Creative Daddy II: The First 5 Years

When I wrote about finding a creative outlet through kids and how exciting it can be, I neglected to really show off what that entailed. I suggest you check that post out first if you haven’t already, but with Father’s Day a little over two weeks away, I thought I would share some of what that actually looks like and present some of what my daughter and I have a blast doing.

She couldn’t directly contribute to our shared creative endeavors as a baby, but she was still a huge inspiration

Now initially there wasn’t much she could do being a newborn, but that never stopped her from being my newfound muse. Mostly I drew her and it is always a privilege to draw my daughter. It’s very meta to watch my art of her grow with her and that’s something I’ll do for the rest of our lives. I also found fun ways to incorporate her into other mediums.

Also featured are her cousin and mommy!

Every kid starts with crayons before their parents introduce—then immediately take away—markers. Of course, these are mediums that we’ll use for years to come. My daughter and I still love drawing giant posters that we hang all over the house. At first there was no rhyme or reason to our drawing. I would casually draw while she would climb all over me and scribble all over the paper, me, the floor, the wall, the television, the cat, and most prominently herself. Nowadays we plan what we will put on our posters (usually characters from whatever she’s currently in to) and then wallpaper the playroom. This isn’t just a fun thing to do, it’s decorative and serves a purpose.

I was convinced we weren’t getting our security deposit back on the apartment we moved from there were so many marks on the walls and floors!

The other fun thing about these giant posters is that they are shared experiences for my wife as well as anyone who comes over to visit. Family always contributes time to coloring these posters and its a great activity anyone can share in.

The real irony is how we no longer really watch any of these particular shows anymore, but we still love having them decorate our playroom

Afterwards, we make something of a big deal when we formally place our poster up on the wall and peruse the place like a museum.

One of our more prominent creative outlets have been our Big Show; a fun little talk show style video series where we chat about any and everything. We’ve even occasionally done a news type segment. This gives her a chance to not only be seen but heard and who doesn’t love watching themselves on TV?

What makes everything we do so much fun is often how new it seems for both of us. Paper maché, construction paper stick puppets, our own newspaper, rock painting, or even just regular playtime. She’s even getting more interested in photography.

Dry erase markers on windows is a lot of fun if you remember to explain only those markers on only the windows

However, what we’re known for throughout our neighborhood is chalk drawing in our driveway (in fact, we even recently created an Instagram account for that we would love for you to follow!). Whether it’s taking suggestions from other kids or making huge holiday murals, I tend to get more carried away than she does. What I have to constantly tell myself is that this is our project, not mine. I may draw the lion share of stuff, but it’s 100% okay for her to contribute or draw over. It’s not messing something up if it’s a collaborative effort she loves as well.

Follow us on Instagram @rosestartsp

I’m also grateful that I’m not the only creative influence she has. We have many variations of talented artists in our family and close circle of friends that expose her to music, dance, writing, acting, and just being silly for the sake of silly.

My wife, dad, brother–in–law, and sister are just a few of the other creative people in my daughter’s life

While drawing will always be my immediate go–to with her, I never want her to feel obligated to follow directly in my footsteps. It’s natural for a creative person to be highly influential in a child’s development, but it’s important they have opportunity to find their own voice, their own style, their own approach. Being creative isn’t limited to, “the arts.” It’s about being able to see things differently so that problem solving is an open–minded pursuit. And if you’re wondering, my daughter adores her school art teacher, insisting, “He’s a way better artist than you, daddy” which I absolutely love. Not just because she doesn’t have an obligation to putting me on such a pedestal, but because she feels comfortable enough to set her own boundaries and even start to appreciate different art forms, styles, and approaches.

Sharing artwork together

My (step) mom always said after she married my dad and became my mom, “There’s no manual” referring to how much of a learning curve there is to being a parent. That continues to make more and more sense the older my daughter gets, but I think there’s something to be said for parental instinct. I started drawing her little pictures for her to find in her lunchbox when she started school before someone my wife and I admire suggested we be careful so as not to make it seem like we were forcing any of our interests onto her, or worse; take attention away from her friends and accidentally redirecting it on to us. Having grown up without my mother often meant I felt I had huge shoes to fill and I didn’t want that burden to be placed on my daughter. After a couple weeks of not placing these drawings in her lunchbox however, she read me the riot act about being disappointed that there were no drawings with her snacks anymore. Now I can draw Louisa from Disney’s Encanto from memory.

