An Igloo

I let him oversleep today so we got off to a late start.

"I need something easy today," I told him.

"Do something from my drawing book," he suggested. He took out Draw 50 Buildings and Other Structures as his library book this week. "You can pick anything you want," he said encouragingly.

I opened the book to a random page. "An igloo?" I asked. Easy enough, I thought.

"Sure," he said.

I drew this one fast, probably too fast. I made lots of mistakes. Plus, I used a new Sharpie and wasn't prepared for the extra ink flow you get with a new marker.

"Wow! That was fast!" he exclaimed when he walked over. "Is that all you can do?" he asked. I didn't answer. "Is that all you can do?" he repeated. "Can you do another snack sack on the back?"

I finished so fast we were slightly ahead of schedule, but I didn't really have time for more. "Uh, no. We've got to go," I told him.

"Aww," he said with a pout.

LEGO Vampire

"What should we do today?"

"I don't know. Maybe a LEGO vampire?"

"Good idea!"

He looked for a while and obviously not happy with the choices said, "Okay, just do a regular vampire."

"Nooooo!" I exclaimed. I went over and helped him pick one of the LEGO versions. I'm still unhappy about my effort on the vampire from last year.

"This one," we agreed.

"Cool. I'll even do the red eyes."

When I was done, he came over for his analysis. I'm not exactly sure why, but I added the dots on the cape to make it look a little different than the jacket. He asked, "Are those holes on the cape? Because sometimes capes have holes, right Daddy?" He didn't wait for my answer. "It's kind of like glitter."

"I think it looks cool," I said in my defense.

"I don't."

His honesty made me chuckle. 

"Why did you laugh?"

"It looks cool," I repeated, ignoring his question. 

"Not to me."

I laughed a full laugh this time. 

"I made you laugh," he said with a smile. "Because I'm being funny."

"Yup! You are funny."

Continuing with his analysis he said, "This one looks scary," gesturing toward the reference on my iPhone. "This one looks nice," he said pointing to my drawing.

I shot him a look, but didn't say anything.

"It's okay. I still like it."

Thanks, I said to myself in a sarcastic tone.

"I like it friendly. But, it would be cooler with red eyes."

"Thanks for reminding me," I said as I jumped up to look for a red pen. 

"Ooo, cool!" he said when he saw the finished LEGO vampire with red eyes. "Wow! You found a red pen. Nice!"

A Werewolf

"What should we do today?"

"I don't know."

"Come on...think of something," I said encouragingly.

"A werewolf!" he said suddenly and with emphasis.

"Okay," I said, "Let's find a good one." I've never heard him mention werewolves before.

He picked this one quickly and I got to work.

He came over to watch me draw. "You're the best drawer! I know, you're like Picasso." He learned about Picasso in drawing class yesterday. He came home with a really good dove drawing that he did.

"Thank you," I replied sheepishly.

"Wow," he whispered slowly. He studied the drawing and compared it with the reference turning his head back and forth between the two. "That is so awesome." He continued to compare. "He looks mean." He studied it some more finally concluding with, "That arm is super huge."

Yeah it is, I thought to myself. I knew I had messed that up but tried to fix it as best I could. He always notices!

A Zombie

After pushing hard on him to think of something new, he finally said, "A ghost. No! A zombie!"

"Do you want to draw it today?" I asked. We had a lot of extra time because he woke up very early this morning. I thought it might be fun for him to draw some of it at least.

"Maybe tomorrow I'll draw it myself."

"Okay," I said knowing that it was unlikely that he'd be drawing tomorrow.

He really enjoyed looking through the zombie options. "Oh my god! These are really good zombies!"

"They are, aren't they!" I agreed. What he didn't know was that I searched "zombie coloring pages" instead of "zombie drawings". The drawings are even cooler but oh so detailed. And some were pretty gory.

He picked this guy. "He's kind of gross and weird," he said as he handed me my iPhone.

"I agree!"

How about Frankenstein...

"What should we do today?"

"I don't know."

"Well, you can think of anything!" I reminded him.

"How about Frankenstein?" he said with little hesitation. I love it that a little push so often works.

I did a search and handed him my iPhone before stepping into the other room to go get something. 

"I got it!" he announced across the house.

"Let's see," I said as I walked back to the kitchen.

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah! It's spooky!"

"But can you make the eyes more furious?"

"Um...," I uttered not really understanding.

"Yeah, like maybe not just circles. You could draw triangles...if you want."

I followed his suggestion for the eyes, but in the end I'd say that mine looks far less "furious" than the original. I made the face too long. Perhaps that has something to do with it. Oh well. I usually feel pretty critical while drawing but after I take the photo and look at the finished drawing with fresh eyes I realize that it's not half bad. This one looks real good, especially if I don't look back at the reference.

He came over to take a look. "Dad, I said to make the eyes more furious! They look more tired."

You know the saying, You're your own worst critic? Well, he proves that saying wrong all the time. :)

Witch

"I don't know. You pick. I don't have any ideas."

"How about something Halloween-y?" I suggested. 

"I know...but...I don't know."

I drew a blank too and said nothing.

We both stared off into the distance in silence. He had nothing. I had nothing. I decided to literally type "Halloween" into Google image search for inspiration. It worked! I found several spooky scenes in black silhouette. I almost picked one, but saw a cool looking witch on a broom and showed it to him. I thought about it and wasn't sure if I'd ever drawn a witch.

He looked at it for a moment, then said, "Hmm, how about a different witch?"

