BLOBS #115 RESULTS

Happy Results Day!

This week's Blobs were inspired by a rare yoga outing. I love to exercise (I've even taught classes!) but yoga moves at a s...l...o...w pace for me. I find it hard to be still for long periods of time. This has resulted in only a handful of yoga encounters. But last weekend, my dear spouse and I wanted to be adventurous together, so we tried a class out.

Because it was my out-of-the-ordinary experience for the weekend, I decided to borrow shapes from my peaceful surroundings... 

               MY YOGA MAT, the GIANT WINDOW we faced, an AIR DUCT that was directly above me (my eyes were not closed during back-time), THE CLEAR BLUE SKY when we walked out.

I pulled these shapes and converted them into my Blobs #115 Activity sheet...

A Before and After look at my initial designs (a time-lapse sketch is on Instagram).

And a closer look at each transformation. I decided (and maybe my yoga experience influenced my decision) that my character would be strong and flexible. Introducing - Strong Bug (otherwise known as Poly).

Thanks for stopping by! And if you came up with characters on your own, let me know! I'd love to see them. Share designs using #theblobblog.

BLOBS #114 RESULTS

Welcome to Results Day! 

This week's normal routine was...not so normal. Two major appliances broke in our house and I was making out-of-the-ordinary trips. With a broken dryer, laundry came to a screeching stop. To make the best out of my routine snag, I decided to look for an opportunity. Maybe I could find shapes to use for my Blobs #114 activity sheet at the laundromat? With a new perspective, my visit turned out to be far more interesting. My eyes were scanning everything! Best of all, drying time flew by. Here's a look at what shapes popped for me during my Saturday afternoon...

Picking out some random objects...

COIN TRAY with all of my quarters (I needed about $7 in change), a DRYER and a decorative SHELF STAND that was directly behind me. 

Here is my final sheet plus my quick design sketches...

                                   You can find my time-lapse drawing on Instagram

Now a closer look at each character...

                                    OPERA CAT

ANTS READING the cookie packaging list of ingredients section while sitting on top of crumbs.

                         BABY BRONTOSAURUS

                 BOY waking up frightened by something...

Blob 3 & 4 worked together...

                               BOY WAKES UP TO A BABY BRONTOSAURUS IN HIS ROOM

I hope you enjoyed this weeks characters! Thanks for stopping by!

BLOBS #114

Happy New Year! Find our very first batch of blobs for 2018! What characters do you see? Download Blobs #114 here to and find out where they came from on Instagram. 

GUEST ARTIST Debbie Ridpath Ohi RESULTS

Guest Artist: Author Illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Welcome to Results Day! If you're dropping by for the first time this week, we've been celebrating the work of Author Illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi each day on Twitter and Facebook. She has illustrated many picture books including NAKED! , I'M BORED and the upcoming I'M SAD (June 2018) by Michael Ian Black, as well as written and illustrated WHERE ARE MY BOOKS? and the latest SAM & EVA. I hope you enjoyed sneak peeks, interviews and learning more about her creative process.  

I have never met Debbie before. I first discovered her months ago on Twitter. I can’t remember what post led me to her but I do remember quickly becoming a "follower". Her world was brewing with fun, kindness and loads of creativity. She reached out to everyone. Teachers, readers, illustrators, authors, parents, publishers, librarians. I loved her openness and ease. I looked forward to seeing posts filled with pick-me-up cartoons, encouragement, kidlit events and then...food doodles. It was then I strummed up enough courage to reach out to her and ask if she would like to be a Guest Artist on the blog. I really (really!) wanted to see how blobs worked for her and what characters she could create.

When I reached out to Debbie she kindly responded and was completely up for the creative challenge (even with a broken wrist!). I was thrilled she accepted and am eager to share her designs with you but first, a little about where Blobs #113 came from... 

...a wintry, evening stroll downtown Royal Oak where every block beamed with light. Each shape I picked came from that light-scape, except when we were indoors having dinner. Can you spot that moment?

Here are the shapes I pulled to create Blobs #113...

Now, a BEFORE and AFTER peek at Debbie's designs...

Let's take a closer look at her playful characters...

This mixed collection makes for one colorful party of characters! 

Below is Debbie's interview...

Who was your favorite book character as a child and why?

Douglas Spaulding in DANDELION WINE, because I loved how he thought about things….so many truths, and that made me think more deeply about similar topics. I was also inspired by how he saw beyond the surface of things and people.

Which character in your books was the most fun bringing to life and why?

The Potato in I’M BORED, without a question. I loved how crabby he was in the first book. In I’M SAD, the sequel that comes out from Simon & Schuster in 2018, the Potato is crabby but also hilarious. And I was delighted to recently find out that Michael’s working on a third in the series that I’ll be illustrating: I’M WORRIED.

