Art Between Goblins
What happens when you pass a canvas back and forth? Magic.
By now, everyone in my sphere of rambling knows I’ve been over the moon, watching my lil goblin niece hit a bunch of familiar art kid milestones.
I’m reminded of so many wonderful things I’d forgotten. The desire to draw eyeballs on everything. Tracing things (mostly screenshots of anime) so we can figure out how the picture works and make it ourselves. Making “tattoos” for other kids with whatever markers we can find. Needing to organize all the colors (we once spent an entire day doing this with my vast collection of colored pencils and learning about hue/value/saturation). The abject loathing and boredom of middle school art class because your shiny, rainbow soul won’t be put into a box and you’re sure you already know how to do this.
It’s been my greatest joy to share with her whatever useful stuff I know because we see the world differently and that’s always more fun with company.
This last time she came out I wanted to get her a bit less shy about digital art- there’s a lot of buttons, options and overload so I get it and I’m sure a lot of people think child/young/new artists should get hyper familiar with traditional work before given the temptation to lock into a screen. Vastly, I agree, but this kid and I have something else in common.
Chronic pain, vision problems and a brain that doesn’t always behave.
For us, digital art can be an accessibility device. Besides, she’s already drawing with a trackpad- pixel by pixel… the least I can do is get her comfortable with her Wacom.
No Wacom at my house though. Not even a laptop. Since roughly 2018 all my digital work has been done on my iPad. First in MediBang (which I still highly recommend) and then later Procreate (a lifesaver after my neuro disorder changed my entire process). My laptop and Wacom that year gathered dust so I gave them to those who needed them more.
We’ve come a long way from Cheeto fingers all over electronics so I decided to share my baby and I didn’t regret it one bit. 💕
We started out with the scribble game. A favorite of mine since I was younger than her, to be played solo or with as many people as you please. You start by making a light, loose scribble. The following person has to turn it into something. Rinse and repeat. You can make up rules if you want a challenge but I mostly don’t. Let her use whatever tools she pleased and turn the canvas this way and that.
Whenever I noticed her trying to do something that Procreate had a tool for I’d ask if she wanted to see something neat that might help. I think her favorites were the color picker, the symmetry tool and of course- one of the glitter brushes.
Then we excitedly came up with an idea. We’d start a new canvas, I’d start by laying some colors and shapes down and then she’d react to the chaos with her own. No time limits, we’d just each go until we were ready to see what the other would do with our fantastic mess.
I used each turn to try to introduce her to new techniques and challenges and she- likely without knowing it, reminded me of the beauty that can be found in letting go and being silly.
Just imagine us laying in bed, in a pile of cats, giggling and passing my tablet back and forth while watching art YouTube (Angry Mikko is awesome) and you’ve got the energy. It was so much fun.
After discussing it with my goblin (and her mom) and making sure it was okay, each of these are available as a print by request and will be available on my Kofi eventually. All proceeds beyond initial production fees go to her and her future art endeavors (or boba tea and a box of tomatoes).
Below is a compilation of time lapse recordings of each piece. Just for funsies.
Toodles, Doodles
Ps, at 36 as a lifelong artist- this 14 year old taught me something that has improved my art since more than anything else: have fun.
Pss, rare self promo opportunity here. What’s the last creative anything you really had fun working on? Share and link it below with some words.