Our family has never been one to make a commitment to keeping a daily habit going… until recently. And it has been the best thing for us, as a family who loves to make things
On February 9th, the same day I started posting on Instagram, I also challenged my family to start the daily habit of drawing. The great thing about this habit is not only that we are being creative everyday, but also that everyone has gotten a turn being the art director. For the kids, it feels empowering to have a turn being in charge of something. Some of the drawing prompts have been quite simple while others have been a little more complex. The most important thing about this activity was that everyone in the family participated daily.
So far, the kids and I have managed to despite some complaints about some of the daily prompts (mostly Brighton), but Matt has made some of his drawings a little too elaborate to finish them in a day. As someone who was very into Archie comics when he was a boy, he decided to hone his skills drawing them again. So I love that he he has gotten back into drawing.
Without further ado, here are some of those drawings (the ones I could find) for you to peruse.
DAY 1 - DINOSAUR
Blythe went first and decided we each had to make our own dinosaur. Of course, we all interpreted the directions a bit differently.
Blythe made her own very realistic looking raptor (whereabouts unknown), while Brighton and Whitney went with more cutesy versions of real dinosaurs, a T-Rex and brontosauruses. I blended a bunch of dinosaur elements into the strange but cute creature above and Matt chose to have Archie Andrews ride a dinosaur. Unfortunately, his drawing has gone MIA too, but I’ll share it in a future post.
DAY 2 - TACO
Brighton picked the next prompt and chose taco. Clock-wise above, starting from the top left: Whitney’s taco cat, Matt’s Archie and Jughead taco tribute, Brighton’s beautifully coloured and tasty looking taco and my version of a taco cat. Blythe’s taco drawing has been misplaced but looked a bit like Brighton’s, in black and white.
You will see a recurring theme throughout many of my drawings and our kiddos’ too. We are a family of cat lovers!
DAY 3 - BEES AND FLOWERS
On the third day, Whitney picked a theme of bees and flowers. Clock-wise above, starting from the top left: Brighton’s simple but really lovely picture – my fave of his, Matt’s very off-kilter version, Archie style and Whitney’s valentine version.
Many of her drawings were geared towards Valentine’s Day since these were done in the days leading up to the holiday. My own drawing has yet to be inked and Blythe’s is nowhere to be found at the moment.
Here is a closer look at some of the speech bubbles in Matt’s deranged comic drawing.
DAY 4- WARM & COZY
My prompt was warm and cozy since we were experiencing a deep freeze in Saskatoon and needed some uplifting imagery to help us through. Clock-wise above, starting from the top left: Blythe’s brave girl building an igloo outside, then coming in to warm herself by a fire, Brighton’s log fire, my two warm and cozy kitties snuggled together and Whitney’s mug of hot chocolate.
Matt made another Archie comic, this time with four panels…
Yes, that’s my husband’s weird brain.
DAY 5 - YEAR OF THE SNAKE/BEING HYPNOTIZED
Matt’s first drawing prompt was either the year of the snake or being hypnotized. I chose to draw both and so did Matt. Brighton simply drew a snake. Whitney had a similar drawing to mine but it is missing and Blythe chose not to do this one, even though she was born in the year of snake.
DAY 6 & 7 - PIZZA & FRIES
In our family, we eat a lot of pizza and fries, so the next two prompts were these, chosen by Blythe and Brighton, respectively.
Can you guess who’s drawings are whose, above?
DAY 8 - CAT DRESSED AS ANOTHER ANIMAL
Whitney’s second drawing prompt was to draw a cat dressed as another animal. Several months ago, she introduced us to these adorable illustrated cats and we have been slightly obsessed with them. Our previous foster kitty Bree looked a lot like them.
It was hard to capture her cuteness on camera… she was so much cuter in person. But here she is looking as sweet as ever! Her owner has since renamed her Heidi, but we will always think of her as Bree.
DAY 9 - FAMILY
My second drawing prompt was on Family Day, so I chose family. I think it’s pretty clear to see whose drawing is whose above. Whitney has yet to do hers.
I loved redoing our family portrait as the last time I did one (featured image at the top of this post) was quite a few years ago when Suki and Dex were still with us, and our kids were much shorter. Whitney is now taller than me and Blythe is catching up too! And I also think my drawing is a bit better.
DAY 10 - EXTREME COLD OR EXTREME HEAT
Because we were still experiencing such extreme cold temperatures here and had just watched this movie again, Matt chose this as his next drawing prompt. That, or extreme heat.
Blythe made a comic, as she has been into making her own comics for several years. Ironically, her comic which was about a kitty taking a bath ended up getting dirty from one of our kittie’s poopy paws. We’re not sure who the culprit was.
Whit drew Hello Kitty in ice cream form, Brighton drew a mug of hot coffee and I drew a kitty in extreme heat enjoying a popsicle. He looks a bit like Santos, the foster we had after Bree.
We are currently on Day 12 and going strong with this daily habit. The kids ask every day what the new prompt is and I try to get them to do it before they get any screen time, but my main wish is for them to keep on creating. Although Brighton whined and moaned that he didn’t know how to draw certain things, he is the one who has been the most consistent up to this point.
I’m not sure how long we’ll keep this daily habit going, but right now, I’m just happy that we’ve found something we can do as a family. What about your family? Any daily habits that you do together?
