A 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!'"

Yoyo Dodo Congratulates Victor

Today is the last day of the school year. The year flew by. Victor's growing up so fast! I cannot believe I've been drawing snack sacks every day for two whole school years. It's been an amazing journey.

I've been nervous about this last drawing for the past couple of days. I'm not sure exactly why, but I think it has to do with the uncertain future of our little project as this year draws to a close. It's hard for me to say for sure that we'll continue all throughout next year.

I'm taking his suggestion from yesterday and drawing Yoyo Dodo holding a sign of congratulations. I don't know very much about the character except that he's a wacky precursor to Daffy Duck's wacky antics. Victor's silliness shines through no matter what we're doing, so perhaps he identifies with the Dodo in that way.

I struggled drawing this one, messing up several times. I think it was the nerves that kept me from focussing; plus, he was talking to me throughout. He was chatty and kept on spewing out random thoughts and asking questions like, "Do you think I had a terrible nightmare or a really happy dream last night?"

He was being serious, so I had to pause to think. "Well, you didn't wake up or come into our room, I don't think, so I don't think you had a nightmare. I think you had a happy dream."

"You're right. I did."

Normally I would have asked him to tell me about it, but I'd just made another mistake. I messed up the ring around the Dodo's neck. He didn't take notice and didn't explain his dream, but he did keep chatting and asking me questions. I did my best to stay focussed on the drawing.

I decided to use the silver Sharpie today even if only for some highlights. It's been in the drawer for half of the year and I haven't used it, not even once. The ink from that marker spreads quickly so I'm glad I didn't plan any detailed work for it. After writing out the message of congratulations, I wished I'd written the message bigger and in a special font. Oh well.

"Dad, are you done?"

"Just about."

"Can you draw him standing on Porky's head?"

He wasn't standing on anything, much like my first drawing of Yoyo Dodo. "No. I don't want to do that."

"Okay, can you have him standing on a rock?"

"Sure." What I drew looks more like a haystack, or something less sturdy than a rock, but it works to place him somewhere. "What do you think?" I asked him.

"I like it. The Dodo here looks a lot more younger don't you think?"

"Yeah, I suppose," I said, although I had no idea what he meant.

"The Dodo looks a lot more younger," he repeated in a sing-song voice as we walked toward the door.

There it is, my last snack sack for a while! I don't expect to draw anything new until August. His summer program has it's snack time right when I usually drop him off in the morning so it doesn't really work out for him to take a snack. It's time to take a pause.

I remember being worried last year that he wouldn't want me to continue. I could have never imagined that he'd get even more into it, working to have the snack sacks displayed in his classroom and encouraging me to come in to share our story and teach the class a few things about art and creativity. It was a sweet year. I'm happy to have made the time to bring a little creativity to our mornings together. I feel most grateful for how it has broadened our relationship.

Congratulations Victor! You are now a 2nd grader!

Tweety Bird Yelling, "BOOM!"

"This is your last day to choose a snack sack," I told him. "Tomorrow, I get to pick what I want to do." Tomorrow is his last day of 1st grade.

He thought for a bit and then said, "I know exactly what I want, but it's on the iPad." He went to go get it. He sat back down and began to scan through one of our Looney Tunes compilation videos. He stopped on the cartoon with Porky Pig and Yoyo Dodo, "Porky in Wackyland." He paused on a scene with the Dodo's arms spread wide. He told me it was the image he was hoping to find when we did Yoyo Dodo weeks ago. "Can you do this except on this hand can you draw it closed and holding a sign that says, 'You Made It!'?"

That was sweet to hear, but I wanted to choose what to draw tomorrow. Oh well, I thought. "I suppose I can do that, but that sounds like that's for tomorrow. How about you pick something else for today?"

"Okay," he said. He scanned some more within that same cartoon. "Can you do this?" he asked.

Without the context of the full scene, the still he chose didn't quite define exactly what was going on. I knew from having seen the cartoon that the Dodo, looking to pound Porky, was holding an iron ball in a slingshot over Porky's head. "No. It won't look like that," I explained, "No one will be able to tell what it is and, besides, he's about to hurt him."

He understood. He scanned some more and picked a different still with Porky's butt hanging out a window. "Can you do this?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because it's got Porky's butt hanging out a window." Of course this was met with a bunch of laughter.

He searched a different cartoon and picked this still of an early Tweety Bird from, "Birdy and the Beast." Just before this still, Tweety had said, "Aw, the poor kitty tat! He fall down and go...BOOM!" It's a classic line. I've seen Victor watch this snippet over and over and over again. The scene has made him laugh with such ferocity I was sincerely worried he might explode from the laughter bursting out of his little body.

It was a simple reference so I finished rather quickly. He came by to take a look. "Do you want to add someone covering their ears?" he asked.

