The Shoe Assignment

A few weeks back, our now ten year old Aidan had an art assignment due. And even though this is a subject in which he is quite talented and actually enjoys, he still resisted having to sketch "any pair of shoes" in his sketchbook. Because apparently he is half donkey, and not the strong work ethic half.

Solomon's Sneakers

After helping him choose Solomon's velcro laden toddler sneakers so that he could avoid the unbearable labor of drawing shoestrings, he continued to plead his case:

"Mom, I can't draw the shoes," he complained.

"Sure you can," I assured him.

"No, I can't! How do you even draw shoes?" he asked, stubbornly.

"You just look at them and draw what you see, the way you do any other drawing," I said, my patience fading.

"But these are more complicated," he complained.....and on and on and on...until finally I'd had enough.

"Look, it's not rocket science, it's art. You do your best, you move on," I said, taking a piece of paper and pencil and attempting to draw the shoe. I am no artist. It was pretty terrible. No, no. It was down right pathetic.

Karen's Pathetic Shoe Drawing

"Mom, that's, well, um, that doesn't really look much like it," he said, trying to be respectfully honest.

"No, it really doesn't. So why don't you show me how to do it?" And I stormed off....far, far off.

No more than five minutes later he came downstairs with this:

Aidan's Shoe Sketch

Why that little.....donkey!

But seriously, the kid can draw.....when he wants to anyway.