A Cyborg like from Treasure Planet...

"What's for the snack sack today?"

"Can you help me pick a category? I'm becoming a brainstorm loser."

"No you're not," I responded quickly. I don't like him getting down on himself about picking ideas in the morning. "Yesterday you said you wanted some other character from Pokémon today."

"No. I decided I don't want to do Squirtle."

"Okay. Did I ever do Godzilla?"

"No. You said it was too complicated and that you'd do it on the weekend." He sat thinking for a while. I watched as his eyes light up as an idea entered his brain. He blurted out, "Ah, a cyborg, like from Treasure Planet."

I gave him my iPhone with options from a generic search for cyborgs, but he didn't like what he saw. "I wanted one like the one in Treasure Planet," he told me, repeating himself.

I did a new search and he picked this shot of Long John Silver as a cyborg in Disney's Treasure Planet. Thinking it was too complex, he asked me sheepishly, "Can you do it?"

"Sure," I assured him. I had plenty of time and it didn't seem too complicated. I enjoyed drawing this one and am happy with how it came out.

He was too. When he saw it, he shouted, "Oh! Cool! Cyborg!"

Carnotaur

"What's it for today?"

"Dinosaur?"

"We've done lots of dinosaurs."

"How about a Carnotaur?"

"I'm not sure if we've done that," I admitted. I looked it up. We hadn't, but dinosaurs are one of our most popular subjects. In fact, we've done Brontosaurus, Diplodocus, the Talking Dino toy, T-Rex, Allosaurus, another T-Rex, Ankylosaurus, T-Rex vs. a crocodile, a robot dinosaur, and Triceratops. He has even added some of his own dinosaurs to the Starbucks logo.

We'd recently seen the Disney movie Dinosaur in which the Carnotaurs are the main antagonists. It turns out the movie shortened the name to Carnotaur from Carnotaurus. I wasn't much in the mood for a dinosaur but that's what he chose so I got to work.

I started with it's face and he looked over the table to see how things were coming along. "Can you make the eye more angry-er?" he asked.

"Huh?" I said, looking up.

"When you're all done," he explained, "draw the eye bigger and draw..." He gestured in the air what I believe was supposed to be an angry eyebrow. He likes drawing angry eyebrows when he draws villains or ferocious animals.

"Okay, let me finish the rest first," I said.

When I was done, I asked him to come over and show me. He took the Sharpie and waved it in the air demonstrating how to draw an angry eyebrow. I looked at him unsure. He asked, "Can I just do it?"

"Yeah, sure," I told him.

He drew the angry eyebrow, but it didn't quite have the effect he was hoping for. The eye didn't look "more angry-er."

"Huh," he said. "Oh well. That usually works." I had to chuckle. We decided to just leave it as is.

This afternoon, he brought home all the snack sacks that were posted in his classroom. "Hey, what's this?" I asked when I found them in his backpack.

"I'm making room for new ones."

"Cool!" I guess it's time to bring down the old and bring in the new.

Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey

"What should we do today?"

"Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey."

That came out of nowhere. He's never seen Fantasia. I did a search and handed him my iPhone.

"Do you remember this, Daddy?" he asked, pointing to a classic shot from the cartoon.

"No. I've only seen Fantasia once so I don't remember it."

"Do you think I'd like it?"

"No, not really. It's all about nightmares."

"I didn't think Nightmare Before Christmas was scary."

"That's true, but you asked me and, no, I don't think you'll like it."

I paid special attention to detail on this one. I wanted to get it right.

"Oooo!" he said, looking at the finished sack. "I don't see his mouth. Did he he have a mouth?" Without waiting for me to answer, he continued, "Let me see. Oh. No. He didn't have a mouth. Okay. Good."

This one came home! Three in a row. It's one of my favorites too.

Hades

"What should we do today?"

"A rocket."

"I've already done a rocket." He said rocket because he studied rockets and did related experiments in his Mad Science class yesterday.

"A real rocket."

"I've already done a rocket several times."

"Have you ever done a bomb?"

"No and I'm not going to. I don't like bombs."

"Okay, something cool." He thought for awhile. "Hades." From the cartoon Hercules he meant. We had just seen the Disney version recently. I had to look up how to spell the name and learned a little more about this Greek god of the underworld from Wikipedia.

