Learning to Draw...Bo's Reward

Last year when we began Drawing with Children as part of Bo's Year 0.5, I promised him if he would work hard, then he could enter some artwork in the fair this year.  So for the past year we have been doing some drawing instruction, experimenting with different mediums and participating in Sketch Tuesday.

He has always enjoyed art instruction and only became frustrated a hand full of times.  I really noticed a big jump in his ability when I placed a real object in front of him to sketch.

So after a year of hard work he entered four pictures in the fair...
a watercolor picture of apples
an oil pastel of a seashell
a shiitake mushroom log pencil drawing
and a drawing of a fisherman

The drama around entering these in the fair was almost more than I could handle.  But since it was my own fault I kept on until they were safely entered.  The time to turn these in occurred the during the days surrounding the death of my grandfather.  I had looked on the fair website at this time to find out a date to be there.  Well, I looked at the wrong exhibitor information and realized that we had missed the drop off  by a day.  I told Bo mommy had made a mistake and explained what had happened.  I told him he would just have to wait until next year.  I asked for his forgiveness.  He forgave me as he was running away to his bed to hide under the covers and cry.  Needless to say, I felt A-W-F-U-L.  I immediately called the fair office and explained what had happened and asked if there was any way I could still bring the pictures in.  After playing phone tag, I was told that if I had them there that afternoon I could still bring them.  Luckily art was the only category that had not been judged.

So, we raced away at naptime ( I never miss naptime) to Hobby Lobby to get the picture mounted.  Mounting was going to cost thirty dollars, so I opted for foam boards and spray on adhesive.  We arrive at the park to let the kids play while I attempt to mount the pictures.  The spray adhesive ended up being broken and would not spray.  After loading the kids back into the van, and a bathroom break at the park restrooms, I stop by the fair and explain the spray adhesive problem.  The very eagerly help me mount the pictures with double sided tape.  I felt such a relief handing over those pictures.  "I hope he wins," she says as I was leaving.  "At this point I'm just thankful they will be hanging on that wall," I reply.  And I was thankful...

And when we arrived at the fair and he saw his first blue ribbon, all the trouble was worth it...

 He won a blue ribbon with his oil pastel drawing of a seashell(on bottom of picture)...

The mushroom log picture on bottom won a red ribbon.

He won third place with his watercolor green apples.

He's already talking about what he can draw for next year;-)