BLOBS #120 RESULTS

Welcome to Results Day. Thanks for stopping by!

Did you create new characters this week? I’d love to see your designs! Please share on social media using #theblobblog or email me about your experience!

This week’s inspiration came from two bouquets of flowers. Their colors filled our dining room with extra energy. I love looking at the center of a flower because a zillion of the same pieces are coming together in different ways. Do you have a favorite?

On Tuesday, I started my pencil sketches. Here is a BEFORE and AFTER look…

Before even starting, I knew BLOB #3 would transform into a mermaid. I couldn’t help but give her some siblings to play with. I pictured a game of underwater tag. Instead of dressing them in the typical scales we see on mermaids, I decided to create different textures. My merfamily is of an unusual breed and their merskin looks like coral. There are so many fascinating types!

Another detail that makes my merkids different are their tails. This family is a triple-tail breed (inspired by a fish I read about after wondering if triple-tailed fish exist!)

Check out their transformations below. The first character is commencing their game of Tag.

MERBOY

BLOB #2 is trying to escape from her sister’s reach whom is “It”.

TWEEN MERMAID

And merbaby is watching behind a piece of soft flower coral (sea fan)…

BABY MERMAID

And last, is the eldest. Minerva, the mermaid teen. She is trying to tag her sister Lyra…

TEEN MERMAID

Here is my time lapse drawing with pen…

After cleaning my characters up digitally, I dropped them back on my sheet to see them play!

I transferred my merkids to a sheet of Character Cards. You can download them by clicking below (or visiting my Activities page):

I colored my cards with watercolor pencil again…

and filled out a back side card sheet. My character’s names derived from actual reefs. Can you find them?

I hope you enjoyed following my character design process. Thanks for stopping by! Stay well.

BLOBS #120

Thanks for stopping by! Download this week’s Activity Sheet here. Join me Friday and share your characters via social media using #theblobblog. Have fun!

BLOBS #119 RESULTS

Welcome to Results Day! Thank you for stopping by. I hope you are staying well and finding new experiences to keep you busy! Did you create characters using BLOBS #119 this week? Let me know how they turned out!

This week’s inspiration came from a chalk message my daughter created. Maybe you’ve seen a few pop up in your neighborhood.

“We are all in this together.” - High School Musical

I knew instantly, her message would be my source for BLOBS #119. I picked a few interesting shapes….

…and created my Activity Sheet. Below are BEFORE and AFTER thumbnails from my sketch day (Tuesday).

The one thing my characters had in common was…water. For some reason, water was on my mind this week or maybe I just craved being in water. I grew up with a big pool in our yard where we played every day of the summer. In my high school years, we visited our family cottage often. If we weren’t swimming or floating in the refreshing lake, we were playing beach volleyball next to it. Water brings me peace and joy. And I think that is why my imagination led me to creating water-loving characters. I want peace and joy to fill our world up. Do you find yourself craving a particular place or feeling these days?

My first design reminded me of the Lochness Monster. Which made me wonder, what the Lochness Monster’s cousin might look like…

I think the Lochness Monster’s cousin would be friendly. What do you think?

My second BLOB was a challenge! It took a little bit of time to carve out a character. Introducing Goldfish and his Lovey (duck)…

You’ll notice Goldfish can walk and is not in water. Which is ok, because CHARACTER CREATING is all about playing! If I were to turn Goldfish into a story, his human-like characteristics would have to be explained. Maybe YOU can think of a reason?

The third BLOB made me think of floating in water. Once I crafted a character, she needed some movement. I decided to show her doing the backstroke. Meet GIANT PENGUIN SEA MONSTER and her monster chick.

I had so much fun with my last BLOB. I have never drawn a dragon before but this shape was begging to be turned into a long necked creature. Since water was the driving force behind each design, I plopped my dragon in a boat, and made her wingless. Follow FLORENCE, the WINGLESS DRAGON’s transformation below…

Here is a time lapse of my pen drawings.

After characters were cleaned up, I transferred them to a CHARACTER CARD Activity Sheet. You can download a sheet here or visit my Activity page.

Don’t forget to print a back side! Build onto my designs (or your own) with character traits.

