Who did not like drawing as a child? Quite a few, I guess. I was just one of those preschoolers who became obsessed with drawing girls in pretty outfits and hair styles. Maybe for the lack of encouragement, my drawing skills did not improve that much. I could only copy portraits of nature and still life during my teen years and couldn't do anything more from my own imagination.
I wanted to take Fine Arts in college, but my elder sister discouraged me, trying to paint a picture that becoming an artist is not quite a popular and rewarding career. I would have done the same thing to my kids who fell in love with drawing as early as age 3 or 4. But the suppressed artist in me has chosen to do otherwise.
Hooray! I have become the No. 1 fan of my youngest child who shifts from taking selfies to sketching cars and cartoon figures. I have even managed to frame his first drawing as a 3-year-old, buy sketch pads and drawing books as well as take pictures of most of his doodles. I have also signed up on a WordPress site for his art journal where I can upload digital copies of his drawings.
It's good that when my son gets tired of drawing on paper, he will make use of Windows Paint. He's already had a few tryouts using the drawing software, but still pencil and paper are indispensable for a little artist. How I wish we have an unlimited supply of sketch pads!
Would you believe that since I haven't bought new drawing books and sketch pads for a long time now, I have allowed my son to use the back pages of some conference/seminar manuals and handouts? We've actually accumulated a collection of his drawings. I couldn't take pictures of each drawing all the time, so what I usually do is choose and keep only the good ones. Those that do not look good to me, we have to discard with my little boy's permission.
Carefree as he is, my youngest child has not expressed that he wants to be an artist when he grows up. I'm not insinuating or proclaiming that he will become a great artist someday. As I believe that every good gift comes from above, all I want to do is to support and help nurture his artistic ability.
I can't afford to suppress the artist in my child. How about you?
