Just spent a few days at my parent’s home in Scotland. I found this buried in a drawer - an old photocopy of a Christmas card that I made when I was about eight years old.
This was my entry for the annual school Christmas card design - a very prestigious competition I seem to remember.
The lucky winner would receive 50 sweet-smelling, purple-inked photocopies of their own Christmas card. My card came second (in the whole school don’t forget!) and I received 30 copies.
I remember a lot of favourable comments being made about the drawing. My teacher in particular seemed to think that, considering my age, the Santa Claus figure demonstrated a sophisticated appreciation for form. At the next parent’s evening, he told my mum and dad that a possible future in art or design lay ahead for me.
The praise must have gone to my head. Very quickly, I managed to convince myself that the picture was my own - that I hadn’t just copied it out of one of my favourite books.
The plagairised drawing:
6 responses so far ↓
1 Julia // Dec 30, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Actually, I think yours has a lot more attitude than the original.
2 admin // Dec 30, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Yeah - mine is bad ass Santa. And did you notice his distorted hand? His thumb points downwards. Can’t believe my teacher didn’t see that. Appreciation for the human form indeed.
Nice to hear from you. Hope you had / are having a good holiday.
Jamie
3 Lindsay // Dec 31, 2008 at 8:39 am
Ho ho ho. Nice one. I love the Raymond Briggs book too - reminds me I must buy it for my children. Actually, maybe you could redo the whole thing and sell it to me cheaper than the original?
4 Cooooooooooncetta // Jan 1, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Hi, dear Professor!!!
Happy New Year!
In my school I prepared a Christmas Tree with my pupils by colour dictation: colour red the candle, colour yellow the ball, … etc.
Then we built with recycled material reindeer of Santa Claus. ..
So, finally we took pictures and we have posted on the school newspaper
Very, very funny … for me and for them!
See you …Have a good time!
Keep in touch
PS The Xmas Card for the next year for my grandson Swissin Zurich …
5 Anne Keddie // Jan 6, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Was the upside down hand designed to throw them off the scent? Sorry, just noticed your reply about that but thought I’d comment anyway
Love the article
Anne
6 admin // Jan 6, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Hello mum. Nice to see you here. Do you remember any of this? Were you aware that your son was a plagiariser of other people’s work?
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