the evolution of a collaboration (with a toddler)

Our little family is getting quite accustomed to creative collaboration (see here, here, here) but making art with 

a nineteen month old toddler is quite the adventure!

We spread out all of our supplies on the floor. I like to have a variety of things on hand- watercolors, markers, 

colored pencils and crayons and I let Lucy pick whatever she wants to work with. Then we both get to work creating.

I try to stay away from showing her how to do things- instead I encourage her to explore the supplies and let her 

direct the process. Typically I will mimic what she does (scribble, paint, splatter, etc) until we have a nice 

messy background. We get into a nice little groove...

but after about 15 minutes things start to get very interesting!

There is drawing on her toes, her legs, and hands and sometimes her face, the floor, then back to the paper, 

her pants, my toes, my hands and then back to the paper.  We get into another groove- this is my favorite part 

because I love a good mess (and have been known to enjoy drawing and painting on myself too). This continues for 

another 15 minutes.

Then I begin to draw over the top of our messy background. This is about the time when she gets restless and 

climbs into my lap.

(FYI messy color and scribbles made by a toddler is a perfect background for doodles and drawings!)

And then she's had enough and climbs onto my back to watch over my shoulder. I can fit in about 10 minutes of 

drawing with her on my back and then it's time to call it quits.

I spend a little time drawing and painting on my own and then I cut up the paper and use it for all kinds of projects- 

this weekend we created Mothers Day cards with it.

The process is not always easy (hello short attention span), nor the way that I typically make art, it doesn't last 

for very long and there is a HUGE mess to clean up but the time spent together is just about the best kind of creative 

fun that an artsy mama could wish for!