Princess Tiana (with a special frog), Luisa from Encanto, a cheese bear-ger, and Bruno also from Encanto

In the end, my personal feeling is that whatever my daughter finds joy in, that is where her passion will lie. Having the creative freedom to find that joy is such a fun and wonderful journey, that it’s beyond developmentally stimulating; it’s foundational too. Please follow me on Instagram and Twitter and follow my blog every Friday!

A little bit silly, a little bit fantasy, a lot of fun, and a healthy helping of “throw a ton of stuff at the wall and see what sticks”

Artist Games Featuring Noah Ginex

Two weeks ago, Will Carroll and I played a game together where we would take a pass at a drawing, back and forth adding to it until it was so crammed with stuff we decided to share it with you. This time around I’m playing again with Noah Ginex! Before we get into any of that, first let’s talk about Noah.

Some of Noah’s characters.

Aside from being a super talented artist (who is also a fellow Muppet Mural alumni), Noah is an award winning puppet builder who has an exceptional sense of humor and is wonderfully and wildly creative. I was very excited to play this game with Noah because he really knows how to look at things from a very different and even unconventional angle. He has also played this type of game with his daughter so this was not his first rodeo. For everyone else who may have missed the first time I played with Will, here’s how this works:

The Rules

One artist draws something rather fleshed out then passes it on to the other. There are no time limits or space restrictions. Either artist can draw as much or as little as they want before passing it on. One artist can add to or obscure the previous work as much as they like as long as they don’t manipulate it (within reason).

The Game

Whenever I play this with an artist, I give them the option of using a full color render of the illustration I did or just the line art. I drew a white gloved cartoon hand holding a phone receiver. Noah chose to stick with the line art.

“It’s for you.”

Noah Ginex: I didnt know what to expect at first. Honestly the first volley was a lot more fully realized than I was expecting, but that just meant i could bite off a bigger chunk myself. I responded with traditional pen and ink the first time, because I didn’t have my Cintiq with me. Which I think directed the piece more to traditional black and white.

Noah’s first pass.

Just as when Will first responded, I was so excited to see that Noah had taken this in a direction I never could have anticipated. For starters, I was excited we were staying black & white, but anthropomorphizing the handset was super cool. My high school nostalgia sparked me to channel my inner Sam Keith and go really off the rails. I also took the opportunity to refine my previous line art to pop more now that the black & white direction had been set.

This weird Radio Shack rabbit then headed back to Noah.

Noah: I see faces everywhere, so it was nice when Dave responded with even more opportunities to add little details. I especially loved the phone cord turning into curly ringlets.

I don’t know what exactly this thing does, but I’m skeptical of its warranty.

Aside from minimal cleanup on my previous passes, I didn’t want to do anything else to the main art. Truth be told, I was completely lost on what I had done and what Noah had done. This fusion that normally marries two different styles together whilst retaining each artists unique styles was somehow obliterated. Noah and I had achieved a very comfortable simpatico… thing and I loved it. Still channeling those Sam Keith vibes I felt before, I opted to add a splash of red and cover it in chaotic text so it looked like a splash page right out of The Maxx.

The final collaboration.

Noah: I think the final piece ended up looking very Ralph Steadman-y, which is fine by me, so I signed it with a Steadman-esque version of my artist stamp. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I think it's perfect.

Again, this was so much fun. I actually am sad when I finish these games because it’s liberating, exciting, and so creatively satisfying. If I were a braver man, I’d consider this for a tattoo!

Thank you to Noah for being a part of this week’s post! Check out all his art by following him on Instagram @artbyNoahginex and his website too: noahginex.com

You can also follow me on Instagram and Twitter and tune in every Friday right here for more creative thinking!

Artist Games Featuring Will Carroll

My nibling, niece, and I. November 21, 2010.

As I’ve noted before, kids are a fantastic and fun resource when it comes to stretching those creative muscles, especially when you have a mental block of some kind. When they were little, my nibling, niece, and I would play a really fun game. I would draw something—something incomplete—and then they would add to it. Sometimes we would have time limits, sometimes we would draw until we felt our part was over, but ultimately we would just keep passing the art on to the next of us until there was no room left to draw or we were in stitches laughing too hard to do anything else. This game was a huge influence creatively for all of us and no doubt helped shaped how each of us saw the world around us and was also a great exercise in true collaboration.

