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 
Wow, cool! You should really make a book out of these- perfect art
(If you made a book, you should make it with poems- similar to The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy, by Tim Burton)
LOVE me some Tim Burton!
Reblogged this on Matter of Perspective.
Hi! this is the most beautiful page ive visited in a while. Thanks for the share:).Im curious about whom the two faces in Outer Space belong to?
Oh gosh, I’m not sure I remember! I work from old black & white movie stills, and sometimes I forget!
Amazing drawings and so cute to see a creative collaboration between a parent and its kid. I almost feel like trying the same but with my boyfriend playing the child 🙂
HAHAHA
Lovely!! Irs great fun to do things with kids. I have a 5 yr old and love doing art work together
I would 100% buy a coffee table book of these illustrations.
Agree Hilary. And I’d like to go through it while relaxing at the table. 🙂
Agree Hilary. I’d really love to enjoy that book while relaxing at the table. 🙂
Yes, please make a book!! I would totally buy one.
Excellent arting and parenting. !!
Incredible! I would not hesitate to hang any of these on my wall.
These are amazing! I am an artist also, my daughter and I collaborate ideas all the time, but this is so inspiring! She is just agog with them! I am sure you have urged us to the next level of co-conspiring.
Wauw! This is amazing, so talented and so unexpected! I recognize myself in how you think: being careful of my artwork around young children. But because of this I have learned that I must let go, and let creativity float around!
I hope you will encourage your daughter to keep going with art work. I think she can become a great ‘out of the box’ artist, someone that has something new to show to people!
Oh yes, poems…definitely poems! This is so inspiring- I love the style combination. Your daughter is as supertalented as her mother : )
[…] More like this at the busy mockingbird: […]
Your daughter displays tons of talent.
This is an Exquisite Corpse! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse
You should put them in a gallery! They are fab. they go together so well, and you should be really proud of yourself for encouraging your daughter to join you 🙂
Reblogged this on ashinbleu.
I just loved your collaborations! Your daughter has a great imagination and she’s not a bad artists after all.. now is she?
How wonderful.
This is the best thing I’ve ever seen
These are amazing! The space beavers and slug lady are absolutely brilliant and fascinating. What an amazing collaboration and what stunning results, thank you for sharing them!
Very cool. We are social creatures.
Very interesting art! Great idea. How fun. Thanks for sharing.
fantastic collaboration !
Would you do commissions? Would love something like this for our wedding invitations!
Fantastic! Both the products and the process, what we can learn from children! Thanks for sharing. (Also LOVE the wedding invitation idea, let me know if you pursue this!)
[…] illustrator Mica Angela Hendricks had just bought a new sketchbook when her 4-year-old daughter noticed (she knows good art supplies […]
I love, love, love it. I’ll be heading over to the other site to check out the prints for sale!
[…] was so excited when I read about mother/slash Mica Hendricks on her blog, the Busy Mockingbird, because I knew exactly where she was coming from. The mother of a very creative 4 year-old, she […]
[…] 這是職業插畫家媽媽Mica Angela Hendricks和她年僅4歲的女兒一起完成的不可思議的作品。媽媽會先畫一個充滿復古風格的頭，再讓他女兒畫上歪七扭八的身體（有時候是動物的身體！ XD），最後再由媽媽添加細節，完成畫作。不管是恐龍小姐、蛞蝓女士，還是海貍太空人，每張都是絕無僅有的創意。 […]
I have a few sketch books in which my children added their versions of my work or sometimes just their spontaneous imaginings. One of my sons is a very talented graphic designer and was in art college when his youngest brother was very little, being 14 years younger he was a huge inspiration to him. One day I found a reproduction by my littlest of a beautiful piece of artwork that his big brother had made. But, I have to admit I was a bit uptight about the kids drawing in my sketchbook but then my work wasn’t as good as yours; still today I treasure their additions so much more than what I drew their. You’re wise and generous to have seen that it would work out well. It worked out well because of your understanding of a child’s view.
