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Thursday, September 25, 2014

Yertle the Turtle

Dr. Seuss Yertle the Turtle

"What should we do today?"

"I keep running out of ideas so I don't know."

"Should we stop doing it?" I asked, surprising myself. I should really have shown more patience, but I've been a little frustrated with his recent inability and indifference toward picking new things to draw every day.

"What?" he asked.

"Snack sacks."

"No. Sometimes I just need two minutes. You choose what you want," he said, throwing it back to me.

"How about Dr. Seuss? We haven't done anything from Dr. Seuss," I told him. Last night we'd read the Happy Birthday to You! book which I'd never heard of, let alone read. As usual, I was left amazed by the silly story and original illustrations.

"Yes we have," he insisted.

"What?" I asked, trying to think back. "From the Lorax? That was just the rocks, 'Unless'."

"Yeah, but it's still from Dr. Seuss."

"But we haven't done any of the fun characters!"

"Okay, then do Yertle the Turtle."

Yertle the Turtle is another Dr. Seuss book I’ve never read myself. “Okay,” I said.

I ran a search and handed him my iPhone. He browsed for a bit. “This one is too crazy!” he shouted. He showed it to me, but I didn't think it looked too crazy. He didn’t wait for me to respond. He kept scrolling. “I've got it! This one,” he said. “It kind of looks like a horse...a horse with a shell on its back.”

This one was easy, although, I didn't get his face quite right. I drew his beak first and didn't leave myself enough room for his eyes and face so it's a bit more compact that it should be. Otherwise it looks cool. I wanted his opinion. “So what do you think?” I asked him as I moved the bag in front of his face.

“Of the snack sack?” he said, distractedly. He was playing Minecraft on his iPad.

“Yes.”

“Yeah, it looks awesome,” he said, hardly looking at it.

He was distracted by Minecraft and justifiably so. In just the past couple of days, he’d begun to play the game in survival mode instead of creative mode. It’s hard for a snack sack drawing to compete in a moment when he's enthralled with what's new and fresh and dangerous. However, just like Dr. Seuss and his wonderful creations will stand the tests of time, I believe our little project will as well. Games like Minecraft may have their impact, but I believe they are less likely to maintain the same kind of permanence.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The Root Beer Guy

Mug Root Beer Logo with Bulldog

"Snack sack idea?" I asked him.

"Peppermint Pattie," he said without hesitation.

"What do you mean?"

"A Peppermint Pattie," he repeated, gesturing toward the pantry. We have taken a liking to York Peppermint Patties and recently bought a Costco-sized box. I did a search and handed him my iPhone. He didn't really like any of the options. I didn't blame him. "I know what else we can do," he said all of the sudden.

"What?"

"The root beer guy," he said while pointing to a 2-liter bottle of Mug Root Beer that was also inside the pantry. I did a new search and handed him my iPhone again. To my surprise, he picked a black and white brand logo instead of an actual can or soda bottle. It would seem that he's finally catching on to what's easiest for me to draw.

It probably would have looked cooler if I'd been able to fill in the logo all blacked out behind the bulldog and the MUG label. I didn't want to rush and ran out of time after I got all the elements drawn in. I like how the bulldog came out most. "How's it look?" I asked him.

"Oh, wow! It looks good!" he exclaimed.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Foam Hand - Go Kids

Foam Hand - Go Kids

Last night we chatted as he was getting ready for bed. "What was your favorite part of going to the game yesterday?" I asked him.

We'd gone to watch a San Diego Padres baseball game on Sunday. It was a rare spontaneous outing spurred on by a promotion put on by his school district. We paid $20 for $50 seats. He'd been asking to go watch a Padres game ever since he went on a field trip to Petco Park with his summer program. He doesn't particularly like baseball, but I wanted to encourage his enthusiasm, so we went to the game.

He thought for a moment. "Getting the big hand," he said.

