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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Talking Dino

Talking Dino

Talking Dino

"Can you do Talking Dino, Daddy?"

I think he added in "Daddy" to his plea try to win me over. He knows I don't like drawing physical objects since it is much more difficult for me to do a good job. But Talking Dino from the VTech Switch & Go Dino series of toys was an early Christmas gift and he was thrilled to have received it. TV advertising really does work!

I gave it my best shot. I spent my time trying to get it right, but it was difficult. When I was done, he told me, "That looks nothing like Talking Dino."

Oh well. I tried.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Diplodocus

Diplodocus

Diplodocus

He brought home a dinosaur drawing instruction book last night. He got it from the library. I took my time to get the proportions right on this one.

When he saw it, he said, "How cool is that!"

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Angry Birds

Angry Birds

Angry Birds

"I know! Angry Birds!"

I did this one quickly. He loved that the O in his name had a bird in it. I told him, "That's what you'd look like if you were an Angry Bird!" He laughed as he studied each of the birds separately.

Monday, December 17, 2012

How about a clown

How about a clown...

Clown Juggling

"Have you done Santa already?"

"Yes."

"How about a clown."

I really like this clown and how the drawing turned out. It's fun and playful, unlike so many other options that were scary or sad.

He wanted to get involved again today. "Let me just add stripes to his shoes!" he said as he took the Sharpie.

Again he wrote in his name scattering the letters this time individually throughout the drawing. And again, the sneaky R found it's way, as he put it, "camouflaged on his shoe."

Friday, December 14, 2012

Stamps

Stamps

Stamps backsideStamps

Last night, we went to a Family Night event at Victor's school. They had lots of holiday arts and crafts for the kids to enjoy. He used the stamp station to decorate this small snack sack. He was proud of the design and brought it home.

This morning, as I was about to ask him what he wanted on his snack sack, I asked him instead if he wanted to use the sack he had decorated. He said yes. I let him add his name again today. He chose to write his name more than once for good measure, saying to himself as he did it, "I will do two Victors." In fact, he did three Victors.

He added, "You know why I did this today? Because I ran out of ideas." 

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Leaning Tower of Pisa

"I got one perfect idea," he said before he sucked the last few drops of syrup out of his single serving syrup jar. "The Pyramid of Pisa!" he exclaimed. He must have seen the look on my face because he followed that up with, "Whatever. Never mind! A TV. Um, I want a..."

 I interjected, "Did you mean the Leaning Tower of Pisa?"

"Yes! The Leaning Tower," he confirmed.

I knew I was going to have trouble with the uniformity of the archways and overall proportions. I did have trouble indeed, but when I showed it to him, he said, "Great!"

I wasn't sure where to put his name. We had some extra time so I asked him for help. "Oh, I know where to put my name," he said confidently. The letters went in out of order on the bottommost archways.

"Do you know where the 'r' is?" he asked. Without pausing, he continued, "It's sneaky. It's camouflaged." He actually hadn't placed the 'r' just yet. He considered his choices. "Instead," he revised, "I'm going to have an R having a dive. How do you draw an upside down R?" He did his best. "Look Daddy, R's having a dive!"

With the Sharpie in his hand, he wasn't about to stop there.

"Do you want wind? Because it's windy there right?"

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Crystals 2

Crystals 2

Crystals

He asked for crystals today. We had just done crystals a couple of weeks ago so I asked him to think of something else. He got pouty and I quickly relented.

He picked this one and guided me by saying, "You have to do it sideways. You have to!"

He could see on my face that I wasn't sure about tackling all the details and complexity of his choice.

He added a concession, "You don't have to do the little crystals if you don't want to."

"I'll do them," I said already feeling overwhelmed.

"Yay!" he exclaimed. "It's going to be way beautiful when you're done, right? It's always beautiful when you're done because you're the neatest drawer I could ever ask for."

"I am?"

"Because it always looks like what it's supposed to," he said as a sincere compliment.

"Daddy, can you teach me to do that?"

"Yup."

"Yay!"

He had a big smile on his face when he saw the completed drawing. "How did you do the little crystals so fast!?" he asked. "Where's my name? Oh. I don't see the 'i'? I need to fix the 'i'." And so he did.



Tuesday, December 11, 2012

I want a reindeer...

I want a reindeer...

Reindeer

"I want a reindeer."

I handed him my iPhone.

"I want to find one that looks like a real reindeer."

