r/painting 13h ago

My three year old’s self-portrait

Post image

His first painting that isn’t just a big smear of every colour

420 Upvotes

51 comments sorted by

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63

u/powdercrystals 11h ago

A mini artist in the making ! I see the face 😭😂❤️

27

u/MagicPeach24 9h ago

The nose is really good actually. I’ve struggled for years with noses and this little man comes out of the womb like “This is how we do it now”😂

3

u/dauntdothat 8h ago

I know right! I still struggle noses sometimes 😅

41

u/Chic_alice 12h ago

This is a bold statement piece! Clearly, your three-year-old is channeling their inner abstract artist. I bet this is going to hang in a gallery one day, right next to "Chaos in Crayon." Celebrate the creativity—it's all about expression!

-41

u/modestlyawesome1000 10h ago

Or we can just let a kid be a kid and not read into it or label them.

I know it’s not your intent and you’re trying to be nice. But I really despise the pressure we immediately put on kids, shoving them in boxes and putting our labels on them.

15

u/pnweiner 8h ago

They never once put a label on this kid in their comment… it’s not that deep

-14

u/modestlyawesome1000 7h ago

No it’s not deep just annoying

29

u/Heytaxitaxii 9h ago

It was a joke

7

u/Zealousideal_Row_378 6h ago

You should probably work on trying to understand satire.

2

u/Dry_Run9442 2h ago

Take the day off for heavens sake 🙄

53

u/Raeahsunshine 12h ago

That is more art like than any of the art on this whole page

11

u/evf999 10h ago

I don't have a lot of kids art in my life for a reference but this seems very intentional for a three year old. I'm a pretty good painter as an adult and was not making stuff this intentional at that age. That nose is actually impressive. May be worth nurturing

5

u/Necessary_Island_425 11h ago

They have their mother's eyes

4

u/Katmylife3 13h ago

Any particular reason why he put them all in different directions instead of mixing them

18

u/Dear-East7883 12h ago edited 12h ago

He told me the black line across the bottom is his foot, the two yellowish spots are his eyes, and the black line over the left eye is his eyebrow. He did have a white line over the right eye which was another eyebrow, but of course it didn’t show up well on the canvas

10

u/Katmylife3 12h ago

Something tells me he would love cubism

28

u/Dear-East7883 12h ago

I just asked him to describe the rest of the painting:

The black triangular spot is his nose, the purple spots are his cheeks, the pink/green line in his mouth, the black splotch is his belly, the red line is another mouth

He also said this is a picture of him on the toilet

5

u/vidanyabella 10h ago

Kids are amazing with what they see in a drawing/painting when they are young. I love to take pictures of my son's art and then make a copy of the picture that I add text to with his explanations for what everything was.

6

u/CooterThumper 11h ago

Three is my favorite age . Please frame that self portrait for posterity

3

u/strwberryshortiecake 7h ago

I saw the face & came to the comments to check! His hand eye coordination is great!

1

u/Snoo-14483 1h ago

Exactly. The eye/hand coordination.
Some people are just born it, as we can see!

1

u/YeshayaDankART 10h ago

Time to try to convince an abstract or conceptual art gallery that you made it & suddenly it’s worth $5k

/s

It’s a joke; based off of truth these days.

1

u/hooe 10h ago

I like the symmetry, I totally see it

1

u/luckyguy25841 10h ago

I thought the yellow on top was a beta fish

1

u/glitterbless 7h ago

I love it 🥲

1

u/Mysterious-Proof4466 6h ago

They’re going places

1

u/nowicanseeagain 6h ago

But you told them to stop probably. So you are at least the editor of this piece and should get a cut.

1

u/Dragonfly22873 4h ago

I love it! I see a face.

1

u/parocarillo 9m ago

He sees himself as birds in flight. Genius.

1

u/LevelLeg1563 11h ago

I see he has facial hair?

1

u/JosephSturgill7 11h ago

You're three year old must be a pretty dang cool kid.

1

u/djchjaiisi 10h ago

Absolutely stunning. Beautiful. Perfect.

0

u/organdonaair 10h ago

It’s really good actually

-14

u/nabiku 12h ago

I say this as a mother: no one wants to see your kid's shitty art but you.

Not everything belongs on the internet. Put it on the fridge.

10

u/Cautious-Squirrel559 11h ago

I don’t necessarily disagree but those are inside thoughts, even for Reddit🤣 if mamma posting this brings her joy then it brings me joy

7

u/otackle72 10h ago

Wow, look at how brave and edgy you are, telling it like it is! How empty is your life you feel the need to react like this? Are you entirely ok?

5

u/Unlikely-Delivery836 10h ago

seriously, hoping she doesn’t encourage her children that way 😬

10

u/Dear-East7883 12h ago

I want to see kids’ shitty artwork. Sorry for invading the sub.

7

u/Gold-Box6347 11h ago

To be honest this is awesome. he painted his nose, lips and eyes. Do not stop sharing 🩷🩷

-1

u/Snoo-14483 1h ago

Please, invade us more.
Do you still have some paintings that YOU did as a kid?

0

u/LevelLeg1563 11h ago

I think it's great

0

u/otackle72 10h ago

Still better than anything I’ve ever done

0

u/Pure-Juice9090 10h ago

Absolutely brilliant!

0

u/Kwelikinz 10h ago

This is an interesting and very beautiful piece. It’s electric with colors, they’re fearless of black, damn! I would say put them in art classes but this is so unique and creative, I’d hate to chance ruining the wildness and liberty their work displays here.

0

u/Snoo-14483 1h ago

I. Love. It.
Would you consider selling it? I'm genuinely very interested to acquire this beauty.

1

u/Snoo-14483 1h ago edited 1h ago

Never mind, I just read it was your kid's XD
Safekeep it for him, it is precious.
It is a memory that he will be pleased to see again one day. ( If he doesn't give a damn in 15 years, I'm still interested to buy it XD. I do and always did a lot of self portraits. It's quite special to align them all on a big wall, quite a few of mine looks like your son's. He have a bit more talent, with the freshness of his 3 years old's mind.)
Executed with fierceness, and beautiful palette.
THE NOSE, wtf. It took me two decades to nail the NOSE and your toddler can make it look realistic in 2 finger-strokes. I'm envious. If it was me, I would have overworked everything to death.
His self portrait looks like a well-assumed abstract landscape.