Sta.sh
So I was at the doctor's office yesterday, and this doctor always overbooks his appointments. So, to make use of the time, I brought my pad, paper, and sharpener, and worked up some sketches. True enough, he kept me waiting (I eventually left without seeing the guy because it was going to take an hour and a half....!)
While I was sketching in the waiting room, this mom comes in with her two young kids, I'm guessing, around 4 years old. They're obviously nice kids, but being in a doctor's office was upsetting to them, and so, they're carrying on, and the mom is trying her best to keep them from going nuclear.
This wasn't annoying me at all. I'm a dad. I have great empathy for kids, and frankly, I felt like whining at this point, too!
But I thought I could make the situation a little better for the mother and her banshees. So I put away my sketches, and drew a cartoon teddy bear. Then I told the mother that I'm a cartoonist, and that I drew something her kids might like. (I always ask permission).
So she looked at it, and warmly received it, and gave it to her kids, who instantly calmed down.
I realized that my friends on DA could each have done the same thing. Professional or not, you're all artists. And believe me, no one sitting in a doctor's waiting room draws nearly as well as you do. So, I pass this on to you. If a situation ever arises where you're somewhere, and a mother is at wits end, and her kids are showing her no mercy, then grab your pencil, and transform the moment.
(I should also mention that when I was about five, my dad had a friend over to the house who was an old time animator. He drew me a picture, with long, energetic, loose lines. I still remember it vividly. It was a funny, cricket, and the sky had swirling, cartoony clouds, and a road that went back into the distance. Five years old, and I still remember it. Cartoons have something special about them...)
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I've always wanted to draw for kids at the Children's Hospital I go to. The power cartoons never ceases to surprise me
Nothing to do and can't go any where? DRAW! Draw for hours. Draw for so, so many waiting hours.
It was my mom who usually needed some thing to distract her, (my younger brother could/still can be distracted for hours by the wooden building blocks they always have lying around, so we never worried about him... not like other families worry about the boy child anyway) so she and I eventually came up with the scribble game.**
One of us makes a short, simple scribble and hand it off to the other person. they then have to try and turn that scribble into a picture of some sort. Once the person is done making the picture they scribble and hand it back. When my brother gets involved all sorts of interesting and amazing drawings happen.
Maybe I have been lucky, though, because even as an adult I go to the pediatric office. The doctors there know me, know my ins and outs (Literally), and have all the experience to make them specialists. The doctors who specialize in adults won't take some one with life long "anatomical deviations" because it's to risky for them. Hence I have always been in a very colorful and stimulating waiting room environment. It helps to draw in colorful new places.
* I have two heads!
No I don't really, it's a heart thing, but I'm fine now... Thanks to the doctors! YAY DOCTORS!
**Others may play this game as well. I know it's a rather universal stage in the "We have pens, paper and to much time" line of eventual events, but we like to pretend we were clever.
I've been in this situation so many times... Even sketching while kids were screaming and carrying on until their mom just takes them away. I'll definitely give this a try, it might help the moms stop aging prematurely.
But it does seem to impress people when they see me draw. I get a lot "I can only draw a stick figure" or "I can't do that." I just tell them that I practice at it.
Still, that was very sweet of you at the doctors office.