Most looked like Rudolph or some other cartoonish reindeer. He picked this one and I enjoyed drawing it. I was at a loss as to where to put his name. I probably should have just written it under the reindeer. 

Monday, December 10, 2012

Jet

Jet

Jet

"I'm out of ideas."

"It's Monday. You should be full of ideas."

"Oooh, I know! A jet!" he exclaimed a second later looking at his toy Air Force jet on the kitchen table.

I did a Google image search and handed him my iPhone as always.

"They're all so cool! I don't know which one to pick."

I actually wasn't thrilled with his choice over the other options, but oh well, I don't pick them.

He had no reaction today when I showed him the finished product. That's was disappointing. To top that off, I forgot to take a picture of it. As soon as I got back home, I sent his teacher an email asking her to track it down. I asked her to make sure it ended up in his backpack and not in the trash as it normally does. Luckily, he did bring it home. I was relieved not to have lost the record of this one.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Chocolate Fountain

Chocolate Fountain


"When is Mother's Day?"

"May."

"I can't wait to wear fancy clothes again!"

That was a surprise to hear. He usually puts up a good fight on Mother's Day and doesn't want to wear "fancy" clothes.

"Well, we can get fancy sometime and go somewhere fancy," I suggested.

"Then I'd have to make sure I don't get my clothes dirty."

Hmm. That's what I thought. He wasn't being serious.

"What's for the snack sack today?" I asked.

"Oh, I've got an idea. When it's Christmas you get chocolate. And when you get chocolate, you get a chocolate fountain!"

Ah, now I knew where his mind was at. In the past few years for Mother's Day we've been going out for a fancy buffet brunch with friends. One of the features of the buffet that the kids love is the chocolate fountain. They usually don't overindulge, but it must create quite the impression on a youngster to see a never ending flow of chocolate. It is cool indeed!

"Daddy, where's the chocolate?" he asked when he walked over to see the finished drawing. This one was tough for me and I'm not particularly happy with it. It's never easy for me to draw from a source photograph vs a source drawing. He was right to suggest that the drawing isn't instantly recognizable. I think I'll try to stay away from source photographs in the future.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

A machine...

A machine...


"A machine."

"What kind of machine?"

"I don't know. Just make a machine."

I didn't have much time this morning. I picked out the reference drawing myself. He didn't pay much attention to the drawing as I was working on it. He finished his breakfast and brushed his teeth. Since I was still working on it, he offered to take out the trash. Thursday is trash day. I enjoyed working on this one with all it's intricate lines and details.

When he finished taking out the trash, he came over to the kitchen table and asked, "Did you finish it?" He took a look and added, "Is that the whole thing?" He studied it and answered his own question, "Oh yeah. That's the whole thing."

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

A sleigh daddy...

A sleigh daddy...


"A reindeer. A sleigh. A sleigh daddy." That's how we started our morning.

It's always tougher to draw something that has fewer lines and less complexity. There is less room for making mistakes. The perspective isn't quite right on this one but it still captures some of the 3D effect that it should. He liked it well enough but had no comments today.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

A toucan bird...

A toucan bird...


"A toucan bird," he said matter-of-factly. He continued, "You know what gave me the idea?" He didn't pause. "It's because of this guy," he said pointing to the Fruit Loops Box on the kitchen table. At this moment he took a pause. "He's a toucan, right?"

It was clear that he wanted a real toucan and not Toucan Sam. I messed up on my first try, drawing the the bird too big. I had to start over. There are so many ways to mess up a drawing! I was worried on every stroke for this one, especially since I'm drawing directly in Sharpie. Starting out with a mistake can shake my confidence.

"It's very cute," he said affirmingly. "Oooh! That looks more realer. More realer than I'm used to seeing it. Cool!"

Monday, December 3, 2012

I want Santa...

I want Santa...


"I just thought about it. I was thinking it could be a humuhumunukunukuapua'a, but that'd be too hard."

I looked up this Hawaiian named trigger fish and showed him the options.

"I don't want the humuhumunukunukuapua'a," he said definitively, "I wan't Santa!"

It was December finally so I could not deny him anymore.

As he browsed the options he blurted out, "When I forget Santa's name I say Saint Pickles."

He continued to talk while browsing, "Not this Santa, he's too fat."

A minute later he added, "It's hard to pick because they are all too silly."

He picked this one probably because it was the most svelte looking Santa of the bunch.

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