"No," I said. I knew that my drawing could not do justice to the delight this scene has brought to him. I think he was fishing for ways to make it more special.

"Do you want to add lines because it's so loud?"

"Yeah, sure," I said. I added them, but there wasn't anything else to add. He watched the scene a few more times and I thoroughly enjoyed watching him laugh with such delight.

Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo Bear Cooking Over a Campfire

"Do you want the same one from Yogi that you said you wanted yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, you're going to have to find it again because I didn't save it."

"Okay, I know exactly which one it is." It was a snapshot of Yogi and Boo-Boo cooking over a campfire.

This makes the fourth day in a row that we've done Yogi Bear scenes. That may just be a record. I'm not sure if we've even done Looney Tunes scenes for four days in a row. So far we've done: Yogi and Boo-Boo running from Park Ranger Smith, one with Yogi and Boo-Boo preparing a campfire, and one with Yogi stealing food.

With all the practice, I made quick work of this one. When I was almost done, he came to my side of the table and said, "Can you move, please? I want to see how you're doing." He took a look and approvingly exclaimed, "Oooh, gooood!" He studied it some more and asked, "Can you add more background, instead of just grass?"

"You can add it," I told him. Lately, I've been encouraging him to draw more.

"Okay! Tell me what to do."

"You can draw trees."

"Okay." He did. "Should I draw a redwood?"

"Yeah, do that." He drew a taller tree, the redwood. "Maybe you want to add some detail on the bark," I suggested. He did.

"What else?" he asked. I thought for a moment. "Oh I know, a nest!" he shouted before I could say anything. He drew it and the bird.

"Cute," I said. He drew another bird. I asked, "Is that the momma and that's the baby?"

"No. Here is Daddy and this is Momma," he clarified by pointing each out to me.

"Okay."

"I can add rocks." He did. "Now I'll draw mountains." He did. "Daddy, look! I made some look near and some look far."

"Oh, cool." He's been proud of his newly forming skill of drawing perspective.

I left for a few minutes to quickly send a work email. He was still drawing when I came back. "Still drawing?" I asked.

"Yeah! I still have a few more things to do. One more mountain," he said. I was impressed that he knew to draw the mountains behind the smoke. "These are snow volcanos so they kind of trick you." He told me all about the snake, and the crystal ball on a stick, and the treasure box, and a story about how the snake tricked them by stealing the crystal ball. His imagination has no bounds. In days past I would have told him that less is more; but, today, I let him be free to create what he wanted.

"It's time," I finally called out. "You have to add your name."

"Okay, what should I do it like?"

"Maybe you can do it in the root system," I suggested. He did. 

"It's actually one root. Look Daddy! It connects!"

"Awesome!" Today, he made a nice set of additions to the original. He was very proud of his work and so was I.

Wile E. Coyote Chasing The Road Runner 2

"What's for the snack sack today?"

"Lucky Charms."

"What about Lucky Charms?"

"Uh, never mind," he said with a smile. "Okay, this is the last Road Runner and Coyote thing, okay?" he asked shifting gears quickly. We had recently done one with Wile E. Coyote chasing The Road Runner.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, please."

I ran a search and he picked this scene. I took a deep breath before I got to work. It's always cool doing a full scene, but it's also a lot of work. At some point I lost my reference and messed up Coyote's body. I pressed forward. For the background I also lost reference, but pulled it all together somehow.

"Oh, cool!" he exclaimed when he saw it. "Where'd you put my name? Oh, I see. Can you put 'ACME' too," he said pronouncing it wrong. "What's ACME?"

"It's the place where The Coyote buys all of his crazy things."

"Oh, he invents his stuff and then they build it?"

"No. He orders the stuff directly from ACME."

"Oh, so they already have all the stuff, and then he buys it, and they deliver it to him?"

"Right." The little details of all these classic Warner Bros. cartoons are what I love most about them. They are so memorable.

"Where's the tongue? Hmm, you made the face kind of too fat, right?" I had also messed up The Road Runner's face. He was right about that. "You messed up a little bit there, right?"

"I did," I admitted. I was happy he didn't continue with the critiques. He could have gone on and on with this one; but, lucky for me, he didn't.

Wile E. Coyote Chasing The Road Runner

"What's for the snack sack today?"

"Give me a category."

"Okay."

Before I could start, he said dejectedly, "I'm a brainstormer failure."

I'm guessing he felt bad about asking me for help, thinking that being a good "brainstormer" meant coming up with new ideas by himself. I let the comment slide, not wanting to get into it, and just gave him some categories, "More from the Amazon. Candy. Cartoon characters."

He cut me off. "Candy is too easy for you."

"Victor, I don't want to do things that are hard for me. I just want it to be cool, not hard. Do you understand?"

He didn't reply. "Looney Tunes. What haven't we done from Looney Tunes?"

