Browning
I'm working on making sure my kid has more books about kids who look like him. No, this is not a useful list of kids' books with protagonists of color. It's a craft project.
What I am armed with:
When I'm Big, done with the Tombow pens (this book is especially recommended for lesbian couples, as the two parents appear to both be female, though it's not An Issue, and the book is cute.)
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Danny and the Dinosaur, done with Crayola Washable Markers and watercolor paints (before I found the Tombow pens; this worked pretty well, too)
BEFORE:
AFTER:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
My Dad is Awesome, by Nick Butterworth, done with the Tombow pens:
BEFORE (the cover, which is too glossy to change):
AFTER: (the same image, inside the book and colored):
Thanks to my friend Lee for doing dorky crafty stuff with me; if we hadn't had an awesome day of play and crafting and hanging out with her and the Squid a few weekends ago, I might never have gotten around to sitting down and trying this out. Crafts are always more fun with friends!
The process itself is a little time-consuming, but the results are not bad, and getting better. It's not only letting me give the books protagonists and other characters of different skin colors, it's letting me choose to color them like our family, which has different colors within it as well. It's about $20 for all the supplies to do it (plus the books, but I already had those; I am guiltily considering going all guerilla re-racination on a few library books, too).
I still have to change words when I read the books - within the first two pages of Danny and the Dinosaur, which is an otherwise sweet book, Danny goes to the museum and sees "Indians, bears, and Eskimos" (all clearly statues) and "guns and swords." In our version, he sees Native Americans, Inuit, and rifles, but this still doesn't address the WTF of seeing people as exhibits in museums to be lumped in with bears...augh! Not all fail can be cured with a trip to the art store, more's the pity.
What I am armed with:
- Some cheap brushes.
- Tombow ABT Dual Brush pens in sand (992) and saddle brown (977). I also have wine red (837), pale cherry (912), and dark ochre (027) but I wouldn't recommend them; I will be ordering brown (879), redwood (899), chocolate (969), burnt sienna (947), and black (N15) soon, as I think they will better suit my purposes. If you've never used pens like these before (I hadn't), there's a handy tutorial on YouTube; I used the cheap brushes instead of their fancy blender pen, but maybe I will buy the fancy blender pen (N00) as well, while I am on a spree; it might help me get a more even look than I'm managing right now.
- Some softback paper versions of children's books. There are two key aspects to these books:
- The paper is at most only slightly glossy, which means that the ink of the pens will stay on the pages.
- All the main characters and all/most of the secondary characters are White.
When I'm Big, done with the Tombow pens (this book is especially recommended for lesbian couples, as the two parents appear to both be female, though it's not An Issue, and the book is cute.)
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Danny and the Dinosaur, done with Crayola Washable Markers and watercolor paints (before I found the Tombow pens; this worked pretty well, too)
BEFORE:
AFTER:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
My Dad is Awesome, by Nick Butterworth, done with the Tombow pens:
BEFORE (the cover, which is too glossy to change):
AFTER: (the same image, inside the book and colored):
Thanks to my friend Lee for doing dorky crafty stuff with me; if we hadn't had an awesome day of play and crafting and hanging out with her and the Squid a few weekends ago, I might never have gotten around to sitting down and trying this out. Crafts are always more fun with friends!
The process itself is a little time-consuming, but the results are not bad, and getting better. It's not only letting me give the books protagonists and other characters of different skin colors, it's letting me choose to color them like our family, which has different colors within it as well. It's about $20 for all the supplies to do it (plus the books, but I already had those; I am guiltily considering going all guerilla re-racination on a few library books, too).
I still have to change words when I read the books - within the first two pages of Danny and the Dinosaur, which is an otherwise sweet book, Danny goes to the museum and sees "Indians, bears, and Eskimos" (all clearly statues) and "guns and swords." In our version, he sees Native Americans, Inuit, and rifles, but this still doesn't address the WTF of seeing people as exhibits in museums to be lumped in with bears...augh! Not all fail can be cured with a trip to the art store, more's the pity.
posted by The Stute Fish at 21:18
1 Comments:
Lovely work.
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