Before the Mazes

Also known as Before the Mazes - What I Drew.

Some of my first mazes were hand drawn in 9 x 12 Artist’s Sketch pads, but these sketches did not start with mazes initially. I filled the blank pages of the sketch pads with drawings of all types. Pencil drawings of faces. Pen and marker drawings of objects. I experimented with many types looks and techniques. 90% of it was terrible, but 20% of it was interesting, ok maybe 10%. I tended to draw minimal designs with lots of spaces and when I found a look I liked I would use it multiple times. Let’s look at a few of the initial drawings.

The Unplugged Head. I used pencil to fill a head with thoughts (difficult to see on the scan) and gave it a electrical outlet plug on the back of the neck. The eye you see is in a state of hypnotization. I have always had a problem with Lemmings, not the game, that was great. The followers. This was probably done one day as I was thinking about that. In high school I bought fabric paint and drew this on a white t-shirt that became my favorite thing to wear, because, high school ?

I then started drawing faces made of 1-3 colors drawn with markers, heavily spaced and made of think lines like these. I made dozens of these. I tried to give personalities to faces with drawing them in interesting, happy colors.

My next branch led to keeping the colors, but allowing myself to use new line shapes to build more interesting characters. Things were still a bit weird, but I enjoyed spending my time filling large sketch pads with these concepts. Looking back, I always used white space as part of the images. Below are The Native American, Piano Man, and Gee Shucks.

I must have bought some colored pencils or the markers started to dry out, because the next set of drawings were all in colored pencil. Let’s call these Awkward Mosaic and Abstract Happy Face. I did these until I moved on to black and white drawings of faces closer to the ones above. Those are so terrible they will not be posted here.

I have no idea what I was thinking when I drew most of these things, like Awkward in Pajamas below. I do like the right arm bent positioning of the character as they give the gazer a feeling of “What do you think you are looking at?” (exactly they say to themselves).

Eventually I started drawing cartoons and mini comic strips. I created an alien character that I named Oscar. Oscar, or O.S.C.A.R. of course standing for….I have no idea but the A would be Alien. I must have been inspired by Alf or Third Rock From The Sun because I would put the alien in everyday situations. Eventually those aliens became mazes…which you can read about here !

So that’s how I started drawing. Check out my About Page for more information.

Other posts you may like:

What I use to make my mazes

10 Places Where you can Buy Spectacular Maze Art

The Surprising Benefits of Solving Mazes

Quotes About Mazes and Labyrinths

Quotes about Mazes and Labyrinths

Maze quotes:

“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.” - Buddha

“I have a theory that when you're lost on the path, go back to the beginning and try the maze again.” - Amanda Seales

“Society bristles with enigmas which look hard to solve. It is a perfect maze of intrigue.” - Honore de Blazac

“You're this rat in the American maze, working your way towards the cheese, which is a job.” - Kevin Costner

“You can choose to live your life as a maze or a labyrinth - a maze with its confusions, wrong turns, dead ends and false hopes, or a labyrinth with its many turnings, but none of them wrong, a path with sure and certain knowledge of reaching and experiencing the center, home.”

-Rev Dr. Carole Ann Camp (Labyrinths from the Outside In)

“Life is no straight and easy corridor along which we travel free and unhampered, but a maze of passages, through which we must seek our way, lost and confused, now and again checked in a blind alley”

- A.J. Cronin

“Perhaps we should stop telling people that they are simply mice, chasing cheese, in someone else’s maze”

“What happens in a maze is beyond your control. What you can control is your reaction.”

“In the maze, there is only pursuit”

“Those who had designed the maze had done so for their own benefit and for their own purposes.

- Deepak Malhotra, I Moved Your Cheese

“I'm not dying in a f**king rat maze!”

- Quenten (character in the movie Cube)

“The maze is a symbol of life…happiness, sadness…and you reach your goal…there’s a dream there, and you reach that dream when you get to the middle of the maze…that’s how I was told, my grandparents told me that’s how the maze is.”

- Alfreda Antone, from Tohono O’odham tribe speaking abut The Man in the Maze

“Although most of us acknowledge the desirability of labyrinths, when it come down to it, we generally see our lives as mazes, not labyrinths”

:”In a maze we lose ourselves, in a labyrinth we find ourselves”

- Jill Kimberly Hartwell Geoffrion, Living The Labyrinth

“Mazes are for those who want to tune in to their innate sense of curiosity. Mediatate, learn, and reconnect with your sense of fun.”

