40 Artists Recreate Children's Artwork With The Most Amazing Results

A fun activity between artist Aaron Zenz and his children turned in to something incredible for artists and children all over the world.

Kylin

• Published in Cartoons / Anime
• December 20, 2021

Artist and children’s book illustrator, Aaron Zenz, published a book called "Monsters Go Night-Night" using his 5-year-old son’s drawings of monsters as inspiration. He calls these recreations his own fan art tribute to his son.

When the book was released, he invited other artists to re-imagine the monster drawings his son created in their own style. The response was astounding, inspiring hundreds of original pieces of fan art to share on social media.

Zenz dubbed the challenge “Monsters Go”, and created a Twitter account, Instagram account, and hashtag #‎MonstersGo in order to share all the fan art. This social media project was maintained via a weekly monster prompt, proposed by each of his six children.

During this time, he launched a personal project that he continued to refer to as “Monsters Go.” Instead of having many different artists draw from a single monster prompt decided by his children, he in turn would redraw as many monsters submitted by other children as he could.

Zanz shares that he received an astounding 20,000 designs submitted by children, and made 300 fan art pieces himself between 2017-2018. By 2019, he went back to his original model of having artists create their own fan art of his own kids’ monsters.

Then the pandemic happened, and everything slowed down. Artists, desperate for creative inspiration and joy, started requesting Zanz to revive Monsters Go.

Shortly after everything went into lockdown, the Monsters Go Instagram was brought back to life, complete with weekly prompts and showcased responses. Zanz, running low on his own kids’ monster prompts, began to pull from the 20,000 drawings submitted by children from his other project. 

Kid-Artist: Ari

Fan Art By: @doodley_stew

Kid-Artist: Leo

Fan Art By: @traeshaesthetics

Kid-Artist: Kaira

Fan Art By: @hichiha_0031

Kid-Artist: Harper

Fan Art By: @_the.tyler.wolf_

Kid-Artist: Jonah

Fan Art By @happymonkeyshoes

Kid-Artist: Kurt

Fan Art By: @craigcheape

Kid-Artist: Atticus

Fan Art By: @revcruz

Kid-Artist: Mercy

Fan Art By: @austinmills2664

Kid-Artist: Brooklynn

Fan Art By: @volatilconcept

Kid-Artist: Isaac

Fan Art By: @omar_ero

Kid-Artist: Evie

Fan Art By: @davepryor72

Kid-Artist: Carter

Fan Art By: @jazylhdraws

Kid-Artist: Megan

Fan Art By: @handshooks

Kid-Artist: Preston

Fan Art By: @aaronzenz

Kid-Artist: Evie

Fan Art By: @ohalloren

Kid-Artist: Liv

Fan Art By: @cozacana_

Kid-Artist: Brianna

Fan Art By: @jawadog

Kid-Artist: Gracie

Fan Art By: @slightly.life

Kid-Artist: Mason

Fan Art By: @reinvanwykillustrate

Kid-Artist: Jonas

Fan Art By: @streetfiedler

Kid-Artist: Isaac

Fan Art By: @rambling_armadillos

Kid-Artist: Carlos

Fan Art By: @martin_trokenheim

Kid-Artist: Elijah

Fan Art By @davepryor

Kid-Artist: Jae

Fan Art By: @dave.pasciuto

Kid-Artist: Raelynn

Fan Art By: @purperoni

Kid-Artist: Josiah

Fan Art By: @chibyversity

Kid-Artist: Mason

Fan Art By: @barbara.knappe

Kid-Artist: Kaiya

Fan Art By: @thehamofficial

Kid-Artist: Aimee

Fan Art By: @tomabelillustration

Kid-Artist: Luke

Fan Art By: @adamsanfordart

Kid-Artist: Wolfe

Fan Art By: @g.s.artworks

Kid-Artist: Heather

Fan Art By: @tobiasm.art

Kid-Artist: Parker

Fan Art By: @illustrations.by.ellie

Kid-Artist: Arie

Fan Art By: @mikebaldridge.design

Kid-Artist: Lexi

Fan Art By: @danny.kneip

Kid-Artist: Elyse

Fan Art By: @illustration_nerd

Kid-Artists: Lily, Evie, and Maggie

Fan Art by: @flyssann

Kid-Artist: Gracie

Fan Art By: @tartessoatlas

Kid-Artist: Maggie

Fan Art By: @kamethehermit

Kid-Artist: Alan

Fan Art By: @aaronzenz

Zenz created a video showing the process of creating Monsters Go Night-Night

Since the conception of the #MonstersGo challenge, Zanz estimates that over 1,000 artists from around the globe have contributed, and around 4,000 pieces of artwork have been created! What an amazing response inspired by the sweetest bonding activity between father and son.

Be sure to share with the artists and art lovers in your life! And you can follow or participate in the Monsters Go challenge on: Twitter | Instagram

Kylin