So many good comments already… I love your sketches, Mary. I had no idea you were so good. How wonderful that you have shared so humbly with your daughter! She will benefit so much from the freedom you have given her.
[…] Busy Mockingbird’s post on art collaboration with her four year old is inspiring. She is an artist. With a sketchbook. All artists know that there is sacred space–for me, that’s a Moleskine or my novel on Scrivener–for Busy Mockingbird, it’s her sketchbook. And you cannot invade sacred space. Nope. […]
That is AWESOME!! Love them all 🙂
I love the shared artistry here! I agree that a coffee table book would be fun, but instead of poems, I think a caption explaining the daughter’s choice or story behind the photo would be fun. Fun as the reader, and a great way to store the memory…
[…] face of a drawing in her sketch book, decided to allow her artistic daughter to draw the body. The artistic collaboration between mother and a 4 year old child wound up being a lot of fun, mostly due to the wonderful creativity you find in […]
Wow! I used to draw with a small child. I would use my left hand, instead of my usual right, and I would let him determine the shapes. I would do most of the coloring in. It was a sweet partnership.
[…] Como Hendricks escreveu em seu blog: […]
How wonderful! I’m no artist, but my kids and I did collaborate and publish a book this summer. My six year old wrote the stories, I edited them, and my 11-year old was our official illustrator.
Your artwork (your combined artwork) is gorgeous!
What first caught my attention is your daughter’s grip on the pen: full fist! My oldest did that until he got to school. It was a difficult time getting him to use the more “accepted” grip. All this to say that this son is now 23 and an amazing artist! So maybe that is how a young artist’s hand first learns to deal with their fine motor skills. I LOVE THE COLLABORATION!! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! People have commented on it. She can do a “regular” pen grip, but prefers the whole grab for now, and I don’t push her otherwise. She’ll get it eventually! Thank you so much!
This is wonderful! My daughter and I made comics together but we would each work on a different frame – I love what you two have done together!
This is just awesome. Thank you for this.
i love these. Any way i could perhaps pay the two of you to collaborate on a picture of me and my daughter? and perhaps my boys and their dad? please email me…abbyberg@yahoo.com\
So beautiful. I was looking at buying a few of the prints… Would you mind sharing what size is closest to the original sketch size? Thanks!
Originals are just in an 8×10 sketchbook. The prints are like sketchbook drawings
Oh you are so great! I was just ordering online – I was going to get the ones wher the printed area was 6×8 – but sounds like a printed area of 9×12 is closer to actual brush/ pen strokes…. Seem right? Thanks!
I’d say so! I don’t clean them up much, unless there are pen smears or something, so it’s pretty true to the original. I hope you like them!
9x12s they are then! Thank you! They will bring a ton of joy and conversation to out collection!
I totally understand the child prodigy getting in the way of doing artwork. I never thought to do what you did and let my daughter (She’s 4 and her birthday is this month) post her artwork and then finish it up. She has creativity and that would build her confidence. Great work! I like working on portraits of sorts as well and am trying to branch out and do more chess artwork.
Wow, those were beautiful. Almost Shel Silverstein-esque.
I would buy them if they were on a tshirt!
Check out the link to the online shopping, you can!
BRILLIANT!!!!! Filled with Love Light and Freedom! They’d make great great blank cards ~ I often by them instead of stationary!!!! And just for the record I thought I was reading about myself when you mentioned not wanting to share ‘your’ art supplies…. it made me laugh out loud and feel as if I belonged!!!!
Awesome! Gave me big big heart warming smiles. You girls are brilliant. How about turning the prints further into inspirational reminders for us parents – like you have now in this piece but on post cards, fridge magnets, into a little coffee top book. A collaborative story book would be amazing too. I just know my 4 year old sons will find these images fascinating.
Do it for sure.
Love, love, love this!!!