Drawing Stitch

Back in my teenage years I loved to draw; sketching, shading, colouring, anything artistic. I’d spend hours on one drawing and even though I had little talent it made me happy. I was self-critical, but I always enjoyed the challenge of sketching something intricate.

My attempt at drawing (and colouring in) Stitch

My eldest son, BP, likes drawing too. When he’s inspired he can spend ages on a drawing. For christmas last year we bought him two ‘how-to-draw’ books. They taught you, step-by-step, how to draw Disney characters and villains. We are big Disney fans and thought this would be the perfect fit. So far he’s tried three Toy Story villains including Zurg. 

Back in September last year I impressed BP with my attempt at drawing Stitch. He has avoided drawing the little alien since then. For half-term I challenged BP to draw Stitch, and it lit a fire in his belly. He spent the whole afternoon sketching. When he’d finished he was proud of himself but wanted to colour it in too. He asked me if I would colour in my drawing so he could watch how I did it. I agreed.

He surprised me with his enthusiasm and he listened to my advice, which is a novelty!

BP's drawing of Stitch. He makes me so proud!

I’ve challenged him to do more drawing. At the moment the Disney characters are enough and he has a Marvel how-to-draw book for later. I want him to get to a place where he can challenge himself. But I look forward to the day he creates his own characters and I see them animated in the next Pixar movie!

How do you challenge your children?