This week while my kiddos where at school I decided to try my hand at drawing some portraits of them in charcoal. I have always enjoyed working with charcoal and I am pretty happy with the way these came out. But for me they represent so much more than just a nice picture of my kids. I chose photos of my kids that captured a fleeting moment and all memories tied to it.
The one of my son is from last summer, I remember him laughing, his smile wide with missing teeth, baby teeth and grown up teeth. It was a month before he turned 8 years old and we were on vacation. He was playing cards with his dad over breakfast, and I snapped this photo mid laugh. As I didm it struck me how fast he is growing up, and I wanted to remember, forever, him as he was that day.
And the one I chose of my daughter is from last spring. We were spending the day at the mall so she could spend some of her birthday money from her Great Grandma. We had pretzels for lunch and an ice cream treat, and then we were walking by the Build-a-Bear store, and she always asks to go in there and I always say “no it’s too expensive”. But today I said “Yes!” I remember the look of shock and excitement on her face! So we go build a special birthday bear with a heart and button in her hand that sings songs from Frozen-her favorite movie at the time. Then afterwards she proudly carries the bear, she named Margaret, all over the mall. So I snapped a photo of her happy smiling face to send to Great Grandma.
I often feel my heart breaking open every time I think about how fast my babies are gowing. But I am learning that they grow just as fast as they are supose to. And I can’t change that by wishing time to slow down. Instead I chose to embrace where our kids are right now and this is a very good place to be. But this is why I love being an artist mom, because I can take a photo of a moment and then capture the memories in a hand drawn portrait. Of course when my kids saw these they said “Now do one of Daisy!” our beloved, lazy cat. So I chose a photo of her in her favorite pose-sleeping!
If you like my portraits and would be interested in having me draw one of your babies or fur babies let me know!