He took a long time finding something. I didn't see many good drawings so I let him pick out a movie frame snapshot. I didn't expect to do the background but he asked me about it, so I scribbled in the curtains quickly. It doesn't look great, but it looked empty with an empty background. 

I really wasn't very into this one today; not like yesterday's Dragon Maleficent. He's into villains, though, so this sack came home too.

Dragon Maleficent

"What's for the snack sack today?"

"Remember the Dragon Maleficent!?!"

He had picked Maleficent's dragon form before we did Maleficent yesterday. He woke up very early so we had plenty of time. The problem with having the time is that I take the time. This was about 40 min of work as opposed to the usual 15 to 20.

I worked from the bottom up which was a bit odd, but that helped me maintain focus. Instead of trying to draw the dragon, I was drawing the lines and shapes I saw before me. Toward the end, I was pressed for time and was forced to rapidly worked in the details of the castle. I filled in the black parts as quickly as I could.

"Whoa! Now that is good! Now that is good!"

"Show me where the mistake is," I prodded.

He found it right away. "It's good. Except that the face doesn't look so mean. But it's good," he repeated, reaching out to touch my arm affectionately.

This one came home today. I knew it would.

Maleficent

"What's for the snack sack today?" I asked as we poured pancake batter into a pan. We made pancakes together this morning for the very first time ever.

He startled me when he blurted out, "Maleficent!"

After we finished off our pancakes, I ran a search and handed him my iPhone. He picked the dragon first off. 

"Hey, that's not Maleficent," I said.

"Yes it is. The dragon is Maleficent."

"Well then, I'd have searched for the dragon if that's what you wanted."

"Okay, I'll pick Maleficent."

He did. I don't normally eat breakfast but did today. My side of the table, where I usually sit to draw, was all sticky from the syrup.

He must have noticed my dilemma because he asked, "Can you sit next to me, Daddy?"

"Yeah!"

"You know why I wanted you to sit here?"

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to look at your drawing."

"If I sit next to you, I don't want you kicking my chair."

"I won't."

Sure enough, just after I started drawing, he started kicking my chair. I reprimanded him pretty strongly and he withdrew. He pouted, but I stayed focussed on the drawing. He got up. Unfortunately, he ended up not watching me at all today.

"Oh, okay," he said approaching me when I was just about done. "Um, can you put her parrot on here?" he asked, pointing to her shoulder. The crow was in the reference drawing but I had planned on omitting it.

"You really want it?"

"Yeah."

"I thought you wouldn't be able to tell what it was."

"I can tell."

"You really want it?"

"Yeah," he said walking away again.

I added it and wrapped up the drawing.

"Did you do the bird?"

I showed it to him.

"Yeah, that's better."

It was.

Olaf Smelling a Flower

"What should we do today?"

"How about Elsa?"

"No. I've already done Elsa."

"How about another Olaf?"

This is starting to become a pattern. I've already done Olaf too. He's been stuck in a rut, picking things we've done in the past. I thought about it and decided to give him a pass with Olaf. He's been coming home just about everyday with a new drawing he's done with Olaf in it. "Okay," I said reluctantly.

He took a long time searching through the options and finally said, "This one."

I have to admit that I didn't like his choice but decided not to refuse it. I wasn't in a very good mood to begin with this morning and drawing a repeat subject in a scene I wasn't too keen on left me feeling uninspired. I just wanted to finish quickly, so I did.

To my surprise, he brought this one home today after school.

Sven from Disney's Frozen

I got home late last night and felt very sluggish this morning. He was tired too for some reason. Usually he wakes up on his own, but today he slept in. I let him sleep until about 8:00am.

"Any snack sack ideas for today?"

"No," he said still groggy. "Do you have any?"

"Maybe we can do something else from Frozen?" I suggested. On Saturday, we watched Frozen for the third time in the theaters. "Maybe Sven, but I'm not sure I have enough time."

I did a search and we picked one quickly. I had less than 15 minutes left which was just enough time to complete it.

"Daddy, what happened to this part?" he asked pointing to his back and butt.

"I kind of made him too skinny at first and tried to fix it."

"Oh," he said, still groggy.

We headed out the door, neither of us looking forward to the day ahead.

Ice Castle from Disney's Frozen

"What should we do today?"

"Ice castle," he said without hesitation. This was the third time he'd asked me so I couldn't refuse.