As I mentioned, he doesn't really like baseball. It was a good game with lots of scoring, but he hardly paid attention. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure the only reason he wanted to go was to get the big foam finger and point it all around. On his insistence, we bought it just as soon as we got there. He loved it but didn't use it quite as much as I had expected. "So we could have gone to the game, bought the foam hand, then came right back home and that would have been just as good," I said in good humor.

"Yeah, pretty much," he answered cheekily.

"You're silly. I know what I'm going to draw tomorrow, though."

"What?" he asked. 

"Guess!" I said, pointing to the hand.

A smile creeped up onto his face. "Yeah!" he shouted.

In the morning, I got to work on the hand straight away without checking in with him. I didn't want him to change his mind. I made quick work of the outline, then asked him, "Should I put 'Go Padres'?"

"Definitely don't put 'Go Victor'."

But that would make a lot of sense, I thought. "No?" I asked.

"No. Put a croissant."

"Huh?"

"Put, 'Go Croissant'."

"Um, no." I had no idea what he was talking about. I ignored him for a while and kept working. When I was ready, I asked again, "What should we put?"

"'Go root beer!'"

"No! I don't want to put something that makes no sense." He looked at me like I was the weird one. "I'm just going to put 'Go SD' or 'Go Victor', okay?"

"Um, yeah, okay." He paused, then interjected, "Actually, put 'Go Kids'."

"Oh, okay, 'Go Kids'," I said. "Sure, I can do that. And then I'll put 'VT'." I showed him the original.

"Yeah. 'VT' here and 'Go Kids' here, okay?" he said, pointing out the correct locations for each.

When I was finished, I realized that I should have drawn it the other way around so that he could have put his hand in the sack to wave it about. Ooops! I'd thought of that last night but completely forgot this morning. Ugh. I was mad at myself. I considered starting all over, but didn't really have enough to time for that. "What do you think of it?" I asked him.

"It's good," he said without much enthusiasm. Perhaps if I'd made the bag functional as a pointer, as it should have been, he'd have had a more enthusiastic reaction.

Friday, September 19, 2014

A Baby Penguin

Baby Penguin

"What should we draw today?"

No answer.

I asked him again, "What should we draw today?"

No answer.

"Victor I need a snack sack idea," I said more firmly.

"Okay, do a baby penguin," he blurted out.

"A baby penguin?"

"Mm-hmm," he hummed.

"Okay," I said.

I ran a search and handed him my iPhone. "Oh my gosh! These are all super cute! Dad, if you could, could you do this one? He looks super cute!"

"Sure," I agreed. I was very careful to maintain the basic shapes as I colored it in. I knew it'd be easy to lose focus and add a stroke outside the outline, thus losing the cuteness effect. Based on Victor's reaction, I did a good enough job.

"That is the cutest snack sack that you ever did," he said with delight. "I'm so bringing this home. There's no way that I'm not." He stared at it some more. "That took you a long time," he added.

"It always takes longer when I have to color something in," I told him.

"Oh my gosh! He is so cute!" he exclaimed one last time before we headed out the door.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Happy 8th Birthday Victor!

8 Scoop Ice Cream Cone

I can't hardly believe it, but Victor turned 8 years old today. I drew an 8 scoop ice cream cone for his 8th birthday. Last year it was 7 cupcakes. The year before, I drew a birthday cake. As usual, I didn't tell him what I was going to draw. I just got started.

As soon as I was finished, I showed it off and asked, "What do you think?"

"It's good!" he said with a big smile.

His new school doesn't support sending in treats to celebrate a kid's birthday. Instead, they've asked us parents to think of creative ways to celebrate in the classroom. Naturally, I thought of coming to school to celebrate with him and teach the kids about drawing. Since the school didn't want real treats, I planned for the kids to learn how to draw treats...things like candy, cup cakes, and ice cream.

I arrived at his classroom about an hour before lunch. The kids were excited to have a visitor, as was Victor. I brought in a bunch of classic snack sacks to share. Victor joined me at the front of the classroom. We started by explaining our project and browsing through the physical sacks as well as the photos. He was thrilled to flip through them all pointing out little notes about each. The class was very engaged.

