6.30.2005

Ava Thursday: Spaceships and Mommy


Click on image for a closer look at the alien onslaught!

And now, another edition of Ava Thursday, wherein I showcase a drawing by my 4 1/2 year-old daugher, Ava, every Thursday. She's a talented little girl, and I'm a very proud father.

This week's drawing is from November of last year, when Ava's cousins, Naomi and Matt, came into town to visit for the holidays. Up until the visit, Ava's drawings were getting a bit more elaborate with the attention to detail increasing slightly. But when she and Matt sat down one day with some paper and crayons, the creativity in her drawings afterwards increased ten-fold. Ava's always been an observant one, often mimicking various shapes and character details from my drawings into her own. So here, she watched Matt draw these fantastical scenes of buildings being attacked by UFOs and aliens in spaceships, which was quite a change from Ava's own usual scenarios of girls in dresses, flowers, and sparkly shoes. I can only imagine what was going on in that bright little head of hers upon seeing the barrage of action and landscapes that cousin Matthew presented to her on that day.

Afterwards, Ava created some of her own spaceship scenes, with this particular one featuring mommy, obviously distraught over these unwanted, flying visitors destroying our house with their laser beams. That's a car to the left of the house, by the way.

7 comments:

  1. ava knows me all too well. I would (indeed) be distraught over such visitors invading my home and cramping my style.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is one of the spaceships --partially behind-- the house? Is she using perspective? I was impressed, as you were, with the use of cropping on "Big Hand" but if I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing, wow! Has Ava used perspective in other drawings, Ward? This is the first I've seen of it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Jeremy -- that one shape in the upper right-hand corner is not a spaceship, but rather the chimney, with smoke coming from it. She has, however, shown some degrees of perspective by drawing something and then stopping the line because it went "behind" an object, or person. If you look at this drawing, she drew the clock up the upper right-hand corner in front of that long, centipede-like structure (which I mention is up on the ceiling at my work, designed to hold cables and wires. You can see a photo of it here.). When I saw that, I knew that she was picking up on the fact that things go "in front of" others, instead of all together, jumbled. Not sure if she completely grasps the concept, as she'll lapse occasionally, but mostly she does get it. Just you wait for up-coming Ava Thursdays as I have plenty more to post.

    In fact, I might as well mention it: I'm thinking about a Very Special Ava Thursday, where I'll showcase Ava's progress through the years. I've gone back to find some of her earliest stuff, and it's interesting to see how much she's changed. It'll be a hoot.

    ReplyDelete
  4. what I find interesting is the change of color in the lines of the house (especially the yellow one) where the beam from the aliens ships strike it !

    also kinda fun that the house itself looks like a rocket !

    a special Ava Thursday showing her progress would be terrific !

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've been coming to your blog for a while. I just wanted to tell you that I was at the comic book store with my mom about a month ago, and because I'm such an impulsive buyer, I purchased some graphic novels. After reading about them on your blog, I was intrigued. But I didn't want to get Sin City because it's so sinful. Seriously. The boobs and everything would bug me.

    Anyway, I got Slow News Day by Andi Watson (I really liked the cover and I buy books based on their covers, yes, I'm that shallow) and some travel journal by some dude. My mom was in a major hurry and so I had to make up my mind quickly, otherwise I might have mulled over the purchase longer.

    It ended up that I didn't like either very much. Too many typos in the travel journal one and Andi Watson's plot sucked. I never got into it. Oh, and Andi's panels were often confusing, for example, it was tough to tell where the characters were because they were slap-dash drawings.

    The experience made me think I should just stick with Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comic books. Sound a bit cheesy? I know. But have you ever checked out Don Rosa's art work? His plots are great AND he has a sense of humor unrivaled by any of the other Disney writers. I love that man.

    Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience.

    Anyhoo, I love your artwork, keep it up. Oh yes, I also love the names of your kids. Ezra and Ava. Priceless.

    ReplyDelete
  6. noah wants to play that alien game ava drew. being a boy he is quite enticed right now with aliens and trying to understand if they are real or not.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have to say that this is my favorite of Ava's subject matter. She has such a great imagination. I also have to agree with Andrea... I have deadly accuracy when it comes to throwing bricks at little green men. ;)

    ReplyDelete