't know if this is the way I managed to learn about people –through constantly drawing their faces and wondering what does the expression mean. I started to obsess about eyes (but let be said that I always used photography as reference since is less scary) then when that was somewhat covered I started to obsess about the shape of the face, then the nose, then the lips. Now I'm currently obsessed about chins and the way you can create volume on the face.
But as composition goes, I only started to make full completed artwork a few years ago, and even when I had to paint my first still life on college I would make it "depressing" or "lonely" (it was something to do with the color palette I use; said my teacher that time). Then when I could arrange the elements and paint at my own licking I remember quite well a painting that you could see grouped various elements and then there was this small element a bit far away in the table (and this one was the one it was more detailed, I believe).
My realistic drawings have always been me trying to figure out something, but i think that my abstract drawings that I've been trying lately are the ones that I feel I've expressed more through them. The themes are always only understandable to me, so I guess that in that sense I feel protected doing something more ambiguous, but sometimes I find myself a little bit expectant to see if anybody can understand them.

I'm terrible at any sort of "visual" art. I've painted and sketched cartoon characters, but only for fun. You won't find any deep expression in my little scribbles.

The title of this thread just says "art", though, and even though I've never drawn anything good, there's probably clues about my diagnosis in my music. I'm not that excellent of a musician, either, but luckily I discovered the art of producing near the end of High School. I'm much more inclined to the gloriously detail-oriented tasks of mixing/mastering than I am writing or performing.

My work has also been described as being extremely dark, although I'm not sure if that identifies me as an Aspie or just a gloomy person. The best compliment I ever received on one of my tracks was from a girl who said she couldn't listen to it because it was going to give her nightmares. That wasn't really my intention, but it felt great to know that I could evoke that strong of a reaction.

Wow what a cool thread.

I can relate to what so many of you have said. I primarily draw girls but now that I think of it, their facial expressions are generally either very blank or very pensive. Isolation is a huge theme with me...as is death and pain. This thread made me discover something in my own art too: even though I don't really draw expressive humans, I show the emotion through non-human figures.