Front and Back

Honestly, I don't know where he got this. Especially the Asian masseur, of whom I had to ask: Is he wearing a shirt with a dragon on it, or is that dragon tattooed on his chest? Answer: shirt.

But looking at this drawing, I simply have no idea where it's come from. These appear to be two characters straight out of a P.G. Wodehouse novel, though I'm not sure which one. I'm doubly sure my son has no idea who P.G. Wodehouse is, either. It's got to be something he picked up at school.

HEEEEYYYYYY KIIIIIIIIDS!

I'm not sure if this is a one-footed clown, or if I just snagged the picture before it was done. But I like it. Kinda reminds me of Binky the Clown:

Thanks for the Update, Sallah

Once and a while, one of your kids' drawings will just up and surprise you. That was my reaction when I saw this one sitting on the kitchen table amongst the detritus of homework, backpacks, empty lunch boxes, and a gigantic spilled box of crayons.

I have to emphasize again that they've not seen the movies. The closest they've come is playing a DVD Indy game in which clips from the movies are played. And he runs out of the room when they play because "they're scary." Still, he's fascinated with the characters and situations. If it weren't for Lego Indy, he wouldn't know them at all.

I Don't Remember Drawing This

I know I drew these two pictures. I just don't remember when. Nor why. Probably to entertain Isaac at church, as it was in the church notebook.

Why I drew the invisible person singing in the shower, I don't know. But I kind of like it.

Diary of A Wimpy Kid

Our oldest has a lot of artistic influences: Garfield. Dilbert. Indiana Jones. And, particularly at the moment, Diary of A Wimpy Kid:

At this point, I'm not worried that he's just copying. I think it's fun that he's seeing the possibilities of the form, experimenting a bit. Getting the idea down is great now, and the original ideas will come if he sticks with it. He does get a bit more original on the next page:

Da Mansion

It's the kind of house I could live in. Right down to the all-important, storage-studded Lego Room.

Not really sure what inspired this one, but I'm glad I found it before it got stashed away in a drawer or stuffed into a garbage can -- our oldest tends to be pretty fickle with the stuff he makes.

I also like that there's a Vending Machine Room. As kids, we all have slightly twisted ideas about what the wealthy do and enjoy, so I suppose a room dedicated to vending machines is probably not outside the realm of possibilities.

Bad Kitty

Our oldest child has a new obsession: Nick Bruel's book "Bad Kitty Versus Uncle Murray." If you haven't read it, well, you should. It's a hoot. It is, of course, about a Bad Kitty who terrorizes poor Uncle Murray, who is called in to cat- and dog-sit while the family is away.

Witness this drawing, which takes the story of the kitty and transplants it into a rather posh mansion with a butler, who is terrorized by the cat. Maybe it's an amalgam of the book and of Disney's "The AristoCats."

How Come Nobody Told Me My Butt Is This Big?

Part of me hopes that when I sit on a bucket like that, my butt really doesn't poke out that far. But I'm sure it does. This drawing is by our middle child, the realist at least when it comes to drawing pictures of Mom and Dad. I was weeding the front flower beds. She was bored. I told her to draw a picture. Of what, she asked. Well, me, I said. So the did. I guess I deserve what I ask for.

Jones Trifecta is Complete

Tonight, a special treat for visitors to My Kids' Refrigerator: A complete Indiana Jones story, as told and illustrated by our middle and youngest children. No adults were involved in the making of this story. And, I might add, no experience with the actual films; just a lot of time playing the two Indiana Jones Lego computer games we've got. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do.

Wo Ist Jones!? Part II

If you think you've seen the last of our family Indiana Jones pictures, then you're as wrong as Satipo was when he thought he could get out of the temple with that little idol without getting skewered.

Today, however, rather than show you the whole picture, I'll focus in on a few of the scarier and funnier caricatures our oldest drew.

First, the scary: Major Toht and a Thuggee:

Here, it's all in Major Toht's smirk and in the Thuggee's scowl.

Now, for the fun. Here's Belloq, in the "butthat" I mentioned in an earlier post:

And finally, you of course remember the big thug who beats the crap out of Indy before he meets his end in the propeller of that flying wing. Our oldest calls him the "enemy boxer." And as an enemy boxer, he of course needs his own pair of enemy boxer shorts, complete with the Nazi kitsch you'd expect:

Before anyone gets their shorts in a knot that we're raising a nascent neo-Nazi, just remember: Context is key.

Wo Ist Jones?!

If it weren't for the two Lego Indiana Jones computer games our kids have, they wouln't know the man from the next fedoraed person to walk down the street.

They haven't seen the movies. They can't get through "For the Love of Benji" without flooding the room with tears of anxiety for the pup, nor can they handle seeing Sloth from "The Goonies," so I know they're not ready for a bunch of melting Nazis.

Nevertheless, they know the characters well. Our oldest made two character charts to prove the point. Here's the second:

They know the music, too, of course, thanks to a John Williams CD they keep sneaking out of the family room. Not that I mind. I like the music too:

Now I know it's normal for parents to brag about their childrens' talents -- why else would I put this blog up -- but I think our oldest might enjoy cartooning when he's older. We'll encourage him in that direction.

Bug

Sometimes your kids draw really complicated things. And sometimes, they just draw a bug.

Halloween 2010

I know I'm taking a risk posting this photo so early on in the month of October, but here it goes.

What's the risk, you ask? Come on. Ask a parent and they'll tell you that no matter how much time you might have spent helping them get their Halloween costumes done early, there will come that moment on the 28th or so when they decide they don't want to be Han Solo or a cat but something else, and you'll have to re-make their costume entirely. Here's to hoping that doesn't happen to us. This year.

I, myself, plan on going with my kids to any Halloween events as Kent Mansley because I do, after all, work for the government.

COLOR!

This blog, you may have noted, has been sparse on the color the past few entries. No worries. Our daughter is making up for it with this:

This is a dangerous kind of drawing, you know. I hate it when I get handed a drawing like that, look at it lovingly, say "It's wonderful" and then have my daughter tell me I'm holding it upside down. So I've probably put it here upside down, but what the heck.

Thing is I remember doing drawings like this as a kid, with the nice little rainbow/mandelbrot effect radiating from some central object. My central objects were most often words (I don't know why), but I can dig the shapes here.

Guest Submission -- And She Doesn't Even Know It

My mother, for the past few weeks, has been sending our kids odd little notes and such in the mail. It seems to be part of her ongoing obsession with getting things out of the house, though you'd think there would be more efficient ways of doing that than mailing them all to the kids.

So today I present a little note she sent to our oldest, in thanks for some drawings they sent her a week ago. I don't know why the poor little teddy bear is losing his head. Once again, I just post them, I don't explain them.

Isaac Edits

Once and a while our youngest will sidle up to me and say, "Daddy, draw me." So I do. He insists I draw him again. I do. And again. And again. Pretty soon, I'm tired of drawing him. So something like this turns up. He, of course, edits the captions to make all these lovely pictures appear to be me. I don't mind.

He did consent to remain "President Isaac," however. Go figure. No ego on that kid.

Hot Dog Story

I'll be the first to confess I don't understand all of the Scooter comics our oldest draws. But I like that he's experimenting with the medium. To that, I say, huzzah. Keep on going, son.

Mom Art

Mom has been seriously underrepresented on this blog, and this drawing is an effort to rectify that. This is a nice bit of Mom art, though our youngest did to the coloring and added the caption: "This is Isaac he is me."