Doodle Day 2014: February Creature Month - Week 3

I had a fabulous week of projects. I doodled Duck/Dog doing a bunch of different things, worked on a puzzle sketch that I hope will someday get into one of my favorite children's magazines, taught an art lesson about Tomie dePaola to a Kindergarten class, and painted the windows of an elementary school for Tune Out TV week and Read Across America.

If you are new to the February Challenge for Doodle Day, we are creating creatures/monsters/aliens each week. We're spending a whole week doodling each one in different poses and/or with a variety of expressions.

To see my character for Week 1 click HERE
To see my character for Week 2 click HERE

Here is my character for Week 3:

I call him Duck/Dog...

 

Duck/Dog chasing and playing chase with Duck/Cat

 

 

Totally off theme, I saw this photo of a sloth and its stuffed giraffe posted on twitter and I had to doodle it up. Here is the photo and my watercolor version.

 

 

 

Come back next week to see what I come up with for Week 4. : )

 

Character Challenge - Day 13: 26-40+ year olds

Day 13: 26-40+ year olds

Welcome to Day 13 of the Character Challenge! This is our last prompt and if you have made it this far, you should have worked on characters ranging from 2 years old to 25 years old as well as eyes, ears, noses, mouths, posture, and costumes. I have filled many pages of my sketchbook and I hope you have, too.

Here are the links to the previous posts:
Day 1: Head Shapes
Day 2: Toddlers 2-4 years old
Day 3: All About Eyes

Day 4: 5-8 year olds

Day 5: Noses and Ears

Day 6: 9-12 year olds

There was no post on Saturday or Sunday

Day 9: 13-17 year olds

Day 10: Mouths

Day 11: 18-25 year olds
Day 12: Costuming a Character

Today's prompt is 26-40+ year olds. Of course you can sketch older than 40 - that's what the + is for. The sky is the limit. This just means grown ups, adults, big people, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, people in the work force, people who entertain, people who you see every day. Remember that we are making characters here so don't worry about realism. Does that guy at the deli counter have big ears? Make them bigger in a character. Does that woman have spikey hair? Make it more spikey in a character. Take features farther.

On Monday, I will post a summary showing many of the characters that I created during this challenge on this blog. If you post a summary showing your characters, share the link in these comments so we can all see what was created. Don't feel that you have to spend the weekend inking and coloring some high quality character pieces - sketches, doodles, pencil are all fine.

Have fun and thank you for taking this challenge with me!

In January, I will be working on scenes (not focusing on the characters - just the backgrounds/locations/places) so if you want to do those with me, let me know.

Character Challenge - Day 11: 18-25 year olds

Day 11: 18-25 year olds

 

 

Welcome to Day 11 of the Character Challenge! We have sketched toddlers, kids, pre-teens, and teens. We have also worked on eyes, ears, noses, and mouths. If you have been keeping up with this challenge, great job! We are moving pretty fast and only have a few prompts to go!

 

Here are links to the past Cha-Cha Posts:

 

Day 1: Head Shapes
Day 2: Toddlers 2-4 years old

Day 3: All About Eyes

Day 4: 5-8 year olds

Day 5: Noses and Ears

Day 6: 9-12 year olds

There was no post on Saturday or Sunday

Day 9: 13-17 year olds

Day 10: Mouths

 

Today's prompt is 18-25 year olds. College students and recent grads. This age group includes young people choosing careers and entering the work force or joining the military. In books, we now refer to them as New Adult - and they have their own genre.

 

What you ever knew about figure drawing can pretty much go out the window on "characters." Your squat adult male might only be three heads tall. Your young dad character might be just 4 or 5 heads tall. What makes these characters different from the children using same number of heads in height is that their face moves up on the head to the bottom third or even closer to the center. Ears move up to be between the eyes and nose instead of down between the nose and mouth. Hands get more defined. Clothing changes - grown up style. Women may wear jewelry. Men may wear a hat (other than a baseball hat). Hairstyles become cleaner with less fly away hairs.

 

Posture - "Posture can either energize or rob it of its energy." - Chris Hart

 

You can show a characters feelings even without facial features.

 

Here are a few stances:

Forward Leaning = aggressive or eager

Backward Leaning = easy going

Neutral but swayed forward a bit = Cute and innocent

Bend the knees and lean your character back a bit  = a goofy look. Think Moose from the Archie comics.

 

Think about posture when drawing these young adults. Is he or she heading off to college or to a job at the Chicken Shack? Give him a silly work uniform and show in his posture that he is either excited to go or dreading the idea.

 

Have fun!

 

Come back tomorrow for a new post.

 

 

 



Character Challenge - Day 6: 9-12 year olds

Day 6: 9-12 year olds

 

 

Welcome to Day 6 of the Character Challenge! So far we have worked on Head Shapes, Eyes, and Noses and created some 2-4 year old and 5-8 year old characters. I hope you are enjoying this journey with me.

 

Here are the links to past Character Challenge posts:

Day 1: Head Shapes

Day 2: Toddlers 2-4 years old

Day 3: All About Eyes

Day 4: 5-8 year olds

Day 5: Noses and Ears

 

Starting today, work on characters who are between 9 and 12 years old. These kids range from 4th grade to 7th grade. The 4th graders will be around 4 heads tall and the 7th graders could be as tall as 5 heads tall already (especially the girls).

 

As kids grow, they often get lanky. Kids commonly thin out and their knees and elbows get knobby in 6th and 7th grade. Much of the growth during these years shows in the arms, legs and feet. All of a sudden, their arms hang to mid thigh and their feet look oddly long. Facial features move up on the face. The younger kid's features were down low making them cute and their heads look large - move the features for this group a little higher and move the ears up, too.

 

Most of the baby fat is gone while some kids will start to get chubby - this is a different kind of thickness to the body. Baby fat is in the hands, feet, thighs and cheeks. Chubby kids tend to hold their weight in their belly, arms and thighs. If you are working on these heavier set kids, make the neck wide or don't show a neck at all. If you sketch them 5 heads tall, they will look like giant football players so keep the proportions down to 3-4 heads for them.

 

As far as who these kids are - this is a time of trying new things. 4th graders to 7th graders explore, may take photography classes or acting, start learning musical instruments, or build circuits and robots. They may be active in sports, enjoy curling up in a secret spot to read, or keep a journal. I taught 4th grade core classes for several years and then taught 6th-8th grade art and technology for several years and these kids were full of wonder. They had to try everything - it was fantastic. They are learning what school subjects fill them with curiosity - they may realize that they want to grow up to be a scientist, graphic designer, biologist. Try to show his or her interest in your sketch. Gardening, creating, science, music, sports, cooking, theater, ...

 

This is a really fun group so try some lean kids and some chunky kids so see the differences.

 

There won't be a new prompt over the weekend so for Saturday and Sunday, work on whichever age group you want to return to. Try turning your characters. Try sketching children from different countries. Add diversity to your sketchbook. Pay attention to glasses and braces. You could try drawing a character in a wheelchair or with crutches.

 

Post your characters on the Doodle Day group in Facebook and/or post them on your blog and share the link to your blog in the comments.

 

Have fun!