Posted 4 May 2007, by Aaron
Anyone who has a son or daughter or niece or nephew, probably has a fridge covered with very, erm, imaginative drawings. I wonder what the result would be if those imaginations were combined with the skills of a talented artist?
Dave Devrie strives to answer that question on his website, The Monster Engine. However, there is more to Dave’s work than simply satisfying curiosity.
Dave gives workshops in schools to help children express their fears and anxieties through drawing monsters. Dave’s sessions help children who may be going through divorce or having other troubles to tell their stories through the power of art, and ultimately help control their demons.
Here’s a few examples of Dave’s work:
I think these are fantastic, and what’s more they offer a fascinating glimpse at the power of a child’s imagination and creativity. Next time you’re struggling with ideas for that new logo design, why not go grab your daughter or nephew to help throw a few ideas around?
Head over to Dave’s website for more examples of his work. Much credit to Marc Rapp for pointing me in the direction of this one.
Many thanks for the previous posts’ comments: Justin, webee, jez, Tara and David.
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Tags:Art, Creativity, Imagination, Inspiration
What an amazing idea! 
I got my 5 year-old daughter to help out with the last logo I did for a client. She picked the one she liked best from a choice of 8 - and it was one I wasn’t happy with.
The client? Well, he liked the same one as my daughter naturally! 
Your like to Dave’s website is dud by the way!
Hi Paul - There’s something completely honest and natural about a child’s imagination - like it has no inhibitions. And truly creative people, in my opinion, are just like that - just big kids.
Thanks for mentioning the link - fixed now.
Nice find, a really unusual idea. I’ve just watched the video. He paints so quickly, great to watch
I’ve seen some stuff like this before. Children are real visionaries, that’s for sure.
– Scot
Mate, this is awesome.
I’m reading some of Edward De Bono’s books, where he discusses how we lose our creative abilities as we grow older. While a kid would find tens and hundreds of creative solutions to a problem (many of them impossible, of course), an adult could barely find a handful.
Ask a six-year-old to draw a space ship, and you’ll get heaps of amazing and incredible creative drawings. Ask a twelve-year-old, and you’ll get a rocket with NASA written on it.
Tara, Scot, Asgeir - Thanks for the comments.
Interesting point Asgeir - you know it kind of reminds me of the film Crazy People where the mental patients are found to have a natural ability for advertising. Maybe a bit unfair to compare young children with mental patients, but there you go, I’m not a very fair chap. But sometimes it’s the really simple ideas that we miss.
[...] over at Milienzo had an interesting post last week about the artist Dave Devries, who redraws kids’ artwork in an amazing way. [...]
hi my name is jonathan corona. i am 12 years old and my art class had an idea of having 3rd graders draw a monster. so we got the monsters and made them better by painting it with a cerlics (i think thats how u spell it). we thought artist from high school should do one, oh and also college. they all agree we should do one. now we are having an art show of the monsters thanks to you. please comment back! by the way we live in Bend Oregon and the college is COCC. thank u!
Hey Jonathon - I’m really glad that this blog has someway inspired you to be creative and put on an art show. You don’t know how happy that makes me
If there is anyway you can scan your pictures or take photos of them, I’d love to post them here and show them to my readers. Let me know.
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Paul Enderson
5 May 2007, 10:25 pm