Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Color Schemes

And unfortunately, no, I'm not talking about coordinating wall paint with draperies and furniture.

Big Brother has always been a budding artist. He loves to draw, color, and paint. I particularly enjoy his "people figures", which I've used as radio buttons/avatars for my blog. Lately, he's been drawing Batman a lot, and I must say that I'm really impressed.

What has really helped Big Brother's art career (i.e., why he's still allowed to color :) is that he's always been very good about WHERE and WHAT he colors.

Little Brother, on the other hand, is now "driving on a suspended license" when it comes to artwork.

To his credit, he doesn't eat glue, or shove pennies up his nose (just a raisin but only once), or paint the dog (yet; except with accidental yogurt spills) or lick toads.

However, DON'T give him a crayon and turn your back...

EVER...

NOT ONCE...

To modify a line from the movie Gremlins:

"No matter how much he cries, no matter how much he begs, never, never, ever give Little Brother a crayon unsupervised." (Both before and after midnight.)

At least he "dreams big", because apparently there isn't a single part of our house that he can't modify into a canvas.

So far he's added his artistic touch, including but not limited to:
-The deck
-Stainless steel appliances
-The wall in our stairwell

We've learned our lesson...(buy stock in Sherwin-Williams paint that wipes easily.)

Until the next time he sneaks away with a crayon.

I can't wait to hear your stories about what your kids have colored.

This will be "art therapy" for me. :)

See you on Fatherhood Friday, I'm going to go color clean up crayon now,
Busy-Dad-E

10 comments:

  1. Oh, that stinks! Especially after moving into a new house. Yes, our little Cara is a bit unpredictable with a crayon here and no we don't have the greatest of all paint. Thank goodness for the magic eraser that also erased some of the paint, but surely beats having bright red circle and line artwork on our light colored walls. Good luck getting his "artwork" off your walls. By the way, she loves to color our furniture the best. Rosi

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  2. Ohh what has Madaghan colored with paint and or markers that her mother lets her have. Again this list is not all inclusive and subject to additions: Coffee table, tv stand, wall, wall again, the chairs, the sink, her bed. We watch her closely, but kids are fast and can be very quiet when they want to be. When there is silence, there is art (grafitti) being done.

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  3. Furniture, doors and walls all have those special touches.
    Magic Eraser is the best thing ever invented.

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  4. Little cousin hasn't colored on anything so far, but he has tried to eat a crayon. I swear I only turned my back for a milisecond, then I was digging blue crayon out of his teeth. luckily it was a very small amount and I don't think he actually swallowed any. Hopefully little brother will soon learn to keep his artwork on paper! So true what WeaselMomma said about the Magic Eraser! I have a good coupon for that if you need it!

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  5. So far I have been blessed ... all of my kids have been big on body art ... they much prefer to draw on themselves than on the walls. While my walls HAVE suffered occasionally, it is NOT the norm. My favorite was Annika who, at 2.5 or so, got ahold of a sharpie and proceeded to take off her diaper and give herself horizontal stripes from head to toe ... EVERYWHERE she could reach. Church that Sunday was an interesting story to say the least!

    Good luck!

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  6. Little Brother is sneaky too. He has learned to keep small crayons hidden in his hands so he can take it somewhere in the house to color!
    Mom-E

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  7. Welllll....you and Busy Mom-E already know this story, but when she was about the same age as Little Brother she colored on the freshly painted wall with a black crayon. I painted over it and I don't remember her ever doing it again. Pretty much stuck with paper and coloring books after that. Now, hopefully the boys won't decide to cut their own hair...which Busy Mom-E did twice when she was little. She did it with her safety scissors and after they were taken away the second time she never did that again either. Sorry Busy Mom-E...guess I'm picking on you today :) Kudos to you for keeping all of your scissors well hidden from little boys. Good thinking!

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  8. So, I don't have any stories, but I was wondering if you'd post one of Big Brother's Batman pictures on here. I'd love to see one!

    Tell him to make one for my fridge!

    Love,
    CY Aunt-E

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  9. I don't have any stories for you because I can't (won't?) remember back that far. But, when Little Brother grows up and becomes a famous artist, you can charge him for all the paint you've had to buy to cover up his artistic enthusiasm. :D

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  10. @Rosi, WM, and Aunt-E: We already own stock in Magic Eraser. It's great, but the only thing you have to be careful about is that it can take the finish off of some things.

    @O'Shea: Couldn't agree more that silence = ongoing mischief

    @goofdad: Wow. Kids have a knack for doing that kind of thing RIGHT BEFORE you need to leave the house and be presentable (e.g., church).

    @Mom-E: Did you teach him how to "palm" the crayon, or is it just natural talent?

    @Gramm-E: Poor Mom-E

    @CY Aunt-E: I'll see what we can do. Good itdea.

    @SurprisedMom: He's already racking up a big tab.

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