The Batcave

"Can you draw a gem from this book?" he asked me. He had brought home a book of gems from the school library and wanted to me to draw one.

"These aren't good for drawing," I told him. They were vivid photographs of beautiful gems and wouldn't be easy for me to reproduce in Sharpie.

"How about a building?" he said.

"No," I protested. I didn't want to spend all morning doing something super complicated. Plus, he had no specific building in mind. "Which building?" I asked.

He thought. "How about the Capitol Building?"

"Um," I said. I couldn't remember for sure, but it felt like I'd done it before. Turns out I had not.

I searched for drawings of the Capitol Building and handed him my iPhone. He chose one with a lot of fine details. "Here," he said.

"No, I'm not doing that."

"I'm out of ideas then."

"Be more creative," I prodded.

He stewed for a long time. Eventually he said out of nowhere, "How about the Batcave?"

"Yeah, okay."

There weren't too many drawings to choose from, but we settled in on this one. I started out the morning not wanting to draw anything too complicated. What a surprise to end up with such a detailed drawing that needed to span the whole sack. I went ahead with it because it was cool looking, unlike the earlier Capitol Building. You can't go wrong with the Batcave.

I spent a long time working on this one. When I was done, he asked, "Where's my name? I don't see it."

"It's hidden in the Batcave," I told him. It took him a long while to find it.

The Batmobile was in the reference, but Batman was not. I felt like he should be in there, so I added him in. I wasn't happy with how he turned out, though. I didn't know how to make it better without making it worse, so I just left it as is.

"Where's Batman?" he asked. Clearly he couldn't make out the black smudge in the middle as Batman. Oh well. I try.

Robot Man

"Are we going to do a robot or something else?" I asked directly. We had misplaced the "How to Draw Robots" book, but I found it yesterday.

"A robot," he said.

He picked this robot man that looks like a transformer. I considered following the instructions and steps but decided to just do it my way. I had plenty of time today for a change, so I took my time. I wanted to get this one right and proportional. I usually use the Ultra Fine Point end of the twin-tipped Sharpie, but today I switched it out for an Extra Fine Point Sharpie I had in the drawer. It allowed for me to focus in on the detailed features of his face. I stuck with it for the rest of the drawing. This was the very first time I'd used this more precise Sharpie and I enjoyed working with it. I'm very proud of how the drawing turned out.

I was so lost in the work, in fact, that I forgot that I still had things to do to get ready. I was out of time and I still had to go upstairs to change. He was studying the drawing when I ran back downstairs.

"What do you think of this guy?" I asked out of breath.

"Oh, he's cool!" he replied.

It was hoping for a bigger reaction, but I can tell that he really liked it since he brought this one home after school.