"Finally I have enough time," I told him. In fact, I had it in mind to attempt the ice castle today anyway. I had even considered waking up early to do it justice. I had visions of doing an amazing job, but it didn't quite work out that way. Even though I had a lot of time, I still felt rushed. Plus, the reference color poster snapshot was not an easy reference to work from.

When he saw it, he started in with his critique. First off he said, "You could have written 'Frozen.'"

I shrugged at him with my eyes. I had no more time left to add anything.

"Oh well, there's not a lot of detail. But it's okay."

"Just okay?" I asked.

He said, "Yeah. There's not a lot of detail."

I showed him the picture reference and defended myself, "See there's not that much detail in the picture."

"Yes there is!" he said animatedly. "See all that!" he said pointing to the castle, "That's detail." He continued, "And there's this swirl, like a tornado," he said pointing to a wisp of cloud coming out of the castle and into the sky. 

"Yeah, okay," I conceded. "It was pretty hard to do," I added looking for a little compassion.

He understood and just let it be as we headed out the door to school.

How about the snow monster from Frozen...

"What are we doing today?"

"I don't know. I have no idea," he said dejectedly. Then he perked up. "Oh yes I do! Just kidding. The ice castle from Frozen."

"Um, I don't have time to do that one today," I said, relieved that it was true. I wasn't interested in tackling the ice castle.

"Okay. How about the snow monster from Frozen?"

"I'll try," I said, trying to remember what he looked like.

His name is Marshmallow and was actually fun to draw; although, I did feel a bit stressed this morning since we had to leave early today so that I could make it on time to a meeting at work.

He ate his breakfast quickly, came over to my side of the table and said, "Hey, you're almost finished."

"I am finished."

"Are you going to write 'Frozen'?"

"Do you want me to?"

"Yeah! You know, like the way it's designed."

"Right. I'll add it." I had no time left so I did so super quickly without much attention to detail. I really wanted to draw the "O" in his name like the "O" in "FROZEN" but I forgot in my hurry.

"Oh, he looks creepy!" he exclaimed. "Do you want to mess with him?"

"No!" I replied.

"Me neither," he agreed.

Olaf

"What should we do today?"

"I already know! Olaf!"

I expected Olaf to be much easier than yesterday's Elsa, but that's not quite how it turned out. I messed up his eyes on my first try and had to start over. For my second try, I started with his eyes but for some reason that made drawing his head a challenge. I screwed up again on his mouth but was sort of able to fix it. He's cute but a little too stout I'd say. I was nervous when I showed it to Victor, fearing his critiques.

My fears were for naught this time. He looked at it and had nothing but positive things to say, "I like it. It's cute. Olaf's cute. He's very funny."

I nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.

Elsa

Last night we talked about doing the characters from the movie Frozen. He was pretty excited about it and definitely wanted me to do "Elsa and Anna and Olaf."

"What's for the snack sack this morning?" I asked him.

Sure enough he remembered our conversation from yesterday. The choice was obvious. "Elsa. Remember?"

This one was difficult. Every line mattered.

"She looks a little evil," he commented when she was about half way finished.

I tried very hard to get it right. "Done!" I exclaimed.

"Does she look mean?" he asked.

"No. I don't think so," I defended.

He studied it. "No. Except that the eyelashes are kind of too big. Looks like dark eyeshadow. But I like it." He considered something. "This is just a suggestion," he said cautiously. "Maybe if you want, you could add 'Frozen' or something."

"Like in the way it looks on the poster?"

"Yeah! You can add it while I read."

"Okay." We had a little extra time so I added it.

He read his book out loud beside me. He looked up to see the title. "Oh, you're a really good drawer!" he said with honest enthusiasm.

A Crazy Monkey

"What'll it be today?"

"A monkey. A crazy monkey."

"Okay!"

I handed him my iPhone with a bevy of crazy monkeys on it. "Do this one," he said after scrolling up and down a few times.

"Oh, that's Abu from Aladdin."

"Yeah. Except don't do the hat!"

"Okay," I said a little surprised. That wasn't what I expected him to pick. There were some seriously crazy monkey drawings to chose from and he chose Abu from Aladdin. Interesting.

"He looks like a duck-monkey," he said with a chuckle and an edge to his voice.

