Just a regular troll...

Victor was off for spring break last week. After having picked a Hydra from the book, "How to Draw Magical Creatures and Mythical Beasts," just before the break, he was inspired to make his own book of artwork. He titled it, "Victor's Mythical Creatures book." He copied a Phoenix from the book and drew several of his own creatures including: the "Deth ray," "Mad giy," "Mad Monster truck," and the "The Epik comper." He asked me to draw a large flame on the back cover including a flaming "The End." He worked on the drawings over a couple of days. He also made a second book of drawings, taking an idea from an OmNom (the character from the game Cut the Rope) Stories short. In it, a young boy observes OmNom eating and playing with various foods. The boy makes a book with drawings of the foods, checking off which were OmNom's favorites. Victor basically did the same thing. His drawings of different foods were very cute and imaginative. For each food item, he was able to relay full stories from his imaginary encounters with OmNom. There may have been no snack sacks last week, but it was a week full of drawing!

This morning, I asked as I always do, "What's for the snack sack today?"

"Troll."

"From the book?"

"No, just a regular troll."

I ran a search but he didn't like the options.

"These are not good trolls," he said annoyed by the lack of quality trolls. Then he found what he was looking for. "Oh my gosh! Can you do this one? This is the best looking troll I've ever seen!"

"Sure," I said, surprised that he like this one so much.

After he was done with his breakfast and brushing his teeth, he came over next to me to watch me finish the drawing. "That looks exactly like it," he said encouragingly. "You're so good at drawing. I'm so happy to have you...and Mama."

"And we're so happy to have you!" I said genuinely.

"It looks kind of freaky," he said. He looked closely at the details. "Well, the club doesn't look as freaky. Did you kind of mess up?"

"No," I said a little defensively. I showed him the reference for proof.

He looked at the reference, then back at the drawing several times before noticing that I missed a little triangle hanging off the club. "You missed that little thing," he said, pointing it out.

"Oh."

"That little part makes it look more freaky."

At this point we were running late and needed to head out the door, so I didn't make any changes. Leave it to him not just to catch every little defect, but also to note how it impacts the overall mood of the drawing. While I don't like the criticism, I do like the critique.