Just about everyone raised their hand when I asked how many kids wished they were better at drawing. I handed out worksheets with drawing samples of the various sweets. I explained how starting from basic shapes can be a good technique for breaking down a drawing you want to copy. We worked together as I drew on the whiteboard and they drew on paper. Even Victor's teacher joined in for the lesson. I gave a few more tips on drawing mechanics and then let them loose.

I handed out some more paper and some blank snack sacks. I asked the class to draw creatively with the suggestion to incorporate sweets into the scene. The kids were quite enthused. Minus two exceptions (one girl wasn't interested for whatever reason and hardly participated and one boy got frustrated and emotional as he struggled to copy the sweets to his own satisfaction), the energy was overwhelmingly positive with kids thoroughly enjoying the creative session.

The hour flew by and it was a challenge for the kids to settle down, clean up, and prep themselves to head out for lunch. They finally left the classroom well after their lunchtime had officially started. I shuffled on out myself happy to have made Victor's day a bit more special.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Batman

Batman

"What's for the snack sack today?"

He thought for a long while. Finally he said, "I'm starting not to have ideas."

"Remember, you can think of anything."

He said nothing.

"You had lots of Looney Tunes clips on the iPad that we haven't done," I reminded him. "Or how about this guy from Lucky Charms since you like them so much," I suggested pointing to the leprechaun on the box of cereal.

"What's his name, Daddy?"

"I think it's Lucky."

"Oh, yeah. Right. It is Lucky."

"So should I draw him?"

He ignored me and asked, "Did you put wine on that?" He was referring to my toast. "If you did I want some," he said with mischievous smile.

"No. It's jelly, silly," I informed him. In fact, it was blueberry preserves.

"Oh," he said in disappointment.

Before I could stop myself, I said in my best Gru voice, "I'm making a line of jams and jellies." That gave me an idea. "How about Gru or Dr. Nefario from Despicable Me?" I suggested.

"Um, no," he said without hesitation. "How about Silence Ramsbottom?" he asked.

"Ramsbottom? Okay," I said. I did a search and found his first name to be Silas.

Victor browsed through the options for Silas Ramsbottom and was likely disappointed with them since the character is funny and memorable only for his name. "Something here gave me an idea," he said and paused for effect. "Batman!" he whispered in a deep Batman-y voice. It's funny how random things pop into his head.

"I've already done Batman," I said.

"No, you haven't."

I actually wasn't sure. "Well, I know I've done the Batcave."

"Yeah, but in it Batman was tiny."

"I think I've done Batman before," I repeated, although I was feeling more doubtful now.

"No you haven't," he insisted.

He was right. I took my iPhone back and searched through our old stuff. I found the Joker and the Batcave with a tiny Batman shadow in it, but no real drawing of Batman. "I guess I haven't," I admitted.

I ran a search and handed him my iPhone once more. He picked this one pretty quickly. I drew Batman carefully and only messed up a little bit. I considered shading him in but decided against it. When Victor saw it, he shouted, "It's awesome!"

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

How about King Kong...

King Kong

"What should we do today?"

He ignored my question.

"I need to know what to draw so I can get started."

"Um, not Mario because he's too violent." That seemed like a random comment, but I remembered that he mentioned seeing a YouTube video where Nintendo's Mario was portrayed as a character committing a lot of violent acts. I haven't seen it for myself. He's brought it up from time to time, so it's clear he was a bit traumatized by it. He assured me he will never watch it again. I believe him.

"How about a different character from Mario?"

"No," he said quickly. Then out of no where he asked, "How about King Kong?" He'd seen a few scenes of the newer Peter Jackson version of King Kong a couple of weekends ago at a friend's house. The fight scenes in that movie are pretty impressive and he was naturally struck by them. We didn't sit to watch the whole movie though. We just watched bits and pieces as we did other things.

"Okay," I said, a little concerned about him picking something really complex to draw.

