An Artist Turned His Childhood Drawings Into This Beautiful, Surrealist Series

When Dutch artist Telmo Pieper came across a big box of his childhood drawings that his parents had put in storage, he was taken aback by his linear representations of snails and hawks, cars and sharks.

“I was fascinated by how strange and great the line drawings were from when I was little,” Pieper says. “Surrealistic feel with a realistic subject — impossible to copy the style but possible to work it out further. So I did.”

Pieper, who is now part of a street art duo called TELMO MIEL, decided to revisit this early series almost 20 years later in “Kiddie Arts,” which juxtaposes Pieper’s artwork as a 4-year-old with more advanced reinterpretations.

“Since the beginning I never stopped creating and drawing,” Pieper says. “The biggest difference is that I started with pencils and crayons and now my main technique is the spray can or the Wacom tablet.”

Subscribe to TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com.