This option was much simpler than most of the others, but I had a feeling this one was going to be tougher than it looked. As expected, I messed up a bunch. But I'm getting better at fixing things on the fly, so it's not so easy to tell where all the mistakes are.

He ate his breakfast with the independence of a child lost in his own imagination. Then all of the sudden he remembered what I was up to and yelled, "Dad, can I see it?!"

"Sure. Come take a look."

"Did you X out the hat?" he asked walking around the table. "A-ha-ha-ha! Yeah!" he said with a hearty laugh, "It looks like a duck-monkey!" He stared at it as he continued to giggle. "Do you think it looks like a duck-monkey?"

"Ha! I suppose it does," I said. We hugged and laughed together staring in astonishment at the crazy duck-monkey.

Mickey Mouse Riding a Scooter in Croissant de Triomphe

"What should we do today?"

He mumbled something I didn't understand.

"What?"

He strung a bunch of random thoughts together still not making much sense. After some more probing, I was able to discern that he was describing the Mickey Mouse short with the fish in it. It's called Gasp! and I did a search for stills from it. In the end, though, he picked this image from the French one, Croissant de Triomphe, where Mickey rushes throughout Paris to get Minnie fresh bread for her bakery across town.

I worked slowly and steadily on this one because I had plenty of time. He wrapped up early too and came over to watch me draw. 

"Can I color in the arms?" he asked.

"Sorry. I'm still working on it," I said coloring them in myself. I was focused on making it all come together.

"Can I color in the next thing?" he persisted.

I could see that he really wanted to contribute today. I was pleased with how it was turning out which actually made me a little reluctant to share drawing duties. But I do love it when he shows his own creativity on the sacks. I decided to save the leg for him to color in. "Sure. When I'm done."

"Can I do the mouth?"

"You can. Later."

"Are you going to do the detail?"

"I don't think I'll have time for the city in the background."

"Can I do it?" I could tell he was anxious to get his turn.

"Here," I said as I finished, handing over the Sharpie.

He went to it. I expected him to add the "detail" of the city, but instead he added a "meteor" around the scooter, "because it's going so fast."

As he continued to add lots of lines to the drawing, I couldn't resist passing on a little reminder, "Too much stuff makes it not easy to see what the picture is."

He pretty much ignored me and I decided to just let him have at it. He added his letters with expressive eyes, something he hasn't done in quite a long time. He added streaks to each letter because of their "speed." Of course the "R" had to be sneaky and ended up on the back as part of the "r Billd-ing" complete with a flag on top.

I finally had to stop the flow of creativity when he started pounding in the dots on the R, effectively ruining the Sharpie. By this point he had gotten marker all over his face. I sent him to wash up and did my best to admire his additions.

Mickey Mouse in New York Weenie

"What should we do today?"

"Another Mickey Mouse thing...and this time from New York Weenie." In this short, Mickey chases a runaway hot dog throughout Central Park.

I did a search and handed him my iPhone. He picked a snapshot of Mickey looking extremely enraged and not like himself. There are many such stills in this short since Mickey's frustration level is at an all time high. The hot dog is quite the foe.

"Let's pick something else. This is ugly."

Surprisingly, he agreed without comment. "This one then," he said picking a snapshot with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in it.

"I can't do three drawings."

"It's just one."

"Yes, but there are three of them. I don't have time today."

Frustrated, he went back to scrolling. After a lot of prodding, he picked this shot of Mickey peering through the bushes of Central Park. I started with the thick tip of the Sharpie today but couldn't control the ink spread. I had to start over on a new sack with the thin tip. I worked quickly and took shortcuts on the scenery to finish in time. Since it wasn't his first choice, nor his second, he didn't have any comments on this one.

We rushed out the door to walk to school as we do every morning. A few steps from school I got a strong feeling that I had forgotten to include the snack sack in his backpack. We stopped to double check. Sure enough, it wasn't there. We were running late already so there was no chance to go back together.

I asked him to just go ahead and I ran back home. I hadn't done any real exercise in months. My heart was racing but I was determined to get it to him in time. I made it home quickly and found it right on the kitchen table.

I ran back toward the school, faster this time. But as soon as I was in the sight of other parents, I started walking. I felt embarrassed to be running for some reason so I power walked the rest of the way. The school bell rang just as I stepped on school grounds. His class was already inside and settling down when I made it to the door.

