While sculpting the other day, Lou asked for a ball of clay. I rolled one. She began shaping it into a triangle. She said she was making a Totoro (A catlike creature from the movie My Neighbor Totoro.)

She looked a little deflated that it wasn’t looking like Totoro. I said “Let’s get a picture of Totoro so we can see what he looks like.” I got the box. We looked at it together. I asked “What do you see?” She said “Little ears.” She pulled off some clay and stuck ears on. I asked what else she saw, and she began making a leaf hat. Then after we got a few items I would say “Hmm…are we missing anything?” And she would compare. Arms, feet, nose, whiskers….

After a while, Lou says “Nope” to the “Are we missing anything” question which means we are done.

This way of creating from reference really works for us. I feel like it’s teaching her to see clearly. She may not become an artist, but she will be able to analyze!

We love reference:
Drawing a plane from reference
Drawing birds from reference
Collaborative drawing from reference.