Two Boots

Sketch I did today of my two-year-old, in graphite pencil. I think this is the closest likeness to her that I've achieved so far. See previous sketches of her here and here.

It was really difficult because she kept climbing on me to see what I was doing: "is that my eye? there you draw my nose! there my hand!" and so on. Then she wanted me to draw her boots into the picture. All day long she has been wearing one of each pair of boots: green frog-eyed rain boots my mother gave her, and tan fake-leather fur-lined snow boots my mother-in-law gave her (and a long-sleeved shirt, striped leg warmers and her favorite flower underwear). The line of the shirt hem goes through her left knee because I added the legs after the rest of her was sketched out. Her right hand was in an odd, empty gesture, since the first lines I put down were when she was standing on the sofa leaning on the arm of my chair, but now the gesture was changed. So I drew under her hand a small stuffed dog.

When she saw me drawing the dog she ran and got her own drawing materials, "I draw with mommy! We draw together!" and we did. I think she understood the idea of drawing what you observe because when I adjusted the position of the stuffed dog on the table, she protested, picked it up and moved it closer to herself: "No, put over here, I draw doggie! Need to see him!"

Never mind the fact that her drawing looks more like a potato growing eyes than a dog. Her basic shapes are becoming recognizable at least, and she differentiates between making circles for head, eyes and nose, and straight lines for ears and tail. (Announcing each part as she draws it).

Here are my daughter's drawings: