Color outside of the lines + drawing homework

Was your first experience with art a coloring book and a box of crayons?

“Color inside of the lines.”

“Don’t scribble.”

scrib·ble  (skrbl)

v. scrib·bled, scrib·bling, scrib·bles

v.tr.

1. To write hurriedly without heed to legibility or style.

2. To cover with scribbles, doodles, or meaningless marks.

v.intr.

To write or draw in a hurried careless way.
n.
1. Careless hurried writing.
2. Meaningless marks and lines.

“No, I said the grass is green.”

“Okay.”

You looked at your drawing with purple grass, and you felt awful. In your mind you were coloring grass on a different planet.

When you colored between the lines, and had a brown dog and a blue sky, the adult would say, “I like that.”

You lived to hear, “I like that.”

The adult’s parents instructed them how to color properly as did their parents before them, generation after generation coloring inside the lines, since Richard F. Outcault, created one of the first character coloring books in 1907.

Important drawing homework

1. Buy a coloring book and a box of crayons.
2. Pick one picture and scribble all over it. Scribble is not a dirty word.  [click here to tweet, tweet, tweet]
3. Pick another picture and use any color crayon you want. Blue grass or a green sky. Or blue sky and green grass.
4. Tape your picture to the refrigerator and say, “I made that.”

“Hey, wait a minute!” you ask.

“Yes.”

“I thought we were going to make art. Where are my drawing lessons? What supplies should I buy? I want to really draw, not use some child’s coloring book!”

Thank you for asking me why I want you to buy a coloring book and a box of crayons. 

For a few days we will be children again. Do you remember what it felt like to open a new box of crayons? Do you remember having your own coloring book with no pages colored on  yet?

Be a child again and open a fresh box of crayons and color in your coloring book. This time, you are in charge of your coloring book. There is no adult  telling you what to do.

Well, that is not completely true. I am an adult and I am telling you what to do. So, I give you permission to ignore me. You don’t  have to scribble in your coloring book. Ignore what I say if you want to. You can even color inside of the lines.

If you don’t want to buy a coloring book, use a black magic marker and draw your own picture. You are the boss.

Do you remember coloring in a coloring book as a child?

Please tell me in the comments. I would love to chat.