Right Brain Redux : Day 1 Projects

Today marked the first day of the thirty-day art challenge we set for ourselves as outlined in our previous blog post. Jessica's first draw from the Challenge Jar was to take a scribble/doodle drawn by our toddler boy and turn it into a finished drawing.  My first pick was to fill an entire page with doodles. Mini-me (our older  son) joined in as well, being allowed to choose between our projects. He chose to do the page full of doodles with me.

Jessica has titled her piece "Sad Flower". The first image is the scribble by Little, the second is her finished drawing. On a day when she draws out a simpler project, she intends to go back and color this one in. I love her line work on this. She gave Little a sharpie and a sheet of paper and let him doodle for a few minutes (Had to take it away when he started drawing on the high chair and his hand). Then Jessica let the paper stay on the table for a good part of the day, looking at it as she passed by, occasionally turning it to different angles until all at once the image leapt out at her. "Once I'd seen it, it couldn't be unseen."

It took a few minutes and a couple of false starts to get Mini-me to understand what I meant by a page full of doodles. The idea we went with was no plan. Just put your brain in neutral and draw whatever popped into it. He was reluctant at first, worried about it being "good", or if it was as good as mine. I told him that he didn't need to compare his work to mine. Only to himself and what he had done before. As he loosened up, he really got into it, and I think he turned out a wonderful piece. It's really a big deal for him to create something so abstract and unstructured, being where he is on the autism spectrum.  I was delighted when I looked at it after he went to bed and followed all the patterns around to the "Bad Wolf".

I began my piece in the top left corner and worked my way down and around the page.  I spent a little time trying to hard in that first crowded corner, but as I went counterclockwise around the page it began to flow a lot better. The last part came out less detailed (top right corner) because time was slipping away from me. I put my project off till the evening because I was gone a large part of the day, and then Little decided he didn't want to go to bed. Lately, he lays down when big brother does and goes right to sleep. Tonight he decided to fight it for over an hour, and I finally had to hold him for half an hour before he gave it up. I know that's not artistic information, but it is life with Spectrum kids. It's part of our process.

It's always surprising to me the things I find in the shapes when I start to doodle. I don't always end up with what I think I'm starting to draw. BEWARE THE BANINJA! (Bananas are ninjas. Really. You ever heard one sneaking up on you? That proves my point.)

Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

P.S. If you have any suggestions for challenges, put them in the comments section.  We may just add them to the jar for the next round.

Jess needed our toddler to draw a picture for her challenge. 

Here's what he gave her to work with.

And here's what she produced from Little's drawing, "Sad Flower."

Our older son joined in on the challenge. He chose "Fill A Paper With Doodles."

Kevin's Challenge for Day 1: "Fill a Page with Doodles"

Share |