Life

A New Dad Just Made The Best Alphabet Book Ever

by Anjali Patel

Kyson Dana, a brand designer and new father based in San Francisco, wanted to make something special for his son. So for 26 days, Dana channeled his creative energy into drawing an animal for each letter of the alphabet and posted it on his Instagram. "I wanted to create something new for my son, something that he could someday look at and be proud of his dad," he wrote on Bored Panda. "I was so sick of looking at terribly illustrated baby books that [I] decided it was time to create my own artwork that I could compile into an alphabet book."

Sticking with personal projects is hard, but what seemed to keep Dana motivated throughout the 26 days of sketching was doing it in the form of a battle. On his personal website, he cites Type Fight, a website featuring topogaphy duels, as being an inspiration for his sketch duel. He and his friend Jeffrey Smith challenged each other each day by illustrating an animal per day and posting it to their Instagram. The animal had to start with the letter of the alphabet of that day, of course (K for Koi, Y for Yak...) and they were allowed to use any medium to create their composition.

"The pressure of producing a solid sketch grew more and more with each day and we saw our standard for what we posted slowly rise with each new day as well," he wrote on his website. "Finally after 26 days we ended the duel with a bunch of sketches and more than 1500 new Instagram followers to show for it."

There's no doubt, Dana will have one proud son! You can view more of his artwork on his Instagram.

Images: Kyson Dana/ Instagram