I named a few characters as I searched for Looney Tunes options on my iPhone.

"How about Road Runner?" he suggested after some browsing.

"Sure. We've never done him."

"Can you search for 'Road Runner'? There's not very much here."

I did.

He picked quickly. "I found it! Can you do it?" he aked with apprehension, presumably because it was a whole scene and included Wile E. Coyote.

"Yup."

A big smile came over his face. "Daddy, how are you so good at drawing?"

"I try."

He finished his breakfast and came over to my side of the table. I was just about finished. "Oh, cool! Are you done? Oh, no, you have not done The Road Runner's feet."

"He doesn't have any feet in the picture. See?"

"Yeah, he does."

"Not really," I said pointing to the cyclone that represented his running feet. "Those are his legs and feet but they are going so fast it looks like a tornado."

"Yup," he said, finally getting it. "The coyote looks kind of funny, doesn't he?"

"He does."

"That looks super cool. Awesome!"

I added the scenery as he watched.

"Oh my gosh, that looks super cool! Can I write my name?"

"Yes, but you have to do your reading first."

He read more diligently than usual, giving himself plenty of time to add his name. He left a gap where the "o" should have been. "Where's the 'o'?" I asked him.

"Up here," he said, pointing toward The Road Runner's tail. "It's a trick."

"Um, that looks weird, but, okay."

He changed his mind and added the "o" to the other letters. I think Looney Tunes has been our most popular subject. I really do enjoy drawing the characters I loved as a child and it's wonderful to see Victor grow attached to them as well.

Red in a Race Car

"What's for the snack sack today?"

"You pick."

"Me? You said you had a bunch of Easter ideas. What are they?"

"But it's past Easter."

"What are they?"

He sat thinking, expressionless and silent.

"You forgot?"

"Yeah. And then I had too much fun this weekend." We had spent some time poolside with friends.

I ran a general search for Easter related drawings but he didn't even want to browse.

"I kind of want you to do another Angry Birds Go!."

"But I just did that not too long ago."

"But you've done three dragons."

"Yeah, buy they're all different. The Angry Birds all look the same every time."

"Well, you can just do a different one today. Then another one tomorrow." He's been drawing the Angry Birds Go! characters himself lately. On several occasions he's brought home from school drawing pages full of colorful renditions of each bird. I suppose he wants me to draw them all too. I'd prefer it if he'd broaden his thinking a bit to come up with new options.

After some more back and forth, I relented. I ran a search and picked this one myself. I held it up for him to see. He agreed it was a good option. He kept to himself as I drew.

"What do you think of the sack?" I asked him when I was finished.

"I like it."

That's all I got from him. I think he was as frustrated with me as I was with him.

Yoyo Dodo

"What should we do today?"

"Looney Tunes character!"

"Okay. Which one?"

"Daffy. No. The Dodo. The Wacky Dodo. The last of the Dodos."

I wasn't sure which character he was talking about so I looked it up. "His name is Yoyo Dodo," I told him.

"Yeah! Yoyo Dodo."

"Why'd you pick him today?"

"I don't know. Yoyo Dodo is one of the weirdest characters I've seen."

I did a search, but there weren't too many options to choose from. He wasn't thrilled about picking this particular reference, but I pressed him to just pick something after he browsed for several minutes.

I like a thick stroke for cartoon characters so I tried my hand at the thick tip of the Sharpie today. As always, it was tricky to control the ink flow. Plus, the tip wasn't a full point anymore, making the whole process more difficult than it would have been with the thin tip.

He came over to take a look. "That actually looks like the picture of the Dodo, but it doesn't look like the Dodo because that's not how the Dodo acts." He pantomimed a series of gestures to relay the difference. Yoyo Dodo is a zany character and I suppose this view of him walking away didn't do his zaniness justice. After watching the cartoon in which Yoyo Dodo appears, "Porky in Wackyland," I see what he means. Oh, well, maybe next time.

Cute Parrot

"What's for the snack sack today?"

He sat pensive and silent.

"What about the cute parrot from yesterday? Do you still want that?"

"Yes!" he blurted out right away. 

"Okay, cool. That's what I'll do."

"But instead of having him stand on nothing, can you put a branch right there?" he asked pointing to its feet. I hadn't even noticed.

"Sure," I said. I pulled this one off quickly.

He finished his breakfast, came around to my side of the table and asked, "Can I see?" He admired it saying, "Oooh, cutie!"

I smiled.

"Where's my name?"

"Look for it."

"I don't see it. Can you give me a hint?"

"It's small."

"Oh, I see it!"

Parrot

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

"Daddy, I told you yesterday. How do you not know?"

"Maybe I don't remember."

"A parrot," he told me.

"I guess I've never done a parrot before," I said, thinking back at all the animals I've drawn. "I don't think you told me that yesterday."

