Leo the Lion

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

"You know, the snack sack's on the iPad."

"It is?"

"It is." He scanned the screenshots and stopped on one. "It's Leo the Lion."

Victor spent several days over the summer taking screenshots on his iPad mini of his favorite Looney Tunes scenes. He literally took hundreds of stills. For some cartoon snippets, he took screenshots frame by frame. He's given me the impression, mostly by stating it directly, that he thinks I'll draw them all.

I looked over his shoulder. It was a snapshot from "The Lion's Busy" featuring Leo the Lion and Beaky Buzzard. "What's happening in this cartoon?" I asked him.

"There's an eagle that's trying to eat the lion." In a deep voice, mimicking Beaky Buzzard, he said, "Temper, temper, Mr. Lion."

I flipped through the other snapshots. "It's a vulture, not an eagle," I corrected.

"Exactly," he said.

"I can't see Leo's tail and stuff. Do you want me to just cut it off or draw the rest of his body."

"Just cut it off. Just do it exactly as it is."

"Okay!"

When I was done, he laughed, "He-he-he!"

"What do you think?" I asked.

"I like it!"

When he came home that afternoon, I was happy to see that he'd brought this one home, unlike the one from yesterday which went lost.

"I told my teacher that I want you to come into class."

"Did you show her today's snack sack?"

"No."

"Um, you need to show her so that she knows what you're talking about!"

"Okay, I will."

He's funny. He likes to jump right into things sometimes without setting any context. Nonetheless, I have no doubt that I'll end up in his classroom sometime soon.

This eagle looking thing...

"Are we doing another one from the 'Draw 50 Monsters' book?" I asked him.

He flipped through it some. "This one," he said pointing, "This eagle looking thing."

"Yeah, okay," I said looking at the griffin. "That's not really a monster either," I added, comparing it to yesterday's funny faced monster.

"I know."

"And Darth Vader's not a monster either." Vader was on the page opposite the griffin. "He's more of a bad guy." I flipped through the book some more. "And Yoda's in there too!? He's not a bad guy. He's a good guy. This book is very confusing."

"I know," he agreed.

I worked from the bottom up, starting with the back legs. I think that was a mistake. It had me drawing backwards from right to left which made things tough for me. Some days I'm just not that into the drawing and today was one of those days. I just wanted to be done with it from the moment I started.

"It's good," is all he said about it when he saw the finished version.

Surprisingly, he brought it home. He's grown more sentimental about them, as have I. I expect most of the sacks will likely make it back home from now on. I can understand that it'd be hard for him to intentionally throw them away anymore.

How about a mountain lion...

How about a mountain lion...

"Santa!"

"No it's too early. It's not even December yet. Remember?"

"It's close. It's only two days!"

"No."

"How about reindeer?"

"No. Same thing."

"Not Santa's reindeers. Just reindeer."

"No."

"How about a mountain lion?"

Uh, I'm not sure how he got there, but it resulted in a cool option.

"I just need to tell you, you're really good at drawing these stuff," he said, following up the compliment with a warm hug. Moments like that are what I live for.