The Root Beer Guy

"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.

Dukey and Johnny Freaking Out

We forgot to bring back his library book yesterday, but he chose not to pick anything from it.

Instead, he said surely, "Dukey. But this time, freaking out." We had done Dukey from Johnny Test just a few weeks ago.

"I don't want to do something that doesn't look like Dukey," I told him. "Last time you wanted to pick things that didn't look like anything."

He searched and searched and ultimately picked this silly shot of Johnny and Dukey.

As I was working through it, I made several mistakes that I had to cover up. I didn't mean to, but said out loud, "I'm not doing very well."

Later, he looked over the table and said, "You're doing good, Daddy."

It's makes me feel warm inside when he's sweet and encouraging.

When he saw the finished sack, he laughed, "Oooh, he-he." He took a closer look at the reference and asked, "Can you draw the background?"

I looked closer too. All I saw was some green and white. "There's nothing in the background," I said.

"Yeah. It's the hill and the fence."

I had to stare for a long time to see it, but I finally did. I added the arc of the hill but didn't think the rest would work. "I don't think the fence posts will be recognizable. That's all I'm gonna do," I said firmly.

He protested a little, "I know what they are and can recognize them."

"No. I'm done," I insisted.

"Okay," he relented.

Later after school when I pulled the snack sack out of his backpack, I asked him, "What did the kids say about it?"

"A lot of them really liked it," he told me. "Dukey and Johnny freaking out!"

Dukey

"What are we doing today?"

"Dukey."

Okay, I've seen Johnny Test twice now so I at least know that Dukey is the talking dog. The episode we watched yesterday was largely about Dukey and how he wanted to go to bring-your-pet-to-school day. Johnny picked his pet lizard instead, fearing Dukey might end up the star of a reality series if he brought him to school. I like the show. It's funny.

There weren't too many options for Dukey. Victor picked out an image of him with a super fat belly. Laughing, he showed me the phone and said, "Okay, this one."

"No," I said, "That doesn't look like him."

He found a different one with Dukey not even the main focus of the capture. "Okay, this one."

"No," I said.

He ended up picking this silly one of Dukey in bunny slippers, reading with his morning coffee. I messed up the proportions at first, but I was able to fix it. I retraced over the entire drawing which helped cover up some of the mistakes.

He liked it. "Cool!" he said. He looked at me and asked, "Are you going to do the 'Test' part?" He was wondering about his name and thinking about how I had done it in the Johnny Test from yesterday.

"No. I'm just going to do your name."

He watched as I filled in the mini Johnny Test silhouette inside the letter "O".

Reiterating his comments from yesterday, he said, "I love how you do it so small."

As we were walking out of the house, he planned out the snack sacks for the rest of the week. "Tomorrow I want you to do Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Then the next day I want you to do Perry."

I nodded in agreement.

"Or...could you do Dr. Doofenshmirtz fighting Perry?"

"If I have time."

"Okay, then I need to wake up early tomorrow and you need to get ready early tomorrow so that you have time."

"Okay," I said as we walked out into the sunlight.

Scooby-Doo

"What should it be today?"

He thought for a moment. "We've never done Scooby-Doo," he said somewhat randomly.

"We haven't," I agreed.

I did a search for Scooby-Doo drawings and handed him my iPhone. "I found it!" he cried out after just a few seconds. "Is this one okay?"

"Sure." Again, I didn't have very much time today and had to rush it.

He took a close look when I was done. "It looks exactly like the drawing, except these lines need to be a little darker," he said pointing to the back leg. He wasn't even looking at the original but managed to notice the one mistake I made.

"It actually isn't that the lines aren't dark enough, but that the leg isn't long enough. See..." I said showing him. He's got a real good eye for fine details.

"Well it's your picture, so that's okay," he said supportively.

I definitely want a puppy...

I definitely want a puppy...

"I definitely want a dog," he said without hesitation. "A puppy! I definitely want a puppy!" he corrected.

"Okay," I said and handed him my iPhone.

"Aww, how cute!" he said as he browsed, "Ooh, how cute!" He searched for a while and then found the one he was looking for, "I definitely want this one. He's so cute!"

Sometimes the easier looking ones are actually harder to draw. There is less room for error with so few lines. I messed up right away and had to toss out the first sack. Starting with the head hadn't worked out so well, so I started my second try at the tail. It was looking pretty good until I realized that I had drawn the line for its back way too long which forced me to put the ear and top of the head out of alignment with the bottom of the puppy's face. It looked too wonky so I decided to toss that one out as well and start over. I've never tossed out two sacks before. I wonder why my confidence from yesterday didn't carry over to today?

He paid attention to my challenges and we discussed how and why I messed up. I can tell that he's beginning to take a real interest in art and drawing which is pretty cool.