I had asked a friend to send me some pictures of her and her daughter so that I could draw them together. She sent me many, and her favorite of them together was while her daughter breast fed. I had to agree with her, it was a beautiful picture. The only problem I had with drawing it is if my mom saw and what her thoughts would be on it. Well, my mom was gone for a while, and I started to draw the image. An hour into drawing it (and working hard on it), my mom returned, saw the picture and started fuming. As she left, she pointed to the picture and said, "I don't appreciate that."
I don't know how she doesn't appreciate it? The fact that it's a picture of a woman with a child on her breasts? As the friend I was drawing would say, breast feeding is a very intimate moment between mother and child. Besides that, I breast fed as a baby, my mom breast fed, I think most people have breast fed. What's so wrong with that aspect of the picture?
Next thing that I could think that my mom didn't appreciate was that my friend's breast was exposed. That's not that bad. I plan on going to college for art. That means I'll probably have nude models to draw and so forth. One breast that is not completely shown won't be as bad as what I'll have to draw in the future.
The last aspect that I could muse that my mom wouldn't appreciate is that I was drawing a stranger...someone I haven't met in person. In the future...when I am more skilled...I plan on taking commissions. All kinds of commissions. And my art teacher had told me that many people wish to have nude portraits. These are strangers paying her to have her draw them nude. So...that also ties into my above point about one breast not being so bad.
What is so wrong with me drawing a child breast feeding? I wanna ask my mom that, but she'd think I'm sassing and will ground me from the computer.