She Made Me A Mother - Portrait Of My Daughter
This little girl made me a mother. She turned 7 earlier this month but this photo was taken when she was 4 years old. She had been pestering me to draw another portrait of her after seeing me working on a portrait of my her dad and little brother. It took me awhile to do it though because there were stuff in life that needed urgent attention and I had very little time to devote to art.
This girl taught me a lot of things about myself.
Being a parent is the most humbling journey I have ever been through. I am sure a lot of parents can relate to that. Before becoming a parent I was pretty sure I got it all figured out. How hard could it be right?
I was wrong.
I thought being pregnant and giving birth was hard and it was. The labor pain was out of this world. @crystalmaiden wrote about her birthing experience here and it kinda similar to mine except that I had to go through 17 hours of labor. Seventeen hours of unrelenting pain, wave after wave of excruciating pain, just to bring this girl into this world.
But those physical pains are nothing compare to the journey ahead.
Parenting is hard and takes a lot of work and patience. I made a lot of mistakes that I am not proud of. Parenting requires lots of courage, lots of learning, lots of patience and sacrifice. I am not good with words and I don't quite know how to explain it. Only parents would know.
Being a parent brings a lot of blessings. Through my experience as a mother for the past 7 years, I have learned not to judge people before knowing the actual story. I have learned to have more empathy towards others and to accept and respect everyone regardless of who they are. I have learned to be more forgiving and not take things personally. I have learned to be vulnerable and admit my mistakes and ask for forgiveness. I have learned to have better self-control. In short, being a mother has shaped my character for the better.
Here is the reference photo for the portrait and the progress photos:
Medium: water soluble graphite on cold pressed watercolor paper.
Thank you for visiting! What do you think of this portrait?
My previous posts:
My Trial by Comics Entry - Kaiju
Portrait Of A Steemian - @zord189
James Dean - Portrait Of A Rebel
I am selling some of my paintings over on Artfinder. Shipping is FREE worldwide. You can check them out here: ARTFINDER. Thank you!
Parenting is very tough but yet seeing the process of our little one grow is a beautiful process, especially when they discover new things. I too did alot of things that I've regretted within a year, especially scolding my child who simply does not understand the anything. I knew it wasn't his fault, curiosity is just part of growing. Basically Im just super exhausted. At the end of the day, he always greet me with the most heart melting cheekiest smile !
You are absolutely right. The first 5 years is the most tiring physically but I am dreading the teenage years. The next 5 years is the most crucial years for her because both her dad and I need to build the connection with her so that we still have hope to reach out to her when she is going through that turbulent teenage years. We all know what teenagehood is like. She even started rolling her eyes at me sometimes now :(
Brace yourself ! In 12 years time she will be demanding for an iPhone and you will have to use your mom or every mothers' signature reply. 'When I was your age ah, I got no handphone you know?' 😂
Hahahahaha...a classic mom reply and rightly so haha
A wonderful drawing of a girl of her age
Let her practice her hobby and support her to be a plastic artist in the future
Thank you @shawki
Why plastic artist?
Brilliant work, as always. It's so interesting to see the process shots too.Your daughter is so sweet.
Thank you for telling us something about your parenting journey. Yes, you never know what's around the corner when you are a parent!
Thank you @deermarshall . Being a mother is the hardest thing I have ever done.
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by coloringiship from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
Nice drawing.... sharing ur labor pains also huh? @crystalmaiden. :D
Thanks @zord189 =)
This post has received a 0.52 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @banjo.