Sunday, June 22, 2008

Dragons, Fables and The Spruce

This is my first summer as a teacher that I don't have to work a full time job. As a notorious slacker I decided it was my duty to figure out some things to do with Corbin, my 7 year old, before I wasted the summer eating pop-sickles and complaining that I don't have enough time to take care of the lawn. I'm not much for theme parks or carnivals, but I love to play catch, hike, fish, and shoot BB guns. While these are noble activities, we are landlocked, and generally surrounded by blacktop and cookie cutter modular homes. With gas prices rocketing out of the range of our zero balance budget, I decided we would do well to find a few things to do together at home. Among these things are reading Aesop's Fables, building a fort in the base of the huge blue spruce out front, and drawing mythical creatures.

Here is a picture of my first dragon. I have never been much for drawing but have always admired those who could. I got a gift certificate for Barns and Noble (thanks Schlects) and Corbin found a book on how to draw mythical creatures. I thought, "Why not?" We bought the book and have learned a valuable lesson this week. In order to do art, one must first learn the technique. Yep, it's that simple. The genius may come later, but first, the technique.

This dragon is nothing more than a recreation of what was in the book; nothing original really. I don't know how to draw one from my imagination yet. I can imagine plenty, but I don't yet have the skill to put it on paper. Perhaps a few hundred copies of other people's work will teach me though, and Corbin is having a blast.