My oldest son recently has been asking questions about art.  He wants to learn to draw.  Hubby said “Ask your Mom.  She’s a great artist.”  So, I sat with him a few times and gave him pointers… not really expecting him to take anything seriously. (He jumps from thing to thing a lot these days.)

This weekend he asked if I would take him to the store to get some supplies.  Nothing fancy, just some pencils, a real drawing pad, and colored pencils.

He was a little overwhelmed with all the choices, but we decided on a few basic supplies, and I told him I’d see if I had any colored pencils in my old art supplies. He was really interested in learning to draw in the Manga style, so I picked him up an instructional book.

As we sifted through my supplies at home, I came across my old sketch books, and my paintings.

Dude’s eyes opened in awe.  “Wow, you drew these?  Why did you stop?”

Why did you stop?

Well, the truth was, I hadn’t picked up a pencil or a paintbrush since a few weeks before he was born (and he’s 12) I told him, “After I had kids I just had different priorities.”

He said to me, “But we’re all older now.  You should start drawing again.”

So, I figured, why not?

I sat down with a sketch pad, opened up the book on how to draw Manga, and just followed the directions.

To be honest, after not drawing for 12 years I was a little skeptical what I’d be able to do, but I was pretty happy with what popped out of my pencil within 15 minutes or so.

I have to admit, it felt really good having a pencil in my hand again.  Yeah, I made a few mistakes and had to erase a little, but I was dern pleased that it didn’t totally stink after being out of practice for so long.

My son asked if I’d take a night a week to draw with him.  I figure, why not?  I need to work on my Manga hair, anyway. Maybe the next one won’t have split ends.  🙂

Related articles

• Sketching Advice from Katherine Tyrrell (cinnamonpink.typepad.com)
• How To Draw Out Artistic Brilliance! (howtolearn.com)
• We’re Not So Different (sahussey1.wordpress.com)
• {Art Together} Doodling (amyhoodarts.com)
• Colored Pencil Drawing Class (penfrea.com)
• Illustration http://shelleyszajner.com/illustration/
• SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION: Sketching strategies in the STILLMAN & BIRN BETA journal (lostincowtown.wordpress.com)