Piranha

"What'll it be today?"

"Just the Angry Birds."

"No. I'm not going to do something I've already done," I told him. I've already done Angry Birds, Angry Birds Go!, Star Wars Angry Birds, and most recently, Red in a Race Car. I like Angry Birds, but there isn't much variety in drawing them.

He gave me no reaction. "Rainbow loom bracelet," he said out of the blue.

"That won't look like anything," I told him. I showed him options. 

"You're right. That doesn't really look like anything."

"So, what'll it be then?"

"I don't  know."

"Be creative. Think of something new."

"Give me a category."

I listed lots of them. 

He ignored me and said, "The Wishing Star."

"That won't look like anything either."

"I've seen one," he said brightly.

I showed him options and again he agreed with me that none were suitable. I challenged him once more to think of something new.

He thought for a good solid minute and then said, "Piranha."

I nodded my head. Finally! Something new. I ran a search and he picked quickly.

"I knew you'd pick that one."

"How did you know?"

"There's just something about what you like that I could just tell."

He was genuinely surprised that I had guessed it. I enjoyed drawing with the fat tip of the Sharpie today. I used the thin tip only for some fine tuning.

"That looks exactly like it. How come every time you do it, it looks exactly like it?"

"Because I focus."

"And you draw what you see, not what you think you see," he said remembering the mantra I recite in my head as I draw. It was my 8th grade art teacher who taught me that.

"Exactly."