My List of Objects and Flash Card Obsession Phase

Recently (looking through a bag of old note pads) I found an interesting artefact from my drawing past.... But it'll take some explanation.

Been involved in a speech therapy class (like I was as a child) 

you'll seen a lot of flash cards that are photographs of everyday things. 

Like this pack. 

In fact this is exactly one of a few decks I was exposed to as a child.

Colour Cards - Everyday Objects (2000 reissue)

I still remember them. Many objects isolated on coloured backgrounds, like items in an auction catalogue. I still remember a wall display back in primary school where the flash cards of photos of parts of a person (the same man) were put together in a sort of unfinished photo-collage.

Been exposed to so many, you'll soon (if you are someone who admires the aesthetics of things (i.e. into art)) develop a sort of obsession with them. And for me it developed into a desire to make my own set of photo flash cards. Except without the "photo" bit. I was just going to draw about a hundred odd pictures of random things. Well, when I say "random" I meant from a check-list I have written up. And when I said "written" I meant typed up using a typewriter (Yes, I did once used a typewriter to write up lists of things.).

I did a couple of them before 2000. It was before I discovered that book. Hey, you had to have a hobby to pass the time. I have high doubts any of them have survived somewhere in my parents place.

Now, you would think, after reading this, my list of objects obsession ended there. Right? Wrong. It was reignited by an unexpected source...

In 2000 (I think) the game-show Friends Like These gave two contestants a mental challenge - remember a sequence of 50 objects in precise order. The two contestants had coaching from Dominic O'Brien and recited the list facing the audience while a screen behind them projected pictures of the objects on green backgrounds - like the flash cards from primary school.

Soon after that, I began to write up (by hand, this time, on lined paper) lists of random objects. then I soon thought of drawing the things I have listed. I used up a few sketch pads doing this....

Which brings me back to the reason for this post. 

I had just found a complete set of drawings of one of these lists. I know its complete because...

1. Each drawing was numbered (a rare thing for me to do back then).
2. With the drawings I had the original lists I wrote before I began drawing them.

What a lucky find!

So here it is - a list of 75 object I made back in June 2001.

(judging from the dates I used for the newspaper and magazine.)

Original list

  

Why did I upload this? Its evidence of my 10,000 hours practise.

If I do find other surviving lists I'll load them up in later posts.