I ran a search and handed him my iPhone. "I found one," he said right away, "It's going to be easy." He handed me the iPhone.

"Does this one seem easy to you?" I asked him, tilting the iPhone back toward him.

"Not exactly...because of all those teeth, but it's so awesome."

I couldn't disagree with that. It did look awesome. I worked with the fine tip of the Sharpie and chicken scratched my way to a pretty cool looking King Kong.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Yoshi

Yoshi

"So what am I going to draw today?"

"What about...um..." he trailed off and thought for a minute. He went on to tell me random things about his friends, school, and how he's, "not a super fan of watermelon, because it's kind of weird."

"What's for the snack sack, Buddy?" I asked, interrupting his stream of consciousness.

"I don't know," he said, pausing again. With a spark, he suggested, "How about Yoshi?" The other day, he bought a small Yoshi toy at the store. He had seen it the weekend before, then decided to buy it with his own money this weekend. For him to exhibit that type of planning is unusual. The toy brought him a lot of joy. He played with it for that entire first day and has been working on his impression of the small dinosaur Nintendo character. "Yoshi!" he exclaimed, imitating his voice. He's pretty good an mimicry.

I'm not even sure who Yoshi is exactly except that he's part of the Mario set of games from Nintendo. I made quick work of this one, happy to use the thick tip end of the Sharpie like I used to do. I enjoy working on outlined drawings, especially when they are of cartoon characters.

When he saw it finished, he said, "Wow! Whoa! That's quick! That was quick."

I smiled.

"Do you want to do another one?"

"No, I don't. I don't need to do more than this one."

"But you can add to this one if you want to."

"Not today," I said. I've learned that I can get him off my back when I defer instead of decline. It worked. He didn't press anymore.

The next morning I asked him about the snack sack. "What happened to Yoshi? I see you didn't bring him back."

"Yeah...well...let's see...there's this kid. You know those rocks I brought home the other day? Well, he had more yesterday...and...um..."

"You traded the snack sack for the rocks," I said, connecting the dots. I could tell he was worried how I'd react.

"Yeah. He really, really wanted Yoshi like really, really bad. And he said he'd give me all of the rocks if he could have it."

"Really?"

"Let me show you," he said, on his way to retrieve them.

Looks to me like Victor probably got a good deal. The rocks are the type of translucent blue decorative rocks you might put in a vase. They're real nice. So that's new. The snack sacks are being traded as currency. Interesting.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Bugs Bunny with a Giant Gold Rock

Bugs Bunny with a Giant Gold Rock

Twice this week I found his snack sack in his backpack with the snack still in it. It was clear that he has not been eating his snack everyday. What's more, it seemed likely that he hasn't even been taking the snack sack out of his backpack. A lot of thoughts raced through my head. I tried to learn more.

I asked him if he was playing instead of eating. I asked him if he takes the snack sack out of his backpack at all during the day. I asked him if he shows the snack sacks to his friends. He gave me no direct answers to my questions. I pressed some more, but he remained vague and I don't understand exactly why.

"Do you still want me to draw?" I asked him, fearing he might say, "No." I thought about the time and effort I put into drawing these sacks. I thought about the past sacks that likely weren't even taken out of his backpack. I felt emboldened to add, "I'm going to stop drawing if you're not going to eat your snack."

He sheepishly apologized saying he hasn't been very hungry.

"Do you still want me to draw?" I asked again.

"Yes. I'll eat my snack from now on."

I felt relieved that he still wanted me to draw. After asking that second time, I was pretty nervous that he might say he didn't want me to draw anymore. "Okay, so what should I draw today?" I asked, moving on.

"You get to choose anything from the iPad."

"Oh, I get to choose?"

"Yeah."

I grabbed the iPad and opened the Photos app to browse the stockpile of Looney Tunes screenshots he captured over the summer. In the cameral roll, there were a few recent pics he took at school. I found a funny selfie he took of himself yelling at the camera. I showed it to him and asked, "Should I draw this?"

