There’s very little going on in my life right now. No funny or embarrassing stories to tell and I haven’t been depressed or even in a bad mood for a couple weeks so I can’t throw myself a pity party and post a depressing song. TV still sucks and it’s still cold. There’s nothing for me to blather on about right now so I’m going to have to turn to an Alex story for today’s post. I’ve resisted this post for the longest time because frankly, who wants to hear about somebody’s kid’s silly accomplishments. But tough nuts, I have nothing else to talk about.
A few months ago someone gave Alex a DoodlePro sketch thingamajig. He could have cared less about it for the longest time but around Christmas he started to show some interest in it. He mostly drew wispy marks and developed a soft touch quickly. I have yet to see him just scribble in a meaningless fashion.
One day I noticed him spending a lot of time hovering over the DoodlePro so I came over to see if he wanted some help or a perhaps cheerleader. I watched him holding the stylus delicately, as if it were a feather and I thought it was cute. He proceeded to study the blank surface with determined intensity. I think he was mapping out his masterpiece because periodically he’d place a small mark here and there. Suddenly he began the drawing.
I’ve never seen a toddler move in any sort of graceful way when drawing before, but I have to say his movements were so fluid (almost elegant) that I just stared in amazement. He would end some strokes with a flourish, back away from his creation and then zoom in with one or two more lines. He finished with an “Ahhhh.” It sounded like he was parched and just chugged a glass of water. He put the stylus down and marched away.
While I think he was thrilled with his accomplishment, artists are a fickle bunch and I couldn’t risk him coming back to monkey with perfection, so I wasted no time scooping up the Doodle Pro and whisking it away for a photo shoot:

I think this drawing is totally worth analyzing for it’s artistic merit and 17 month old achievement award potential.
The way I see it, he drew what I have interpreted to be an angel. It was Christmas after all and the house was littered with angels—he was obviously inspired by the subject matter that surrounded him. Even if I’m overinterpreting here, I still see a person with a gown-like dress with something hovering over it’s head. The most impressive part of this drawing to me is that he made two identical and reversed marks where the hands would be. Come on, that’s genius, and completely remarkable don’t you think? In fact, there’s quite a lot of balanced mark making in this piece. There’s also a bit of variety in line weight which can’t be easy to do on one of these things.
It still impresses me to look at this. Seriously, take a good look at it, there are a lot of things to notice if you know how to analyze art. It really is well conceived.
So that concludes today’s pompous brag fest. Tune in next time when I describe how I know I saw the face of Elvis in Alex’s diaper.














