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Description

El's teacher had sent home a project for the parents to do. It was form we had to fill out describing our kids, what we felt was strong, our hopes of what they got out of this year, and a picture. It said we could draw it or glue a photo on.

Of course, El wanted me to draw one.

It was hard, I had not idea what to draw. The space was about the size of a postcard and I was stuck.

The night before it was due, I saw in my room, listening to an audio book, and playing video games on my phone. Around 11p I finally pulled out a watercolor postcard and started sketching El. I knew I wanted her to fly - it always seems she holds her self down with self doubt and self hate. I wanted her to fly with positive wishes to help her up. So her with the balloons came about. I drew a dress she wore for her first Contemporary dance piece (I love this one) and then used watercolor the background, the balloons, dress and El (I suck at flesh tones, by the way). She has little sequin flowers on the waist so I used a sequin and glitter glue to try and represent this. Then I looked at my collection of glitter glue and realized I had all the colors of the balloons. They got a dash of glitter as well as the rest of El's dress. Then I decided to spread some over the sky and then it got on her hair, so I went ahead and added more. I don't think I've ever used so much glitter in my life.

Yet the picture still looked sparse. I got some acrylic paint and brushed the clouds on. It wasn't great but I like the texture it gave. The top right seemed bare so I added the words I wanted her to have. In hindsight I wish I had put them underneath so it looked like they were lifting up.

In any case, I finished this, glued it to the form and piled thick, hard-backed books to make everything flat while it dried. I went to bed around 3:30a.

I showed El the next morning with the warning, "You can't say I'm better than you and that you can't draw." (she does that all the time, comparing herself to me.) She absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to take it to school.

I wonder what her teacher thinks. I think it was a bit over the top, but the breathy and heartfelt way El reacted made my sleep deprived brain and heart feel like it was worth it. (I'm morbidly curious to see if it gets brought up at the parent/teacher meeting later this month).

Medium: watercolor, artist pen, acrylic paint, and glitter glue.

Description

El's teacher had sent home a project for the parents to do. It was form we had to fill out describing our kids, what we felt was strong, our hopes of what they got out of this year, and a picture. It said we could draw it or glue a photo on.

Of course, El wanted me to draw one.

It was hard, I had not idea what to draw. The space was about the size of a postcard and I was stuck.

The night before it was due, I saw in my room, listening to an audio book, and playing video games on my phone. Around 11p I finally pulled out a watercolor postcard and started sketching El. I knew I wanted her to fly - it always seems she holds her self down with self doubt and self hate. I wanted her to fly with positive wishes to help her up. So her with the balloons came about. I drew a dress she wore for her first Contemporary dance piece (I love this one) and then used watercolor the background, the balloons, dress and El (I suck at flesh tones, by the way). She has little sequin flowers on the waist so I used a sequin and glitter glue to try and represent this. Then I looked at my collection of glitter glue and realized I had all the colors of the balloons. They got a dash of glitter as well as the rest of El's dress. Then I decided to spread some over the sky and then it got on her hair, so I went ahead and added more. I don't think I've ever used so much glitter in my life.

Yet the picture still looked sparse. I got some acrylic paint and brushed the clouds on. It wasn't great but I like the texture it gave. The top right seemed bare so I added the words I wanted her to have. In hindsight I wish I had put them underneath so it looked like they were lifting up.

In any case, I finished this, glued it to the form and piled thick, hard-backed books to make everything flat while it dried. I went to bed around 3:30a.

I showed El the next morning with the warning, "You can't say I'm better than you and that you can't draw." (she does that all the time, comparing herself to me.) She absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to take it to school.

I wonder what her teacher thinks. I think it was a bit over the top, but the breathy and heartfelt way El reacted made my sleep deprived brain and heart feel like it was worth it. (I'm morbidly curious to see if it gets brought up at the parent/teacher meeting later this month).

Medium: watercolor, artist pen, acrylic paint, and glitter glue.