Victor was waiting near his desk, ignoring the chaos around him, standing up looking out towards the door anxiously. He greeted me outside and I handed it to him. "Is this the same one?" he asked to no one in particular. "Yup, it's the same one," he answered to himself unable to hide his smile. I watched him head back into the classroom with a skip in his step and I breathed a sigh of relief as I headed back home. It meant a lot to me for him to have his sack today and clearly it meant a lot to him too.

Mickey Mouse Screaming in Yodelberg

"A monster truck."

"We've done several monster trucks already."

"Nooooa."

"Yeaaas." 

"Okay. Something else from the Mickey Mouse cartoons." He thought for a moment. "From the snowy place," he clarified. He was talking about the short Yodelberg in which Mickey tries to avoid starting an avalanche as he tries to get to Minnie who lives at the very top of the mountain.

I did a search and the moment I saw this snapshot of Mickey yelling I knew he would pick it. He did.

"Won't be easy, but let's see," I said optimistically. "I knew you'd pick this one."

"It's funny isn't it? How did you know I'd pick it?"

"Because it stands out."

"Yeah it does." He watched me as I worked. "Don't forget to not connect the tail," he cautioned quite observantly. The tail was indeed disconnected from Mickey's body. "It's so funny," he repeated, studying the finished drawing. "You're missing something," he informed me as he took hold of the Sharpie. He re-outlined the tail and made it "a little fatter."

Just as it looked like he might do a major overhaul to the whole drawing, I said, "Enough." It was time for some morning reading so we settled into the sofa, he in my lap, to read a story.

Goofy in Stayin' Cool

"What's for the snack sack today?"

"Mickey Mouse again!"

"Something else from No Service?" I asked, since we had so much fun with Donald and Mickey yesterday.

"No. Bad Ear Day," he suggested referring to a different Mickey Mouse animated short and remembering his trailing thought from yesterday.

I did a search but not too many images came up specifically from that cartoon. He ended up picking this funny snapshot of Goofy paddling in a bathtub full of ice cream from Stayin' Cool.

"Put it in a place...like a truck or something," he told me knowing full well that in the cartoon Goofy is paddling inside an ice cream truck. I wasn't sure I'd have time. Plus, I couldn't find the snapshot in context of Goofy inside the truck and didn't think to just look up the actual cartoon on YouTube. It's often important where I choose to start drawing. Sometimes I choose well and get the proportions just right. Sometimes I don't. Today, I started with his leg and worked my way up to his face all the while super nervous of screwing the whole thing up. I was happy with the outcome.

Looking for approval, I asked him, "Did you see it?"

"Yeah, I saw it," he said flatly. "It's not really the same."

"Why?" I said with a stinging feeling in my chest. 

"Because it doesn't have the triangles," he said gesturing toward his eyes as if I was missing something tremendously obvious.

"You mean in the eyes?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Why didn't you do that?"

I shrugged. I didn't know really. I had done so yesterday. Perhaps the marker tip filled them in before I even had the chance. He's so observant and critical! The characters definitely have triangle cut outs in their eyes which is a distinctive feature of the animation style in these shorts. Oh well. I still like it despite the fully filled in eyes. :)

Donald and Mickey in No Service

"What should we do today?"

"Mickey Mouse," he said after some thought.

I was pretty sure I had already done a Mickey Mouse, but I absolutely love the newer Mickey shorts with the old-school-new-school vibe. I did a search and he picked this funny screen capture from the cartoon No Service.

"Draw this one...because it's a little funny," he told me. 

Let's see if I can pull this off in time, I thought. 

The look of these two characters squaring off wearing each other's clothes is hilarious. We both got a kick out of analyzing it. 

"Why is Mickey upset?" he asked inquisitively.

"Because they were trying to steal each other's clothes to get some lunch. Remember, Goofy said 'No shirt, no shoes, no service!' Mickey doesn't wear a shirt and Donald doesn't wear shoes."

He nodded, then added, "Donald is naked."

"He sure is!"

He walked off to brush his teeth. When he came back I had made quite a bit of progress. "Oh, you did the detail. Hehe! Now it looks like they're in a place."

"I know."

"Donald looks ridiculous," he said seriously as he studied the drawing. When I didn't respond fast enough, he repeated, "Doesn't Donald look really ridiculous!?!"

"He does!"

Before we stepped out the door he made plans, "Tomorrow we're gonna do Bad Ear Day."