"Oh, I guess I didn't," he admitted. He hadn't. Yesterday he started out with wanting an animal and then shifted to Big Bang Trigger Happy before he ever decided on one.

I ran a search for parrots and handed him my iPhone. He picked one quickly. "Oh, this one is so cute! Can you do this one? It's so cute."

"Yes."

Instead of handing me the phone, however, he kept scrolling through the options. He showed me a couple more until he landed on this one that I ended up drawing.

"Can you do this one?"

"Sure." 

"Don't forget to draw the moon behind him. But only after you've finished. Can you draw another one tomorrow?"

"I can do whatever you want. You always choose."

"I might like this one a lot and bring it home and color it. Would that be okay?"

"Whatever you want to do with it. It's yours."

I picked up an older Sharpie today. The newer markers put too much ink on the sack making it less forgiving for mistakes. It was a relief to not have to worry so much about bleed or drawing quick, sharp lines. I had time and felt in the groove. I like this one a lot.

"Ooooo, cooool!" he exclaimed. "It looks exactly like it...except the feet are too small."

Always a critic. He must be my boy. ;)

A Humming Bird

A Humming Bird

"Any ideas for today's sack?"

He sat thinking for a minute. "It's not a crystal. It's a gem or a ruby or something." He clearly was picturing something in his mind. "Okay, just a crystal," he said in defeat unable to identify what he was thinking about.

"We've already done a crystal. Twice. Pick something new," I scolded mildly.

"Okay, I'll search for a ruby, but it won't look like a ruby since it won't be red." He searched for a couple of minutes. "Since there's no ruby that I like, I'll just pick a humming bird."

He always surprises me with his sudden shifts of subject. Before I got started, we had a heated exchange about him messing around instead of eating his breakfast. He was insolent with me, so when I sat down to draw I was still upset from the exchange.

He took interest in how I got started. Looking over the table at me as I worked, he asked, "Daddy, how do you always get it to look so right? A lot of times you get it to look so right without messing up. How do you do that?"

"I concentrate. I try to focus. I remember to draw what I see," I replied without looking up. I thought to myself, I definitely mess up quite a bit, but am able to cover it up much of the time.

"Can you teach me to draw?"

"Sure, but you haven't wanted to sit down and learn. You've brought home several drawing books but haven't wanted to practice."

"Daddy, your'e almost the best drawer in the... family. Right, Daddy?" He was probably going to say "the whole world" or something like that, but he hesitated and changed his mind for some reason.

"I don't know," I said. There was definitely still a bit of tension in the air between us.

"Well, who's the best builder in the family?"

"Grandpa from California," I said. We'd talked about that before.

I messed up a bunch on this humming bird.  Maybe it was the pressure from the compliments or perhaps it was my surly mood that caused me to lose focus. The worst part is that it is overly puffy which makes it less immediately recognizable as a humming bird.

"Ah, very good. The V has wings!" he said remarking on his name. He gave the bird a closer look and said, "It's kind of fat Daddy."

I explained about the proportions and how I drew the body line too wide making the whole bird appear too large.

"Looks like it's a boy 'cause it's fat!" he said as he chuckled. I smiled too. I gave him a hug and we went to the next room to get our shoes on.

Let's do a hawk...

Let's do a hawk...

Today was crazy hair day at school and I did my best to gel his hair up into a mohawk before we even came downstairs for breakfast. His hair is pretty long, so it wasn't easy to get it to hold. I doubt it will last even half of the day.

"Since we did a mohawk, let's do a hawk," he suggested. "Mo-hawk," he added, pausing between the two syllables. I did a search and handed him my iPhone.

"Oh wow, this is cool," I blurted out when I saw which one he chose. I surprised myself. I rarely have a positive reaction to his choices.

"Oh that's good. That's really good," he said when I was just getting started. 

I loved the look of this hawk and was very into the process. The thick tip of the Sharpie flowed freely today. I felt very confident. This is definitely one of my all time favorites. 

By contrast he didn't have much of a reaction at all when he saw the finished version. He stared at it for a long while and then said, "I like it," rather flatly. I was hoping he would bring it home, but he didn't and I'm not sure why.

A Little Birdie

A Little Birdie

"What's for the snack sack today?"

"A little birdie."

"Okay," I said as I ran a search and handed him my iPhone.

"I wanted a real bird," he complained after a minute of flicking through the options. "These aren't even real birds." He was right about that. Most of the images were not birds.

"Aw, this one's cute!" he exclaimed showing me a picture of a painting of a parrot in a cage.

"No it's not."

"Why not? He's cute."

"He's in a cage and he doesn't look cute at all."

"Aw, this one's so cute! And he's wearing a cute hat!"

This time I had to agree. When I was finished, he reiterated his sentiment, "Aw, how cute!"

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!"