Bugs Bunny with a Giant Gold Rock

Twice this week I found his snack sack in his backpack with the snack still in it. It was clear that he has not been eating his snack everyday. What's more, it seemed likely that he hasn't even been taking the snack sack out of his backpack. A lot of thoughts raced through my head. I tried to learn more.

I asked him if he was playing instead of eating. I asked him if he takes the snack sack out of his backpack at all during the day. I asked him if he shows the snack sacks to his friends. He gave me no direct answers to my questions. I pressed some more, but he remained vague and I don't understand exactly why.

"Do you still want me to draw?" I asked him, fearing he might say, "No." I thought about the time and effort I put into drawing these sacks. I thought about the past sacks that likely weren't even taken out of his backpack. I felt emboldened to add, "I'm going to stop drawing if you're not going to eat your snack."

He sheepishly apologized saying he hasn't been very hungry.

"Do you still want me to draw?" I asked again.

"Yes. I'll eat my snack from now on."

I felt relieved that he still wanted me to draw. After asking that second time, I was pretty nervous that he might say he didn't want me to draw anymore. "Okay, so what should I draw today?" I asked, moving on.

"You get to choose anything from the iPad."

"Oh, I get to choose?"

"Yeah."

I grabbed the iPad and opened the Photos app to browse the stockpile of Looney Tunes screenshots he captured over the summer. In the cameral roll, there were a few recent pics he took at school. I found a funny selfie he took of himself yelling at the camera. I showed it to him and asked, "Should I draw this?"

He smiled and said, "No, don't do that. It's weird."

"It's funny," I teased.

He shot me a look, knowing I wasn't being serious.

I browsed for a bit and ultimately picked another snapshot from, "Barbary-Coast Bunny." Yesterday I drew Bugs Bunny in a pile of gold coins from the same cartoon. Here, in this scene for today, Bugs runs into this giant gold rock. Once he recognizes it for what it is, he does backflips and cartwheels across the grass all the while yelling, "I'm rich! I'm rich! I'm faaaabulously wealthy!" That clip is a memorable one from my childhood. I can remember repeating those words all the time when I was young.

I took my time with this one and like the way it came out. When he saw it, he said, "It's good. It's good. Except that it'd be better if it was colored in."

"I agree," I told him. He was right. A giant gold rock should look like a giant gold rock.

As we headed out the door, I couldn't help but wonder if he'd take this one out of his backpack today and what it might mean to our project if he doesn't.

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.

Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo Bear Preparing a Campfire

"What's for the snack sack?" he asked this time!

"I don't know. You tell me."

"The Flintstones." I had introduced him to The Flintstones and The Jetsons on YouTube earlier this week. He'd never seen either cartoon. I ran a search and handed him my iPhone. He looked at options for a minute, then changed his mind. "Actually, Yogi again." I ran a new search and he picked another Yogi scene quickly. "This one!" he yelled.

"Looks good." Yesterday we had drawn a funny scene of Yogi and Boo-Boo running from Park Ranger Smith.

He sat next to me while I drew today. We had a long discussion about art and drawing. "How are you such a good drawer?! What you do...it looks exactly, I mean exactly, like it."

"Just a lot of practice, Victor. I've gotten better with time. I'm more confident now. Before I used to..."

He completed my sentence, "...get worried you'd make a big mistake."

"Yeah. I'd be worried the whole time that I'd make a big mistake and mess it all up. But now I don't worry as much. And I still make plenty of mistakes..."

He continued for me, "...but they can't tell because it's a big drawing."

"Yeah. You can always fix mistakes."

He watched me carefully as I drew the cabin. He studied my lines and the choices I made about the order in which I drew it. "You're the best drawer I've ever seen."

"What about your art teacher?" I asked, deflecting the compliment. His school has a part time art teacher that comes to his class once every few weeks I believe.

"She does easy stuff. You do hard stuff."

"Yeah, but that's probably because she's doing easy stuff with you guys since you're kids."

"No. She does easy stuff."

"Maybe you should ask her to show you her own art. I'm sure it's good."

"Okay. Next time I'll ask her. But you're the best artist I've seen."

"Thanks, Buddy." I was done. All that was left was to add his name.

"May I do my name?"

"Sure."

"Have you done my name as flames?"

"Yup."

"Can you do it?"

"No. You do it."

"Can you tell me how?"

"I think you know how."

"How about I draw some logs, and a fire, and then my name is part of the smoke?"

"Sounds good." I knew he knew what he wanted. He's always creative and very specific when he asks for the Sharpie. He did a good job of adding a campfire that wasn't in the original reference and creatively adding his letters to the smoke. His artistic ability is improving and I couldn't be prouder of him!

Sylvester the Cat

"What are we doing today?"

He thought for a while. He remained silent. "Can you help me pick something like you said you would?" he asked. He's been struggling on some days to think of something new for me to draw.

