Hello everyone. This week, we asked kids to draw creatures. And draw creatures they did.
I can’t quite contain the joy I feel when I look at this creature by Diego M. of Massachusetts. I urge you to dwell a while on the fine points and really savor his extraordinary imagination.
I may have to write a book about an evil sweater.
Though only four years old, Diego’s brother Garcia is an accomplished creature imaginer in his own right. I love the dramatic tension between Killer and Lilac. I sense a saga in the making.
Not to be left out of the fun, the boys’ dad Michael drew his own creature. I know Michael to be a Frank Zappa fan. I’m not saying Zappa’s influence had anything to do with this drawing and the accompanying text, but I’m also not saying that it didn’t.
Moving on then to a creature from Lena P, also from Massachusetts.
Lena’s dad Josh offered the following commentary:
“This is a merniker. It’s a kind of cow that climbs trees and makes soup and ice cream in his body whole life. The soup and ice cream come out of his nipples.”
(The merniker is on the tree trunk. There is a floating pig head that was supposed to be a cow’s face, we think. When we ask her about it, she responds with gibberish.)
I’m just not sure what I would do if a merniker offered me a bowl of soup and a dish of ice cream. I’m just not sure.
Next up is this treat from Emily B from Oklahoma.
Her mom Cathy offered this explanation of Emily’s iterative creative process:
Anyway, attached is Emily’s creature drawing of “A zebra who says, ‘I don’t want to go to bed.'” Interestingly enough, she originally completed the drawing on Friday evening while I was making dinner. At that point, it was drawn completely in black ballpoint pen (appropriate for a zebra, I figured) and once I transcribed the description, she declared it finished and I put it with my school stuff to be scanned today. So, last night, when she was supposed to be going to bed, she was suddenly struck with inspiration that her zebra (also not wanting to go to bed — you see the theme here) needed some color. After a bit of dramatics, we compromised that she could do some coloring, but only while in her bed using her little book light with the overhead lights out. (What can I say, I’m weak. And I really needed to get some papers graded.) So, the zebra became a rainbow zebra who still didn’t want to go to bed. When I finished the quizzes I was grading about an hour later, she was zonked out amidst the crayons with the book light still on. I suppose drawing oneself to sleep is better than crying oneself to sleep?
To Emily we say that we are honored that she is so inspired by the drawing prompts but ask that she not continue to bend the rules and get us in trouble with her mom.
And then we have this drawing by Calli R from Kansas:
Calli’s mom Jessica says:
Calli was in the process of drawing a castle when we read the prompt. Instead of starting a new picture, she just added on. So the large turret-like shape on the right is a castle. The swirl that looks like a 6 in the top right is the creature. She wouldn’t elaborate on what the creature is any more than that. She must have been quite taken with the bells that Tilly’s creature was wearing though because all the small squiggles along the bottom & left are bells. To complete the picture she asked Mommy to write her name on the right side.
The part that looks most creature like to me is the middle, but I think that is part of the castle.
Finally, we have creatures from my creatures.
Here’s is Alden’s drawing.
When asked to explain what she had drawn, Alden explained that:
Once upon a time, there were five living creatures. And then they kissed the monsters and were nice and lived happily ever after with mom and dad. The end.
A moment later, seemingly unsatisfied with her first explanation, she added:
In the middle is a building full of treasure. To the left of the building is the “treasure pen,” which lights up in the dark.
Here is Kato’s drawing:
Kato explained that this is a drawing of “a treasure Nen-Nen. And a spider eats the Nen-Nen. The spider has two legs and claws. But he doesn’t like the spider eating his Nen-Nen. He wants the Nen-Nen to stay in his beddy.”
Nen-Nen is Kato’s favorite stuffed animal and oldest friend. I can understand why the idea of Nen-Nen being eaten by a spider would not go over well.
Finally, this drawing from Joe L, which just whisked into my inbox moments ago.
Joe’s mom Yarwen writes:
Joe’s drawing has only one creature.
A dinosaur.
He is taller and stronger than a house.
He has a crown on his head.
He likes to curl up his tails.
To say that Joe’s dinosaur is “taller and stronger” than that house is a gross understatement. Joe’s dinosaur could eat that house for lunch.
Thanks to all you kids (and Michael) for sharing your creatures with us. We loved seeing what the insides of your heads look like! After all, that’s what imagination is: a picture of the inside of your head.