After seeing the viral story about artist Mica Angela Hendricks allowing her four-year-old to collaborate on some drawings with her, I wanted to try it with our kids.
It was a very interesting experience, though it didn’t exactly turn out how I expected. My six-year-old had her own ideas and agenda about colouring things in and completing the pieces. At first I found this frustrating, but she used my own words to remind me that it didn’t matter how it turned out, it was about doing our own thing together.
This last one was my favourite from the first session. I drew the head, my son drew most of the rest of the picture (my daughter drew the two animals). My son is four, so he was the right age for doing his drawing and then taking off while I did most of the colouring in, using watercolour primarily.
sherijkennedyriverside
I think it’s awesome your children felt strongly about how they wanted to color and create it. Most successful artists never get over that urge that their piece must progress a certain way, and I suspect that’s why you found it hard to let go of the reins too. It’s fun to collaborate, but it does require opening the artistic process to kind of a multiple will and muse. I love what you came up with together, and my favorite is the budgies, though I like the last one too.