Work Site

He started, “You have to put something and then you put designs on it.”

“I don’t know what that means. You have to be more specific,” I pleaded.

“A basket. Or maybe a plate.”

“No,” I said. He was merely looking around the room for objects to name. Then he gave me a lot of ideas that were repeats of stuff we’d already done: Empire State Building, a TV, etc.

Finally he said, “A fountain.” I did a search but he thought they all looked “lame.” He finally picked one but I didn’t like it. I knew there was no way I’d be able to make this photograph of a fountain look like anything remotely resembling a fountain on this snack sack.

Then he said, “work site,” completely out of the blue.

“Work site? Work site? Where the heck did that come from?” I wondered. I kept quiet and did a search.

He looked and looked but didn’t like any of the options. We were running out of time. I took my iPhone back and found this silhouetted work site that looked cool so I picked it without his blessing.

These silhouetted drawings take a lot of time even though it always seems that they’ll be easier to draw. I messed up the proportions of two of the men and had to draw a new platform, not in the reference drawing, for the guy in the middle. I explained my issues to him as he watched. He got very interested. Several times he repeated both the problem (mistake) and solution (cover-up) out loud. He liked analyzing how I had goofed up and how I had fixed it.

He decided he knew where his name should go and took the Sharpie from me. I don’t know why he splits the letters up sometimes like he did here. It bugs my orderly sensibilities, but I’m learning to give him creative license when he takes the Sharpie.