He smiled and said, "No, don't do that. It's weird."

"It's funny," I teased.

He shot me a look, knowing I wasn't being serious.

I browsed for a bit and ultimately picked another snapshot from, "Barbary-Coast Bunny." Yesterday I drew Bugs Bunny in a pile of gold coins from the same cartoon. Here, in this scene for today, Bugs runs into this giant gold rock. Once he recognizes it for what it is, he does backflips and cartwheels across the grass all the while yelling, "I'm rich! I'm rich! I'm faaaabulously wealthy!" That clip is a memorable one from my childhood. I can remember repeating those words all the time when I was young.

I took my time with this one and like the way it came out. When he saw it, he said, "It's good. It's good. Except that it'd be better if it was colored in."

"I agree," I told him. He was right. A giant gold rock should look like a giant gold rock.

As we headed out the door, I couldn't help but wonder if he'd take this one out of his backpack today and what it might mean to our project if he doesn't.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Bugs Bunny in a Pile of Gold Coins

Bugs Bunny in a Pile of Gold Coins

"What should I draw today?"

"What about I get something on the iPad and you put it on your phone...because I've got a good one."

"Okay."

As I was prepping his breakfast, I heard the trash truck down the street. Normally it comes much later in the morning. I rushed outside to get our bins out onto the street in time.

Victor walked out of the house after me with his iPad causally carried in one hand. "I've got one, Dadda," he shouted over the noise.

"Go back inside, Victor," I scolded. I was worried he might drop the iPad on the sidewalk.

When I got back in the house he showed me what he'd picked. "This one!" he yelled with excitement.

It was the same exact screenshot of Red Hot Ryder that I'd drawn a couple of weeks ago. "I already did that one."

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did. I'll show you." I took out my iPhone and found the image.

He looked at it carefully not wanting to admit that he'd completely forgot. "No, this one is different," he said confidently.

He showed me on his iPad that there were two frames he'd captured. One with Red Hot Ryder's belly sticking out a little bit more than the other. They were almost identical. "It's the same thing!"

"No, it's not."

"It's the same thing!"

He picked this one of Bugs Bunny in a pile of gold coins pretty quickly after he relented. In this scene from, "Barbary-Coast Bunny," Bugs uses this slot machine thinking it's a telephone. He asks his Mom to loan him a few bucks and hits the jackpot.

When I showed him the finished drawing, he said in a cute mousy voice, "Ooo, pretty good!"

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Apple iPhone 6

Apple iPhone 6

We didn't draw a snack sack yesterday because he stayed home with a headache. He was feeling better today, although I wasn't feeling my best.

"I need a snack sack idea," I told him.

"How about an iiiiPhone?" he suggested, elongating the pronunciation.

The Apple Watch was announced yesterday and I'd shown him some of the pictures and video of it along with the newer iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. I did a search for, "iPhone drawing," but he, of course, did not pick a drawing. He picked a color glossy of an old first or second generation iPhone.

"That's an old one," I said.

"It looks exactly the same as yours."

"No it doesn't. Look at it more carefully."

He looked for another. He found a newer one, but it still wasn't the latest. "This looks exactly like yours."

"Let's do the iPhone 6 since it was just released."

"They made a new iPhone too?"

"Yeah, I showed it to you yesterday."

"No. You showed me the watch."

I'm not exactly sure why he didn't ask me to draw the Apple Watch. He was very enthusiastic about it yesterday telling me, "You have to buy one! That it is the coolest watch in the world! Can you play games on it?" When he saw the watch face with apps on it, he screamed, "Oh my gosh! You definitely have to buy one!"

"I showed you the new iPhone too," I reminded him. I went to http://www.apple.com and showed him again, but he didn't really like any of the promo shots. I did a new search for, "iPhone 6." He picked this image which looks to be a fake mock-up and not the real thing. I didn't want to go back and forth anymore so I just accepted it.

