Graphic artist Mica Angela Hendricks was working in a brand new sketchbook when her four-year-old asked her if she could work on the drawings too.
Can I draw in that too, mama?" I have to admit, the girl knows good art supplies when she sees them. I muttered something about how it was my special book, how she had her own supplies and blah blah blah, but the appeal of new art supplies was too much for her to resist. In a very serious tone, she looked at me and said, "If you can't share, we might have to take it away if you can't share."Oh no she didn't! Girlfriend was using my own mommy-words at me! Impressed, I agreed to comply. "I was going to draw a body on this lady's face," I said. "Well, I will do it," she said very focused, and grabbed the pen.
She says she was shocked and completely in love with what the end result of letting her daughter finish the drawings.
Hendricks' daughter kept asking her "for more heads" to draw bodies on, so every night she'd do up a new round of heads for her daughter to add bodies to.
Hendricks wrote that the best thing she learned was to not be so rigid about how her drawings should turn out.
In sharing my artwork and allowing our daughter to be an equal in our collaborations, I helped solidify her confidence, which is way more precious than any doodle I could have done. In her mind, her contributions were as valid as mine (and in truth, they really were). Most importantly, I learned that if you have a preconceived notion of how something should be, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE DISAPPOINTED. Instead, just go with it, just ACCEPT it, because usually something even more wonderful will come out of it.
Hendricks put a few of them up for sale as prints online.
But she's currently trying to find something special to do with them, like use them for a children's book.