"Okay," I said and searched "witch." Lots of cool options came up.

"Pick something quickly," I said. "We've wasted a lot of time already."

"This one," he said in a flash.

 I liked it too. "Let's do it."

He ate breakfast and got ready for school really quickly today. "Can I mess around?" he asked. 

"Sure. You can play in your playroom," I suggested. He didn't run upstairs. "Or you can watch me draw," I added. He was already watching.

"I want to watch you draw," he said with his eyes intently following my strokes. 

I smiled. That was real nice to hear. But then he started wiggling and swaying and hitting my elbow. He did so repeatedly. I was getting a little nervous that I wouldn't have time to finish so I was trying my best to focus and work diligently.

"Can you please stop hitting my elbow?" I said in a serious tone.

After a few seconds he said, "I'm going to go play."

"Why don't you stay? Just don't hit my elbow anymore."

"It's okay. I think I'll go play."

I guess it made sense for him to take advantage of the extra time to "mess around." He rarely has that opportunity in the morning. Having said that, I bet he'd have stayed to watch me had I not expressed my frustration with his wriggling.

I finished with just enough time to pack it up and go. After having a creative block to start with, I was very pleased with this Halloween-y drawing. On our way out the door he got a glimpse of the finished witch. "Oh cool! That's freaky!" he said intensely.

She sure is!, I thought.

Giraffe Neck

I woke up this morning with an idea of what to draw. That's actually never happened before. I had the idea to do something close up. The neck of a giraffe came to mind. I'm not sure why.

"What's for the snack sack today?"

"I don't know what to do."

That was my opening. "Should I pick?" I asked, jumping at the chance.

"Yes," he replied.

He finished his breakfast and went to brush his teeth without checking out what I was drawing. When he finally did come by, I was about half way done.

"Uh, what are you doing?" he asked. He studied the drawing for about a minute before he added, "Giraffes are not Halloween."

"I didn't say I was gonna do Halloween."

"Oh." He watched me as I started on the giraffe's mane. "You'll have to do thousands of lines for the hair."

I didn't count but I probably came close. I took my time. I'm not too sure he liked it, but this one came out just as I had wanted it to.

Skulls Jack-o'-lantern

While I made his breakfast, he flipped through a pumpkin carving pattern book. Every year we meet up with friends for a pumpkin carving party. "You're going to do this bat," he informed me. "It actually looks pretty cool." He flipped through a few more pages. "Momma's gonna do this house." He flipped back a couple of pages. "I'm going to do this wolf." He looked up at me. "Okay, daddy?" He phrased it as a question, but it wasn't really a question. In truth, I end up carving all three of our pumpkins every year.

"So...should I draw something Halloween today?" I asked.

"This skeleton!" he exclaimed. "I mean this skull."

It looked cool to me. I was real careful with this one even paying close attention to the direction of the strokes around the pumpkin.

When he saw it, he said "Ah, cooool!" He studied it more closely. "I see the 'Victor'. It's right there!" he said pointing.

"I love drawing these dark black ones. They are always fun to do!" I told him.

Tree Rex

I'm not sure exactly how or why, but we went from Halloween to Christmas to Skylanders and finally ended up with Tree Rex from Skylanders Giants.

He got in trouble for playing with his toys instead of getting ready for school so I didn't ask him which drawing he wanted. 

I'm sure he would have picked one where Tree Rex is standing upright, but those looked more complicated than this one.

He came over to see exactly what I was drawing and said, "Um, that's a weird thing of him."

I had to chuckle. "Kind of," I replied. "It's just that I don't have much time and had to pick one I could do."

He came by to guide me through the title art, his name, and the little element circles. In the end, we agreed that it looked pretty cool.

Panther Set In Flames

"What should we do today?" I asked.

"I have no idea," he said and sat pensively. "You've done a battleship," he added.

"How about we do something with fire?" I suggested. A stack of fire safety materials were on the kitchen table. He brought them home from school yesterday. I did a search for "fire drawings" and handed him my iPhone. 

I figured I'd be drawing some flames but of course he picked something much cooler and more complex. "This one!" he exclaimed as soon as he saw this panther set in flames.

I was about to start but noticed that the thick tip of my twin-tipped Sharpie was squished down. I checked the others in the drawer. They all looked the same. "See! That's why I don't want you using my markers. You have your markers and these are mine," I said, not masking my frustration. He pushes down so hard when he writes that it only takes one line drawn to spoil the tip of a new Sharpie. I took a deep breath. "See," I said showing him the tip. "This is what happens. You press too hard and it flattens the tip. Now I can't really use this end to draw."

I could see him evaluating my concern. "Oh," is all he said. We agreed that he should have his own. "But I want colored ones," he informed me. "I think they have some at Target or something," he added helpfully.

"Okay, for you maybe. But I don't use color because it would take too long for me to draw with color too. It's really hard for me to make time to quickly draw these every morning," I said slowly.

"I know. You really make them well."

I got to work and carefully started with the panther's face.

He finished his breakfast and walked over to get a closer look. "Oh yeah! Cool!" he said taking stock of my progress. "It actually looks more realistic than the drawing."

I smiled inside at the compliment. He went to brush his teeth while I finished up. "What do you think?" I asked as we walked out. 

"Awwwesome," he said, elongating the word. "Yeah, awesome!" he repeated. 

He brought this one back and the next morning he showed it to me. "Look! I brought this back and I'm going to color it on the weekend!"