Art from the ???

A few weeks ago Isaiah and I came up with the plan to take a drawing class on Monday evenings this Fall. Then Jason and Gryffin decided that they would like to join us as well and although the prospect seemed fun (the whole fam! drawing and being arty together!) the cost felt a bit excessive. Maybe, instead of paying $500 for the four of us to take a drawing class that is really for adults but they were going to let us bring our boys and rushing out the door on Monday evenings before we even had a chance to clear the table, maybe we hit up Youtube and find some free classes instead?

It would take some effort. We I would have to plan ahead. But the prospect seemed fun, we’d save some $, and we could try our hand at a variety of different art-related endeavors if we tired of drawing. So Mondays nights at our house this winter are art nights. We’ve had two so far. A couple years ago at the boys’ school they had an event called Art from the Heart so I excitedly announced to the fam that we should call Monday nights the same. Art from the Heart. So friendly! So warm and fuzzy!

Well.

It took all of two seconds before one of the boys responded “No, let’s call it Art from the Fart!” And they (Jason included) immediately commenced to laughing and joking endlessly about Art from the Fart until, well, here we are. The name has unfortunately stuck and I don’t think I’m going to be able to do anything about it. Ah well. There are worse things, I suppose, though I’ve more than once wished we had just signed up for that dang class instead.

Anyway, I digress. Whatever it’s called, we’re doing it. Monday evenings are art night at our house. Even yesterday when we were just totally off our game, all of us bugging each other, some of us crying, some of us gritting our teeth, all of us counting down until bedtime, we still managed to scrounge up some popcorn and settle in for our drawing lesson. It was… in keeping to the rest of our day. We argued about whether or not to pause the video, and then again about where to pause it. Jason may or may not have drawn a knife in the hand of the teddy bear we were supposed to be drawing but whatever, we made it through our second week!

We are working our way through the Start Drawing videos by Paul Priestley on Youtube. I picked them for two reasons only. They are short. And the dude has a British accent, which I thought the boys would enjoy. I mean, he’s not Paul or Prue from GBBS but we’ll take it. So far we’ve made it through Parts 1-4.

Last night’s efforts – my teddy bear. I take the lessons very seriously.
Isaiah’s teddy bear — he is also quite serious. He wanted to pause the video constantly to get things just so.
Jason’s bear with some questionable accessories.
Jason did NOT want to keep pausing the video.
Gryffin did all sorts of drawing during the videos but did not spend much (any?) time drawing a teddy bear or anything even close to resembling what the video covered!

What can I say? Art from the _______ is off to a roaring start. I’ll keep y’all posted.