On a slightly wistful note, Kathleen Jennings’ simple, elegant, and evocative sketches make me miss sketching. Once upon a time, a long long time ago, I would carry an analog notebook everywhere and sketch in pen and ink, my favorite media.
I still sketch occasionally, my most amusing sketches are now done at the behest of my daughter.
- Draw me a sea lion! So, I draw a lion wearing a SCUBA tank, mask, and flippers
- Draw me a unicorn hula hooping! So, I do.
- Draw me a penguin, Mary Poppins, and Santa! So, I do.
- Draw me a cuttle fish! So, I do.
- Now a Lizard Wizard Library! A castle! These commands I obey as well.
Ah! But, now the mood has struck! I also find that my sketches that I appreciate the most are ones that are totally off the cuff. Just pen, paper, and 30 seconds to draw something before my daughter’s attention fades. 1 We have a few of these little sketches framed around our home.
One of my favorites that is not framed was also inspired by my daughter. I think I was teasing her about something, suggesting she was too good smelling to do something or other. She insisted she was smelly. I insisted she was not. She said, again, she was and that she was rolling with the pigs. You see, when you’re 3 years old the smelliest dirtiest thing you can conceive of is a pig rolling in mud. The resulting sketch is of my daughter in what appears to be a sedan/SUV with several pigs, all of them wearing sunglasses, with her driving – as she rolls with the pigs.
I like to think she gets her artistic tendencies from me. She probably colors something on the order of 20 sheets of paper a day in drawings. Markers, crayons, and color pencils. It’s pretty amazing to come home and find pages and pages of new artwork every day. What’s more, there’s always a story to go with each picture.
I tend to sketch a lot more on vacation. I’ll actually dust off a sketchbook to take with me and sketch things I see while out and about. I have several pages devoted to the grad school road trip out to Las Vegas and New Mexico with my roommate. It features the Grand Canyon, random exit signs, people we met, scenes and sunsets. I have more pages devoted to a Mexican cruise from about six years ago filled with funny inside jokes and bits about the funny people we met.
Almost totally off topic, but while I’m in a sharing mood – tonight I kept my daughter entertained for about 15 solid minutes with several dozen variations of card tricks based on three slight of hand maneuvers. The best part is she really and truly believes I taught her magic. 2 I put the deck in front of her and let her knock on it with her hand and tell me where the Ace of Spaces was supposed to be – the top, middle, or bottom of the deck. And, wherever she said, that’s where it always was.