Pen & Ink

We've been having a very Harry summer in our house - Potter, that is. Theo's been playing the Lego game for awhile and I checked out The Chamber of Secrets audio book from the library to jump start interest in the series. Both kids loved it - Dora couldn't wait to share the discs, so she started reading the books ... and zipped through all seven in FOUR weeks. She's always been a remarkably fast reader, and I continually worry about her comprehension, but she does seem to absorb everything, as she often refers to minute details and characters that I barely remember. Theo is about a third of the way through book four. Both kids are going to a Harry Potter camp in August and are way excited.

On a picnic this weekend, Dora and Theo collected geese feathers (quills!) and wanted to try their hand at writing with ink. Happily, I still had some stashed away from art school days along with a couple of pens and showed the kids how to use them.



They came up with some awesome creations!



This is Theo's self-portrait. He's missing three teeth right now, can you tell? (Which reminds me that his recent one is still sitting upstairs. Bad Tooth Fairy!!)



Dora drew some characters from the books. I love the texture and look of these drawings, I never would have thought of doing pen and ink with the kids, but am happy we did. Dora grasped right away how easy it is to do fine detail and we talked about how many book illustrators use this medium and thought of some examples.



I am in love with her drawing of Snape!