Julie E Bounford, The Curious History of Mazes

"The maze is all around us, every choice we make, every turn we take, every path we follow."

- Christopher Paolini, Eragon

“La mente es un labrinto en el que cualquiera puede perderse” OR in English : “The mind is a labyrinth (used like maze) in which anyone can get lost”

- Atrociuos (2010) movie

"Life is a maze. There are many paths to take, but only one leads to your destination." - Unknown

"The maze is a symbol of the journey of life. It is a series of challenges that we must overcome in order to reach our destination." - Unknown

"The maze is a metaphor for the human condition. We are all lost in a maze, trying to find our way out." - Unknown

"The maze is a challenge, but it is also a journey of self-discovery. As we walk through the maze, we learn more about ourselves and our strengths." - Unknown

"The maze is a reminder that we are not alone. Others have walked this path before us, and they can help us find our way." - Unknown

"The maze is a symbol of hope. It shows us that there is always a way out, even when things seem hopeless." - Unknown

"The maze is a place of discovery. As we explore the maze, we find new things about ourselves and the world around us." - Unknown

"The maze is a place of both danger and opportunity. We must be careful not to get lost, but we must also be open to new experiences." - Unknown

"The maze is a place of transformation. As we walk through the maze, we are changed by the experience." - Unknown

Labyrinth Quotes:

“He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life.”
- Victor Hugo

"So, the Labyrinth is a piece of cake, is it? Well, let's see how you deal with this little slice..."

“You have thirteen hours in which to solve the labyrinth, before your baby brother becomes one of us... forever.”

“Tell me Sarah, what do you think of my labyrinth?”

-The Goblin King (David Bowie), from The Labyrinth

“With a labyrinth, you make a choice to go in - and once you've chosen, around and around you go. But you always find your way to the center.”
- Jeff Bridges

“The labyrinth is a vibrant flowerbed of creation and the perfect place to plant seeds for the future.”

- Lea Goode Harris, PH.D

“The labyrinth was designed by an intelligence we cannot fully understand. But this much I do know. The labyrinth is truly a tool for transformation”

-Lauren Artress, Walking a Sacred Path

“A labyrinth is not a maze. A maze is designed for you to lose your way; a labyrinth is designed for you to find your way”

-Lauren Artress, Foreword to Praying The Labyrinth

“Be open and follow, the labyrinth will take you places you don’t expect to go”

“They [Labyrinths] are symbols, spiritual tools, mathematical images, harmonic patterns, pathways of discovery, playgrounds of prayer.”

“ A BEAUTIFUL SPRITUAL TOOL has captured my attention and my heart. The labyrinth is its name.”

- Jill Kimberly Hartwell Geoffrion, Praying The Labyrinth

“The labyrinth may offer gifts that are not immediately obvious”

“Labyrinths,… provide a wonderful haven where questions can be welcomed, honored, and explored”

- Jill Kimberly Hartwell Geoffrion, Pondering The Labyrinth

“Thou mayst not wander in that labyrinth; There Minotaurs and ugly treasons lurk”

- William Shakespeare, from Henry IV Part One

“The labyrinth as a whole is a symbol of any things, and primarily it is a symbol of wholeness, oneness, your journey in life, and the interconnectedness of all of existence”

-Tony Christie, Labyrinth:Your Path to Self-Discovery

“The labyrinth is a material manifestation of a collective unconscious, of a message sent forth into the beyond.”

