An Artist's Progression

I am a mommy. I am inclined, and certainly entitled, to brag about my kids. Here is one of my latest loves - Eli's art. The kid amazes me every day. Seriously. Every. Day.

Here is the family in 2008: We all have eyes and mouths and legs! These ones are so heart-warming. He was about to turn three when he drew this.

Here is the family in August 2009: (almost 4) This is actually a picture of Grandma and Grandpa. I'm not sure why one has a torso and the other doesn't. Not really sure why Grandma has a mohawk either...

Here is the family at the tail end of 2009: (age 4) Yay! We have torsos, arms and legs...now if we only had hands and feet...

Here is his skeleton on March 28, 2010: The boxy looking thing to the left of the skeleton is it's bag...in case he needs to bring something somewhere, I suppose. There wasn't really any elaboration on why the skeleton had a bag.Here is his skeleton today: (almost 4.5) The grey thing on top of the skeleton's head is a mouse. The mouse caused the crack in the skeleton's forehead. The gun is shooting fire.

The husband and I have talked about it. The kid is talented. No doubt. The question about art classes came up. How do we encourage this? How do we nurture this talent? We are. We're doing it. No classes. We want him to love what he's doing, not because we want him to love it, but because he really loves it. We would hate for him to look back and say, "I really loved drawing, and then I had all these classes and it just wasn't fun anymore." It's his own and he'll take it in which ever direction he chooses. Right now, like many young boys, he's into guns and skeletons. It's actually quite endearing...he thinks guns shoot fire. He does not understand what a gun really does. I'd like to keep this innocence for awhile, then we'll discuss in further detail.