Where do you find the most inspiration for your characters?

That’s a tough question! It depends on the character and the story. For the little boy named Spencer in WHERE ARE MY BOOKS?, for example, I was inspired by my nephew, Spencer — he loved to read books when he was little.

Which BLOB inspired you the most and why?

All of your wonderful blobs inspired me! I think the one I eventually turned into Little Red Riding Hood was the most challenging, so I found it the most inspiring since I had to work harder at coming up with something I wanted to draw.

Thank you Debbie for generously donating your time and creating characters this week! 

Happy Holidays to everyone and check back on January 8th, 2018 for Blobs #114!

BLOBS #113 GUEST ARTIST WEEK

The Blob Blog is topping 2017 off with a Guest Artist this week!

I am so excited to welcome the mega creative Author Illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi today. You'll get to know her everyday this week on Twitter and Facebook where I'll be sharing video clips, sneak peaks, interviews and more. 

Her character designs + an interview will be posted on Friday.

If you want to create along with Debbie, download an activity sheet here and use #theblobblog to share.

Join me on Instagram to peek at my weekend inspiration!

BLOBS #112 RESULTS

Welcome to Results Day!

It has been a snowy week here! Our first big snowfall hit us this weekend and snowy conditions helped me come up with Blobs #112!

Things that caught my eye...

                       An outdoor metal chair, my sweet daughter, a bootprint, vent

Now zooming in and plucking specific shapes out...

...so they can turn into Blobs #112. After cleaning them up I created my Activity sheet. Here is a quick look at Before and After rough designs.

Now a closer look at characters...

                   POLAR BEAR ENJOYS ICEBERG DIVING

               4th GRADE SNOWFLAKE GODDESS SUMMONS A SNOW                                    DAY with her giant Snowflake wand

                                                                SANTA GETS STUCK

and the last Blob...

                    FRANK'S SNOWWORM WITH HORNS is a little unexpected.

What did YOU come up with? 

Next week will be my last post before the holiday break and we have a super special Guest Artist stopping by! Please check in on Monday to find out who it is...!

BLOBS #112

Create new characters with this week's batch of Blobs #112! Download an activity sheet here. Posting my inspiration for the week on Instagram.

BLOBS #111 RESULTS

Welcome to RESULTS DAY! If you did any character creating this week, share your designs using #theblobblog! I would love to see what you imagined!

And if you wondered where my Blobs came from...

...they were inspired by some holiday preparations! Last weekend we went tree shopping and I was on the lookout for interesting shapes. Here's what I found...

We went to two different tree stands to find the right tree for our home. As we searched I found a STONE TILE, a wreath with a PINE CONE and some exciting PEA GRAVEL. After we came back, I noticed the bright sun casting all kinds of SHADOWS on our wall (can you tell what kind of windows we have?).

Next, I converted shapes into Blobs...

...and after I created my Activity sheet, I did some sketching!

Character creating usually happens late Thursday night for me. But today I was able to spend a few minutes doing initial character sketches earlier. I ended up using my eraser quite a bit - oh no! I was stuck after only a few seconds into creating characters! I started with the bumpy pine-cone inspired Blob first. I was going to turn it into a pet, but I couldn't quite figure out what kind of pet. Maybe an IT pet? I decided to keep trying and a reptilian creature started to appear...then an iguana popped from my page. From what I could remember, they had a flappy spine of some sort. 

After playing around more, I added some holiday spirit. What if someone was getting an Iguana for Christmas? That sounded fun to me so I did more digging and finished that character sketch. I moved onto my first shape and stuck with the holiday theme. Below are all of my transformations.

                        OWL'S STOCKING

                    ZIGGY LOVES IGGY (her new pet iguana)

I wanted to add more of a scene, so I spent lots of time designing this...

There's not much here though! Most of my time was spent tweaking my character to make it look like she was giving her new pet a hug. I wanted IGGY's scales to look like they were pressing (gently) into her cheek and went through many, many, many versions. 

My last Blobs looked like they could work together. Yaay! Almost like they were having a conversation. And since I just posted my Holiday cards on FB earlier this week, I decided to create a new SWEET DEAR. But, who could he be talking too...  

                                                   SWEET DEAR and his neighbor BEAR

Deer's bandana was inspired by a special someone who visited the beauty parlor today...

our cute pooch (with half the amount of hair he woke up with)! Instead of doggy paw prints I used deer tracks on my deer's bandana. I love when real life inspires character details. It makes new characters more believable.

And that's it for characters this week! I hope you had fun coming up with designs and maybe even imagining a story. 

Thanks for stopping by and check back on Monday for a new batch of Blobs!

BLOBS #111

Design new characters with this week's batch of Blobs! Download a sheet here. Find my inspiration on Instagram.