One day, while my daughter was happily distracted in her own marker drawings, I decided to risk pulling out a new sketchbook I had special ordered. It had dark paper, and was perfect for adding highlights to. I had only drawn a little in it, and was anxious to try it again, but knowing our daughter’s love of art supplies, it meant that if I wasn’t sly enough, I might have to share. (Note: I’m all about kid’s crafts, but when it comes to my own art projects, I don’t like to share.) Since she was engrossed in her own project, I thought I might be able to pull it off.
Ahhh, I should’ve known better. No longer had I drawn my first face (I love drawing from old black & white movie stills) had she swooped over to me with an intense look. “OOOH! Is that a NEW sketchbook? Can I draw in that too, mama?” I have to admit, the girl knows good art supplies when she sees them. I muttered something about how it was my special book, how she had her own supplies and blah blah blah, but the appeal of new art supplies was too much for her to resist. In a very serious tone, she looked at me and said, “If you can’t share, we might have to take it away if you can’t share.”
Oh no she didn’t! Girlfriend was using my own mommy-words at me! Impressed, I agreed to comply. “I was going to draw a body on this lady’s face,” I said. “Well, I will do it,” she said very focused, and grabbed the pen. I had resigned myself to let that one go. To let her have the page, and then let it go. I would just draw on my own later, I decided. I love my daughter’s artwork, truly I do! But this was MY sketchbook, my inner kid complained.
Not surprisingly, I LOVED what she drew. I had drawn a woman’s face, and she had turned her into a dinosaur-woman. It was beautiful, it was carefree, and for as much as I don’t like to share, I LOVED what she had created. Flipping through my sketchbook, I found another doodle of a face I had not yet finished. She drew a body on it, too, and I was enthralled. It was such a beautiful combination of my style and hers. And she LOVED being a part of it. She never hesitated in her intent. She wasn’t tentative. She was insistent and confident that she would of course improve any illustration I might have done. …And the thing is, she DID.
Soon, she began flipping through my sketchbook, looking for more heads. “Do you have any heads for me today?” she would ask me each morning. So I began making a point at night to draw some faces for her (which was my pleasure–faces are my favorite part, anyway). She would then pick up a pen with great focus, and begin to draw. Later, I would add color and highlights, texture and painting, to make a complete piece. Sometimes she filled in the solid areas with colored markers, but I would always finish with acrylics later on my own.
Sometimes I would give her suggestions, like “maybe she could have a dragon body!” but usually she would ignore theses suggestions if it didn’t fit in with what she already had in mind. But since I am a grownup and a little bit (okay a lot) of a perfectionist, I sometimes would have a specific idea in mind as I doodled my heads. Maybe she could make this into a bug! I’d think happily to myself as I sketched, imagining the possibilities of what it could look like. So later, when she’d doodle some crazy shape that seemed to go in some surrealistic direction, or put a large circle around the creature and filled the WHOLE THING in with marker, part of my brain would think, What is she DOING?!? She’s just scribbling it all up! But I should know that in most instances, kids’ imaginations way outweigh a grownup’s, and it always ALWAYS looked better that what I had imagined. ALWAYS.
For example, the filled-in marker of the one above, she told me, was a chrysalis, for the caterpillar to transform into a butterfly. Of COURSE it is. I never would have thought of that. And that’s why kids make awesome artists.
Later, I would show her what I had done with our drawings–the painting and coloring. She seemed to critique them pretty harshly. “That’s silly, mama.” or “you put WATER behind her?” But for the most part, she enjoyed them. I enjoyed them. I LOVE them.
And from it all, here are the lessons I learned: to try not to be so rigid. Yes, some things (like my new sketchbook) are sacred, but if you let go of those chains, new and wonderful things can happen. Those things you hold so dear cannot change and grow and expand unless you loosen your grip on them a little. In sharing my artwork and allowing our daughter to be an equal in our collaborations, I helped solidify her confidence, which is way more precious than any doodle I could have done. In her mind, her contributions were as valid as mine (and in truth, they really were). Most importantly, I learned that if you have a preconceived notion of how something should be, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE DISAPPOINTED. Instead, just go with it, just ACCEPT it, because usually something even more wonderful will come out of it.