"Okay, let's think of categories of things, like animals, plants, ..."

He added, "Buildings."

"Yes buildings or places or your favorite shows or characters."

"Looney Tunes!" he shouted.

"Okay. Good. Looney Tunes," I said. I thought about which Looney Tunes characters I had done already. "I haven't done Foghorn Leghorn. Or Pepé Le Pew."

"You haven't done Sylvester," he said jumping in. "Have you done Yosemite Sam?"

"Nope."

"Do Yosemite Sam."

I ran a search and saw lots of the other characters too. I declared, "I haven't done Marvin the Martian."

"Oh, you can do Marvin the Martian tomorrow."

I handed him my iPhone. He took a long time scrolling through the options, so long that I started to get annoyed.

"Pick something, please," I said irritably.

"Here."

"You picked the only one that isn't a drawing," I said, unable to mask my annoyance. "Plus it doesn't really look like Yosemite Sam." It was an odd snapshot directly from one of the cartoons and Yosemite Sam had a really weird expression on his face. I should have had extra time today, but because it was taking him so long to pick something suitable, I'd be feeling in a rush. I don't like feeling rushed.

He picked another option, but this time it had both Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny. "This one."

"No Victor, that's two things. It's Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny. I don't have time to do two things, especially now that it's taken extra time to pick something."

He ignored me and picked another one. It was a classic Yosemite Sam front pose in which he is staring straight out, pointing two guns ready to shoot. I felt that it might be too much for today's schools to draw a guy (even if it was Yosemite Sam) holding guns pointed toward the onlooker. I browsed for something else similar but without the guns.

He noticed my concerned look and asked, "You don't like that one?"

"I'm not sure about drawing the guns."

"But he always has guns."

"I know, but...", I trailed off. Schools today can be very sensitive, and rightly so, about guns. Back when I was a kid, I wouldn't have given it a moment's thought, but now it was worthy of extra consideration.

He seemed to understand. "Okay, then let's do Sylvester." He picked this one of Sylvester playing guitar right away.

"If that's what you want."

"Yeah, because he's being silly and he has a guitar and silly's my thing."

I had to rush through this one, but it wasn't too difficult. "Done. What do you think?"

"Oh cool. Can you put some clouds 'cause he's in the air?" he asked.

He started to show me and I said, "You do it."

He added the ground, the trees, the birds, and the clouds, talking all the while. "'VICTOR' is sitting on a cloud. Cool, huh?" He just then noticed the design of his name and added, "Oh, you made 'VICTOR' out of guitar strings!"

As I was taking the picture I appreciated his additions. It looked pretty cool with Sylvester looking like he was jumping up above the trees. "Nice additions, Victor," I praised. I could tell he felt proud of his work.

When he got home in the afternoon, he brought with him a good bunch of the snack sacks he had taken to school yesterday. "I left several for my teacher to put up in the classroom," he told me.

"A rotating gallery. Nice!"

Olaf Smelling a Flower

"What should we do today?"

"How about Elsa?"

"No. I've already done Elsa."

"How about another Olaf?"

This is starting to become a pattern. I've already done Olaf too. He's been stuck in a rut, picking things we've done in the past. I thought about it and decided to give him a pass with Olaf. He's been coming home just about everyday with a new drawing he's done with Olaf in it. "Okay," I said reluctantly.

He took a long time searching through the options and finally said, "This one."

I have to admit that I didn't like his choice but decided not to refuse it. I wasn't in a very good mood to begin with this morning and drawing a repeat subject in a scene I wasn't too keen on left me feeling uninspired. I just wanted to finish quickly, so I did.

To my surprise, he brought this one home today after school.

How about my letters walking through a forest...

How about my letters walking through a forest...

"You can draw some animals too," he informed me. I didn't expect there'd be time for animals and I was right. Drawing a forest isn't easy and this one took me at least 30 minutes.

"You know what?" he asked, "You have to draw it sideways or you won't have room for the trees."

I've been hesitant to deviate too much from our basic format of drawing on one side of the bag with a simple twin-tipped Sharpie. So far, drawing in portrait orientation has been a good size to keep the drawings manageable. More space may mean more creative options, but constraints aren't always bad. He was right though. This forest idea needed more room. After he said, "Please draw it sideways," in his cute little voice, I couldn't argue against it.

I liked the idea of leveraging more black again too. It was challenging to find the right drawing to copy but this one seemed to fit the bill. I kind of ran out of time on this one, but it still looks pretty cool to me. 

"Awesome daddy!" he said when he saw it. He added his letters as I was rushing us out of the kitchen. They are all but hidden between some dark branches. He also insisted on adding the "wind" as wispy lines going through the pathway.

"Why do you always take pictures?" he asked me on our way to the front door, "So you'll never forget how cool they are?"