-Jacques Attali, The Labyrinth in Culture and Society

“All that is really required in walking the labyrinth is to show up, place one foot in front of the other, and breathe”

-Melissa Gayle West, Exploring the Labyrinth: A Guide for Healing and Spiritual Growth

“Labyrinths are entrances to new phases of life”

-Uwe Wolff, from Mazes & Labyrinths (by Hohmuth)

“Stepping onto a labyrinth isn't normally associated with moving from one phase of life to another, but I do believe every walk involves acknowledging the possibility that you will be changed in some way, even if this may not immediately be apparent”

“Walking a labyrinth is often described as being a ‘metaphor for life’, in that we don’t know who might meet along our path, nor what experience we might enjoy”

“The labyrinth is accepting and embracing of all”

- Clive Johnson (from the book Labyrinth A - Omega)

“Recovering past life experiences is analogous to walking a labyrinth. You begin at an entry point, you walk in a weave back and forth until you arrive near the center, then back and forth outward again, then return in weaving toward the center again and backwards out again, until you finally arrive at the center. This center can represent the Self at the center of our being”

- Kathy Bornino from A Labyrinth of Lifetimes

“Well, the only way out of here is to try one of these doors! One of them leads to the castle at the end of the labyrinth, and the other one leads to... Ba-baba-BOOM! Certain DEATH!”

• Guards conversation from The Labyrinth movie

“The labyrinth is a universally imprinted archetype or theme illustrating our life’s journey towards spiritual development and completion”

“We can make choices about how we walk the labyrinth in the same way that we make choices about how we experience life.”

- Liz Simpson, The History of the Labyrinth

“How now Thersites? What, lost in the Labyrinth of thy furie?”

- William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida

“Does the imagination dwell the most, Upon a woman won or woman lost? If on the lost, admit you turned aside, From a great labyrinth out of pride”

- W.B. Yeats

“The Labyrinth. A Path to your deepest wisdom.”

- www.veriditas.org/

“When you allow yourself to be who you truly are and not whom everyone else believes you should be, then you find your true self, hiding in the centre of the labyrinth formed by society’s lies encircling your essence”

- Rei , The Labyrinth: Rewiring The Nodes In The Maze Of Your Mind

“The chronicle of the labyrinth, and more recently, the maze, spans the past four thousand years, taking many twists and turns”

- Julie E Bounford, The Curious History of Mazes

"The labyrinth is a metaphor for the human psyche, with its many layers and hidden passages. It is a place of self-discovery and transformation." - Unknown

"The labyrinth is a place of peace and tranquility, where one can find solace and reflection." - Unknown

"The labyrinth is a place of mystery and magic, where anything is possible." - Unknown

"The labyrinth is a place of connection, where one can feel at one with oneself, with others, and with the universe." - Unknown

Quotes that fit doing a maze:

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”
- Greg Anderson

”By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.”
- Christopher Columbus

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
- Thomas Edison

“The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.”

 –Thich Nhat Hanh

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

-J.R.R. Tolkien

“There is no right or wrong path. There is only the path that you choose. Whatever you choose, there will be many opportunities for you to grow and expand”

- Quan Yin

“Well, when one's lost, I suppose it's good advice to stay where you are, until someone finds you. But who'd ever think to look for me here?”

- Alice (from Alice in Wonderland)

“Instead of searching for what you do not have, Find out what it is you have never lost.”

- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That

“Do you maze ?” - Me

More posts you may like:

The 10 Most Famous Labyrinths from Around the World

Discovering 7 of the World's Most Interesting Mazes

What I learned using AI to make maze art

Convert a Hand Drawn Maze to a Digital Maze in 3 steps

I used to make all my mazes by hand but now I prefer making digital mazes. Today’s post on converting a maze from a paper drawn maze to a digital maze has 3 parts: Part 1 is the 3 step process to do a maze conversion on your own. Part 2 is the story of how I decided to do a particular project with a completed example. And Part 3 shows you some maze conversion examples I mention in Part 2.

Part 1: HOW TO CONVERT A DRAWING TO A DIGITAL MAZE

This is not a magic solution. You will end up drawing the maze again using this process.

1. Use a scanner to get the mazes in digital form. (alternatively you can take a picture if you have a steady hand). Now I am assuming this is not a one step process that you want (although it could be for some of you). I am assuming you want a digital vector drawing of your maze that also allows you clean up any stray marks made during the initial drawing. If like most people you do not have a scanner, I used the scanner for free at my local library ! Hopefully you can do the same !

2. Open the File in Inkscape (or a similar design program)

   I do all of my maze making in Inkscape. Inkscape is a free open source vector graphics editor, but you can use a similar product if you already have the needed skills in that program. I found, that like most programs, Inkscape basics can be learned quickly playing around in the program. You can learn a bit more from YouTube videos, and to finally master it so you aren’t frustrated all the time (While muttering why can’t I just do XXXXX) that will just take time and practice. I just found something a few days ago than I needed for a year. Time and practice are your friend.