It wasn't a fun or easy subject to draw so I felt very uninspired today. I also wasn't in the best of moods. I've been feeling extra tired all week. I rushed through it and it shows. Oh, well. Tomorrow is another day.

At least he liked it when he saw it. He exclaimed, "Wow! You drew all of them!" referring to the app icons. He was pretty excited. I guess I have to remind myself sometimes that that's what it's all about.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Minecraft Steve with a Diamond Sword

Minecraft Steve with a Diamond Sword

Victor got up, prepared his own breakfast, ate it, and got ready for school all by himself again today. He was ready to go even before I made it downstairs.

"What'll it be today for the snack sack?" I asked him. He was relaxing on the couch playing Minecraft.

"Can you help me pick something, Dadda?" I love it when he calls me "Dadda."

"You don't have any ideas?"

"Nope."

I wondered if he was tired of the Looney Tunes snapshots or if he just didn't want to pause from playing Minecraft to flip through them.

"How about something Minecraft?" I suggested. At the moment, he was building a lighthouse and I couldn't help but think that Minecraft building blocks are like LEGOs for the digital age.

"That will take a long time for you to draw, Dadda."

"I mean a Minecraft character."

"Oh, okay."

"Which one?"

"Do a search for Minecraft characters."

"Okay, I will."

It didn't take him long to pick this one. Drawing it was much harder than I anticipated. If I had to do it all over again, I'd use a different strategy  one that would help me plot out the grid better. The proportions are all wrong here, but it looks okay as a finished product.

"What do you think of this guy?" I asked him, pushing the snack sack in front of his face.

He was too busy playing and hardly looked up. "Good. Good. It looks a little bit messed up."

"I told you it'd be hard." Looks like he's back to being critical. Oh, well, I try.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Daffy Duck Stomping on a Genie

Daffy Duck Stomping on a Genie

"What should we do for the snack sack today?"

"Let me see," he said. He browsed the screenshots on his iPad and picked another snapshot from the cartoon, "Ali Baba Bunny."

"I'll do it, but I wish you could tell that it's a genie." I searched through the other screenshots but there were none with the genie's face visible.

"Look. See. There's the lamp," he said in rebuttal.

"I know, but when I draw it, it won't be as obvious." He didn't seem to care. "I'll do it if you want," I told him. So for the 6th time, I drew a still from, "Ali Baba Bunny." Here, Daffy is upset by the appearance of the genie. He stuffs him back into the magic lamp, fearing the genie wants to steal his found treasure. It was pretty easy to draw and I always enjoy drawing Daffy. He's such a character.

"What do you think?" I asked Victor when I finished.

"Yeah, that's good, but the Daffy is messed up a little bit."

He was right. I'd messed up on the mouth just a little bit. He's always so observant!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

A Skeleton Popping Out of a Graveyard

Skeleton Popping Out of a Graveyard

Last night he asked me, "Dad, tomorrow can you do a skeleton popping out of a graveyard?"

"Yeah, sure! Why do you want that?"

"Because I'm making one for a friend."

"You mean you're going to draw that for somebody."

"No, you are."

"Oh, someone asked for it?"

"Yeah."

"Someone in your class?"

"No."

"Someone from your after school program?"

"Yeah."

This morning I ran a search for a skeleton popping out of a graveyard just like he asked. I knew which one I wanted to do and I knew which one he would pick. I don't usually tell him which one to pick, but I did today. He liked it but, of course, he scrolled and picked the other one.

"This one looks easy. It's just the skeleton head and a hand reaching out."

It was, in fact, very complex. It was mostly black and looked like a charcoal drawing. "That doesn't look easy at all."

"Okay," he said. Fortunately, he let me draw the one I picked.

We were up early and I didn't have to make lunch today. I had plenty of time and finished relatively quickly. I was amazingly done early, something that rarely happens. It was a nice feeling not to have to rush for a change.