SIDE NOTE: As an idea (mainly for myself) I decided to put just a few of our collaborative prints up for sale on a site called Society 6. I purchased one myself (the space beavers, called “Outer Face”) to see how they would turn out, and I’m pretty happy with it. We’ve done dozens and dozens of collaborative sketches, but I only put a few up as prints. I’m not sure what to do with the others. Maybe make a children’s book out of them? Make poems to go along? I’m not sure, but I love them with a very large portion of my heart, and they need a special place.
busy mockingbird 
What a badass combination! Having met the young one and fully aware that she has a total mind of her own I just love the way the whole episode panned out. Beautiful story. Most definitely book-able!!! 🙂 Keith
WOU! Amazing and loverable pictures..I just LOVE those…Also the colors are very impressing ❤ GOOD GOOD GOOD! Thank you for sharing these and kiss for that 4 yrs artist!
I love everything about this! I love the sentiment, the lesson we can all learn, the creativity and the finished products themselves. I was totally thinking Calendar. You should make a calendar with these 🙂
Stumbled in and really love the art, a wonderful display of letting go of your inhibitions regarding your own art and work with some completely (to yourself) foreign element in your creations. Also, it’s lovely to see you share such a nice creative and fun process with someone so close to your heart. Thank you for the inspiring post!
SO beautiful! I think you really should make a book, with poems, you could collaborate on them too! I had a collaborative writing of a childrens story, with my nine-years-old and that turned out very well!
Fantastic idea – collaborative poetry to go along with these amazing collaborative drawings – a book!
> Maybe make a children’s book out of them? Make poems to go along?
YES PLEASE! DO THIS IMMEDIATELY! -M-
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Incidentally, my cousin was collaborating with her 9 year old son making soft toy creatures… He draw them and she made them… http://www.rags-productions.no/page8/page8.html
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absolutely fantastic!
AMAZING!
Beautiful! We can learn so much form children. I taught for 5 years in a special ed center with students from 3 – 21, that were severe and profoundly handicapped. I lessons I learned from them stay with me everyday. The biggest is to stay out of the kids way when they are creating, do force your ideas on them. I do collaborative draws with them in our extra time, they love it and they are some of my favorite pieces.
This is SO COOL.
I simply can’t stop looking at the drawings ! Thank you for listening your daugther’s wise words and sharing the sketchbook. It turns out awesome!
I love these!!! I would love to see more! I’ve never been so intrigued…. I got right online and bought four prints! Please do a book! That would be amazing!
Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
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Reblogged this on The Nameless One.
Each one is really a piece of art I say 🙂
Seriously cool. Thanks
These are simply amazing!! 🙂
The inspiring story blossomed out with lovely illustrations. Congratulations. I can only envy you your wonderful collaboration : my children are grown up already – I alone dream about the magic that radiates from the art supplies http://arthiker.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/last-sentinels/
Great way to motivate a child . Love this post!
http://www.phillybookpicks.wordpress.com
This beautiful post made me happy — what a special memory you & you’re daughter will have! And loved your comment ‘I love these with a very large portion of my heart’!!!
Reblogged this on Dean'z Doodlez and commented:
Best. Sketchbook. Project. Ever!!!! XD
Check it out y’all! It’s frogging awesome! 🙂
Reblogged this on Makes Me Wander and commented:
I love this idea and the end result!
This is such a fun idea! I look forward to trying this with my kids (although I suspect the talent level will be a lot more even as my skills could even be less than my kids…)! I reblogged! Thanks!
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This is amazing in every way! It deserves an exhibition! Congrats to you and your daughter!
Amazing artwork !!!
🙂
This is so wonderful and inspiring on many levels! Thank you for sharing and for being brave enough to let go!
These are fabulous. So inspiring!
Reblogged this on A Tree Grows in the Bayou and commented:
Things that make me happy to be a part of this world:
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You really need to make Outer Faces into a t-shirt. It rocks hard.
I’ll have to format some of them for shirts. Thanks!
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Book! Book! Book! 🙂 These are super awesome; I wish me and my daughter could do something as cool as this (so far our collaborations have been pretty basic :D).
Reblogged this on Mirrorgirl and commented:
I was starstruck when I read this post and saw the blend of love manifested in wonderful pictures. The collaboration between the mother and daughter is the team-work of people always meant to be together. Two souls at their very best, meeting at a point that creates true art, that never will be forgotten afterwards.
I have no more words.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
And who knew, that the days that came and went, waslife itself?
I had a lot of work before I was able to post this comment: First I was logged on and off all the time, before I (many efforts later) finally could write a long post. That “could not be posted”. So I reblogged the whole post instead, and expressed my amazement there in addition to jumping like a kangaroo inside me:D
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Just phenomenal. A picture book or book of poems would be amazing. Thanks for sharing! We all need to learn to be less rigid and more open to the possibilities of things we could not have even dreamed.
Beautiful collaborations! Kids are so inspiring. So are parents who love their kids.
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