My Artist in the Making

Art is pretty big in my family.

My brothers and I can draw and paint. But I have to concede and say my dad’s the best artist among us.  I remember it was when I was six years old when Papa sat down with me and taught me how to draw a side profile of a female on my magic board.  I couldn’t stop drawing female figures the few years that followed.  He called me when I was a bit older, around 9 or 10 years old, to teach me the wonders of shading (I remember this was not long after that time he explained to me the concept of gravity using a white paper, a ref magnet, and some bits of pebbles — way before we talked about magnetic force in school).

My 4-year-old niece, Frankee, started painting when she was two.  And thanks to her, most part of my mom’s walls are now covered with hieroglyphics, but we all like it that way.  My mom says she can look at the walls — her own precious art gallery — when her grandkids are all grown up, and she’d always smile.

And because her dear cousin is a little artist, Athalia wouldn’t want to be left out in some painting sessions.  Shortly after Athalia turned two, Grandma gave her her own paint set, with her own little brush. All her “artworks” were unidentifiable back then.  Merely dark scribbles, some of which she says were bats.  But after her first stint with watercolor, she seemed to have lost some interest.

A few weeks ago, Alvin and I decided to buy her a new set of watercolors and color pens, and a new sketchbook.  I tried teaching her how to draw circles, but her hand still couldn’t control the pen.  She insisted on her own scribbles. I thought I just needed to wait until she’s ready to learn from me (because her Papa isn’t good in the art department. He is reserved for Science and Math and yeah, PE, too).

So imagine my surprise one morning when she got her drawing pad and her pencil. She asked me to draw a boat, then the sea, then a fish. I obliged. And then she took the pencil from my hand and started doing her own thing. And this is what I saw:

Fishes!!! She got the form, she got the eyes,

and she got those little extra lines for the tail.

I had to hug her so tight for the wonderful surprise.

That afternoon, she was already drawing faces!

And see that drawing below? That thing with tiny swirls on the head is a tiara.  Because that’s a princess! She even drew a few lines to represent a flowing skirt.

Well, who would have thought?

See, she can even draw a star! Although I think this was just luck.

Athalia really does certain things at her own time.

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Tags: art, athalia, doodles, drawings