That was a game we played for years and years, and now my daughter and I also continue on the tradition as well. Ever since I first had the idea to do this with my family well over a decade ago, I always wondered what it might be like to try it with another artist; someone with experience, style, and imagination. Flash forward to present day coupled with the constant search for blog topics and voila! It’s here that I want to shine a light on this week’s featured artist, Will Carroll.

One of the great joys of working on The Great Muppet Mural for ToughPigs was getting to know so many artists I hadn’t known before. Will Carroll was one of the big stand–outs for me, so I had been looking for an opportunity to do something else with him. Will has a really fun, retro style. As a graduate from the Art Institute of Philadelphia with a degree in animation, his work is instantly recognizable and oozes charm. He’s fast, talented, and he took to this game like a fish in water. So what exactly is the game?

The Rules

Unlike the more simplified and quicker version I played with my nibling & niece, one artist draws something rather fleshed out then passes it on to the other. There are no time limits or space restrictions. Either artist can draw as much or as little as they want before passing it on. One artist can add to or obscure the previous work as much as they like as long as they don’t manipulate it (within reason). That’s about it! So I’ll start things off.

Just broccoli on a fork, but the fork is gold so that counts for something, right?

The Game

When I play this with kids, I’ll draw an eye or a blank head and then the features get added as the illustration gets passed around. With Will, I had more time and freedom. I didn’t want to explode out the gate though and I have grown familiar with his work and was confident he’d take the reins in a wild new direction. So I started out pretty tame and bland, and you can’t get more bland than broccoli on a fork. There’s not much going on here, nor is there much to work with.

Will Carroll: Looking at the picture for the first time made me think back to an old drawing I did about two years ago, which had a little Doozer looking farmer holding a fork with a grape on it like he was holding a pitchfork, and that also made me remember sketches of a character doodle I’ve been meaning to use, so I decided to use it for this project.

Will’s previous designs for his Farmer character.

I always loved seeing tiny little creatures interacting with normal sized objects and adapting them to help them in life, characters like The Smurfs, The Borrowers and most recently The Tiny Chef comes to mind. So I decided to go down that angle and made them a farmer, who harvested “huge” vegetables.

Will’s first pass.

I knew whatever Will sent was going to be cool, but I was super excited when I saw the direction he took it with the little farmer. The fact that he came up with this was more than I had hoped for. I was tempted to stop right here because it was just so clever, but I thought I’d expand on the tiny size idea and place the group in a real world area, so I drew a woman discovering them. At first the “discoverer” was going to be another other–worldly creature but I felt keeping it grounded would be a better fit. Initially I was also going to draw the interior of a refrigerator, but I wanted to savor the creativity of the exercise and held off. I also muted the line art and color of the woman so the focus stayed on the original pass.

Initial sketches and 100% opacity art work.

My second pass back to Will.

Will Carroll: Decided to add more fully into the camp of “little people, BIG WORLD” angle, including making the blank space around the woman, the inside of a kitchen pantry, and adding a hungry cat behind her, a reference to Azrael from The Smurfs. In addition to the pantry, I also added more little guy farmers, the one in the wall’s design I based on the old cartoon character Farmer Alfalfa.

Will’s second pass back to me.

I was thrilled Will took it upon himself to take on the background art and the pantry was much more preferable to my initial idea of a fridge/freezer. It was at this point I channeled my inner Jamie Carroll (no relation to Will) and went full on overboard. I added a couple extra characters of my own and the bottle of fish oil pills just to complete the pantry aesthetic. I thought I’d go over–the–top with creating a magical lighting system with the idea that this pantry is so infrequently used in the “real world” that the tiny farmers just installed all sorts of accoutrements with complete disregard towards their human landlords. It was at this point that Will and I agreed we were done.

The final image!

Will and I both genuinely had so much fun doing this, noting how much it really got our creative juices flowing and were really happy with how it turned out. We’re looking forward to trying this again in the future! Huge thanks to Will Carroll for having fun with me! Make sure you follow him on Twitter @elaboratesunma1, Instagram @toonheads0215, and Facebook, and check out his website too!

Of course I’d love it if you followed me on Instagram and Twitter too! And tune in every Friday here for a new blog post!