The Statue of Liberty

"Snack sack!?!"

"The Sta-tue of Li-ber-ty," he said in a sing-song voice, then asked, "Do you know what the Statue of Liberty is made of?"

"Iron?" I guessed without thinking.

"No, copper," he replied satisfied to have stumped me. "Do you know why it's greenish?"

"Why?"

"Because when the salt water and the mist, which has little drops of water with salt in it, touches it, it turns green."

I was impressed by his answer. He must have learned a bit about the Statue of Liberty at school yesterday. This one was weird for me because I drew it bottom-up starting with the base platform. When I got to the bottom of her robe I became nervous that I would mess it all up. I paid extra care not to.

"The statue's face looks so weird," he told me. When I didn't answer him, he asked persistently, "Do you think so? Do you?"

"Yeah," I said dejectedly. I knew I'd messed up her face and didn't want to dwell on it.

He went to brush his teeth and came back when I had just finished. "Why did you have to draw lines on my letters?"

"Because I wanted to make it look like bricks."

He ignored me and took control of the Sharpie adding clouds, a bird, and his own version of his name as he sang to himself. I guess he was in a singing mood this morning.

"He has fire on his butt," he said as he drew firey looking lines. 

"What is that? A bird?" I asked.

"No that's a 'v' and its butt's on fire."

"Oh," I said. It's been a while since he added his letters randomly like that. 

"'o' is like a meteor. He came all the way from the sky."

I refrained from reminding him that less is sometimes more. This time, I enjoyed watching him have fun with it all.

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center

"What's for the snack sack today?" I asked as I do every morning.

"An airport?" he asked with some hesitation.

"Um, we've already done an airport," I reminded him.

"Rockefeller Center," he said completely out of the blue.

I shot him a look wondering why that popped into his head.

"Is that too much detail?" he asked cautiously.

It was but I gave it a shot anyway. Drawing from a photograph never produces my best work and this was no exception. It definitely wasn't easy drawing the fountain or the building, but it's still sort of recognizable for what it is. When I was done, he added his name's letters all over the statue in his usual random form.

New Year Times Square

New Year Times Square

"You said yesterday that you knew what you wanted for the snack sack today," I reminded him.

"Oooh, yes! It's a surprise. I'm not going to tell you!" he said coyly.

"Come on. I need to do it," I prodded.

"It's Happy 2012 New Years with fireworks!"

I searched Google Images myself this time because I knew exactly the type of drawing I wanted to do...New Year Times Square.

He didn't watch me work this time. He finished his breakfast and went to brush his teeth. When he came back to take a look he said, "Oh my gosh! That is awesome!! That is cool, cool, cool!!!"

At school I saw him showing it off to the kids next to him in line. He stopped his teacher on his way into class to show her. He was very excited.

Later he told me, "This is the coolest of all." Needless to say, he brought it home.

"Oh you like this one?" I asked.

"The most!" he said.

Spider-Man

Spider-Man

This morning didn't start out very well with the ideas.

"How about people standing together in front of a tree with leaves falling down."

"Um, what!!?!" I thought to myself. "That's too many things to do. It will take too long," I scolded.

I didn't have a ton of time this morning and was already feeling stressed. He didn't have any other ideas, just that one brilliant one. Since he couldn't come up with anything and because he had mentioned Spider-Man a few days ago, I decided to try our friendly neighborhood superhero.

I wasn't sure if I'd get the proportions right and felt nervous throughout. I ran out of time for the details on the buildings and didn't do a good job with the perspective there, but the idea comes across well enough. In the end, he liked it, as did I.

"Ooooo," he said softly when he saw the finished drawing. "Daddy, I'm not sure if I'm gonna bring this back," he warned me.

"Why?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. I'm not sure."

Well, he did bring it back. It's Spider-Man! How could he throw him away!?

How about my letters are in a city...

How about my letters are in a city...

My boy loves New York City and so do I. Our family trip there earlier this year was an absolute blast. We didn't go to the Empire State Building itself, opting to go instead to the Top of the Rock. It was a great view of the skyline and a great view of the once tallest building in the world. It was fun to draw this iconic skyline and I took my time. In fact, I took too much time and we were nearly late to school.

He really loved this one and added the fireworks in the sky. What was super cool is that he was impressed with himself as he noticed that the fireworks looked pretty good. He admired them since they do indeed look like real fireworks in the sky. His letters, with their eyes and expressive eyebrows are a real treat for me to stare at. I love that our collaboration is growing.