After having shown off the Bugs Bunny at Pismo Beach snack sack from yesterday, he was excited to bring in old snack sacks to school today. When he woke up he told me he had taken out the ones he wanted to take. He had a mess of sacks on the floor. He grabbed a random armful of snack sacks and started to head out of his room.

"That's too many," I told him. "I thought you were picking out your favorites."

The next thing I knew he had put them all away. "I decided not to take any today."

"Why?"

"Because I have to go over 300 snack sacks to pick my favorites again."

I wanted to press him to pick a few but decided to just let him go play. We're rarely done with breakfast early, so I knew he'd relish the opportunity to just mess around at home before school. I did feel a bit sad and responsible for bursting his bubble, though. I sighed as he ran to his play room. I'm sure he'll bring a stash of snack sacks in soon, especially as the artwork draws more attention.

When I picked him up after school, I asked, "Did you give the snack sack to your friend?"

"Yup."


"What did he say?"

"He said, 'Oh my god! That is sick! Oh my god! Your dad is the best drawer ever!'"

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Bugs Bunny at Pismo Beach

Bugs Bunny at Pismo Beach

Today he picked another screenshot from, "Ali Baba Bunny." I'd guess he took about fifty snapshots from this one cartoon. I suppose he's taking us through the major scenes in order. This one is toward the end.

"Is that really what Pismo Beach looks like?" he asked me.

"I'm not sure. I've been there, but I don't remember."

I got to work and tried my best to pay attention to all the little details of this scene. I was a bit disappointed that Bugs's head is turned, but I'm too much of a stickler to alter the reference. That, and I'm still not very confident making any real changes to what I'm looking at.

When he saw it finished, he yelled, "Whoa! That's good!"

When I picked him up after school, he was excitedly showing off the snack sack. When he saw me, he came right up to me and waved the snack sack in front of my face. He said, "People were like, 'Whoa! Whaa-!?!'"

He waved the sack in front of one of the leaders of his after school program. "What's that? Did you draw that?" she asked.

"No, this guy did," he said, point at me with his thumb. "My Dad!" he added proudly.

"Oh! Wow, that's cool! Are you an artist?" she asked.

"Not really. It's just something we started back in Kindergarten," I explained. I pulled out my iPhone and showed her the album of all the snack sacks we've drawn. I gave her the run down of how we got started.

She was impressed and visibly excited. "That's really cool! He's gonna look back and think, I had the coolest Dad in the world."

That made me smile.

Victor continued to show it off to the other people in the room. He came back up to me. "My teacher said it's okay for you to come in!" he blurted out.

"Oh, you finally showed her your snack sack today?"

"Yeah."

"And did you show it to the other kids in your class?"

"Yeah, a lot of people were so surprised. They were like, 'Whoa! Your Dad did this?'"

I guess I need to start thinking about what I want to do for the classroom drawing session this year. It will be fun sharing our project with the kids in his class at this new school.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Daffy Duck Hugging a Pearl

Daffy Duck Hugging a Pearl

"What are we gonna do today? It's got to be easy because I don't have a lot of time."

He browsed through his collection of Looney Tunes screenshots again. "Got it!" he shouted.

This one looked easy enough and I always enjoy drawing Daffy. It's yet another snapshot from the cartoon, "Ali Baba Bunny." Here, Daffy has been miniaturized by a genie after having desecrated the spirit of the magic lamp. He follows Bugs's rabbit hole to Pismo Beach and grabs hold of this pearl. This is the fourth still we've done from that cartoon. We've done Bugs and Daffy in a cave full of treasureDaffy popping out of Bug Bunny's head, and Daffy Duck Swimming in Treasure.

It didn't take me too long to finish. Victor looked over at it and asked, "What's he holding?"

"A pearl."

"We've never found a pearl."

"No, huh." We've never been anywhere near a real clam shell, I thought.

"Dad, would you want to be shrunk and find a pearl?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"I wouldn't want to be shrunk."

He considered the thought, but made no comment. I suspect he'd be just fine being shrunk, especially if he could hug a pearl and yell, "It's mine! It's mine! All mine!"

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