Illustrator Mica Angela Hendricks of the blog The Busy Mockingbird had a gorgeous new sketchbook, and didn’t want her preschooler daughter to touch it. But after her daughter “used her mummy-words at her” and insisted she should share, Hendricks let her draw the bodies on some sketches of heads.
The result? Something totally unexpected and magical. Despite finding it hard to surrender her vision of the art, the final result, she says, "always looked better that what I had imagined. Always!”
Hendricks started regularly drawing heads for her daughter to finish, and the result is this playfully surreal series, some of which is now on sale at Society 6. The other result? A reminder for us all of the limitlessness of kids’ imaginations:
“And from it all, here are the lessons I learned: to try not to be so rigid. Yes, some things (like my new sketchbook) are sacred, but if you let go of those chains, new and wonderful things can happen. Those things you hold so dear cannot change and grow and expand unless you loosen your grip on them a little. In sharing my artwork and allowing our daughter to be an equal in our collaborations, I helped solidify her confidence, which is way more precious than any doodle I could have done. In her mind, her contributions were as valid as mine (and in truth, they really were). Most importantly, I learned that if you have a preconceived notion of how something should be, you will always be disappointed. Instead, just go with it, just accept it, because usually something even more wonderful will come out of it.”
Check out the duo's beautiful collaborations:
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