3. Draw the Maze over the Scan

   Here is where the skills come in. Use Inkscape to draw the vector maze on top of the original scan (it will become the background). You can decide if you want to make changes/fixes as you go (as I did for my Alien Mazes above). When you are finally finished, delete the original scan, leaving only the new vector based maze. Now it is easy to write make the maze, and if you do not think you have the confidence, practice and read some of these How to’s. Yes, in reality, Step 3 can actually be broken down into approximately 6 parts for the actual maze construction.

Part 2: THE STORY

When I first started making mazes in high school I drew with pen or markers on paper in Mead art sketch pad books. I mixed the mazes in with other random artwork that I did, switching things up to stay interested. Eventually I decided I liked making mazes and would do many in a row.

For fun I also created my own cartoon character who I would put in funny comic strips, well I thought they were funny. His name was Oscar and he was an alien who lived on Earth. Maybe this was influenced by the tv show ALF. I must have also been inspired by Where’s Waldo when I made the picture below I call An Alien Circus. Check out the great ruled paper ! Good enough to be in an art gallery - NO ! Bad enough to be in an bad art gallery - definitely closer ! But, it was fun to make and made me have to think about different shapes for different characters like the alien elephant and many alien circus clowns.

Well, after drawing a variety of mazes of various things I decided to combine the two with a maze of my alien character Oscar. Below is his face in maze form, although he does have a full body. I liked how it came out and filled a book with hand drawn Alien mazes, with 44 in total.

Looking back they were ok. Most of them look like amoebas more than aliens, but who are we to say what aliens really look like ? (if you are an alien - how did I do?) One thing I do appreciate is that I picked a theme and a particular look and I expanded on it. Since I can’t publish the 3-ring binder of that initial work I decided to do my best to publish it now in a better form. First, I scanned all the files (thank you public library !). Next, I had to split the files into individual files (oops!). Then I opened, named and centered each maze.

I’m going to be honest I was doing a bit of a Marie Kondo when I started this project, trying to rid myself of old papers by digitizing my art, and discarding the papers. Now, in most cases I did discard the paper and digitize the art. But for this, I still have the original hand drawn book of mazes.

This is when I decided I needed to create 2 books. One of the original artwork, with added covers (front and back), and numbered pages, and a second book converting and updating the maze artwork.

To create the conversion book I decided on a few rules:

1. Make the size of the new maze the same as the original.

2. Put the entrance and the exit to the maze in the same place as in the original.

3. Use a simple grid pattern for the maze, not the original pathways. While this changes the look of the mazes, it does make them much more solvable for younger solvers and standardizes their look even more.

4. Change the color of the walls from Blue ink to black.

How did it turn out ? Well I’ll leave that up to you to decide in Part 3. I think they came out ok. I certainly enjoyed making the digital conversions and hope to do more.

Here is a download for the converted version of the book called The Wild and Wacky Aliens MAZE Book. Obviously, as I mentioned I changed the mazes to be for Kids though I don’t have a specific age. Enjoy !

When I tried to create a book of the hand drawn mazes, but the file sizes where too big to create a book with the resources I have.

Enjoy the free downloadable kids maze book !!

So that was the story, now let’s look at some examples.

Part 3: 5 MAZE CONVERSION EXAMPLES

Each from the above downloadable book, The Wild and Wacky Aliens MAZE Book. Again, during my conversion I changed the maze pathways from hand drawn medium difficulty to a standard maze construction made for kids. I did this to make the maze difficulty more congruent to the subject matter (aliens).

Example #1:

And after our first example…do you prefer the perfect circle from digital or the uneven hand drawn ? Notice how I used different pathway widths in the conversion. The mouth is more narrow to give it a darker look.

Examples #2&3:

Much easier version in digital. I like these guys, or uh aliens. Examples #4&5:

Once you have a good handle on how to use a vector design program, converting a maze from hand drawn to digital will become second nature. Good luck !

More posts you may like:

The 10 Most Famous Labyrinths from Around the World

Discovering 7 of the World's Most Interesting Mazes

What I learned using AI to make maze art