Last but not least, I tested my CHARACTER CARDS out. Since water tied all of my characters together, I thought it would be appropriate to color them - using water. I decided to try watercolor pencils (not a familiar tool for me). This was the first time I used them (they are my daughter’s) and I loved the effect! Here are the colors I could find in our house…

Our seven Derwent watercolor pencils

…and my time lapse painting.

FRONT SIDES

BACK SIDES

Thanks for visiting! Be well!

BLOBS #119

A new batch of BLOBS are ready to be turned into characters! What do you see? Download an Activity Sheet here and share your designs on Friday! Use #theblobblog to post on social media or send a JPG to me at amy@amynielander.com. I’ll post your characters along with mine on Results Day (Friday)! Enjoy.

BLOBS #118 RESULTS

Happy Friday! It is Results Day and I am so glad you stopped by. I’d love to know if you participated in creating characters this week. Please leave a comment or drop me a note!

Let’s get started with inspiration.

After the first official week of “Stay home, Stay safe” here in Michigan, we were in need of a change by Friday. We decided to try a family activity based on a favorite show, Lego Masters. The goal was to split into two teams and spend 1 1/2 hours working on a Lego creation, ofcourse with a story attached to it. This was a first for us! Time zipped by because we had so much fun.

Our creations (or parts of them) are below. Since I needed to pull inspiration from something that happened over the weekend, I decided to use what we made.

The plant piece was a cure for corona virus.

Below is my BEFORE and AFTER sheet…

All of my designs were inspired by something. The first BLOB turned into a self portrait via minifigure. These days I’ve been doing more baking and hand drawing (versus digital drawing). I was able to fashion an apron out of my BLOB #1 then added personal nuances: my cinnamon roll filled pan (we celebrated April 1st this week) and a little apron pocket with pens and pencils. Here is the transformation…

Cleaned up version for my new set of CHARACTER CARDS.

The rest of the BLOBS took on a holiday theme. Last week I ordered books for my kids and husband through our independent bookstore, THE BOOK BEAT. My family didn’t know about the order, so I decided to wrap the books up in festive holiday paper and give them as a little gift. I even wrapped the book I ordered for myself up too…then, unwrapped it. All of that fun, colorful paper flying around put me in the holiday mood and the next characters were born…

Deer and his friend, Chipmunk (whom likes to nap on Deer’s antlers).

When I created BLOB #3 I was thinking about holiday decorating. Stories have been popping up in the news about communities trying to spread cheer by decorating their homes with lights. Windows and doors are also being dressed with hearts to express gratitude for healthcare workers. With all of this decor on my mind, BLOBS #3 turned into a combo of both ideas. Introducing my two grateful gerbils, Gladiolus and Grape. They are busy decorating their gerbil tube with Heart lights…

BLOBS #4 evolved from pencil to pen to CHARACTER CARD, mostly because my characters were running into eachother on their sheet! Meet “Santa Baby”.

When I saw this BLOB it reminded me of an art project I read about on Twitter. It was a post from an art teacher’s page (I visited her school a couple years ago). She asked her students to make smile signs. After they made their smiles, kids were asked to wear them and take a picture for their teacher. She shared her classroom’s artwork and I even spotted a pet or two wearing the smile signs. I loved seeing all of the creativity happening in homes! It is especially wonderful to watch teachers connecting with their classrooms again.

Since I had my holiday theme in motion, you can see why this baby is named “Santa”. Here is my transformation…

I decided to turn the baby’s Santa Smile Sign into an actual beard, because… Santa had to be a baby at some point, right?

Here is a time lapse drawing of my pen drawings…

After cleaning up each of my designs, I dropped them on a new set of CHARACTER CARDS. You can find that sheet in my Activities page or download them here. The first card is meant to be a SELF PORTRAIT. Kids can BE the character! Use a minifigure as yourself or anything else. The goal is to draw you in any way you prefer.

I tested a set out with markers in this time lapse…

Front and Back sides

I hope you enjoyed the post! If you add on to the CHARACTER CARDS, please share! I’d love to see your improvements.

Thanks for stopping by today. Stay safe and stay well.

BLOBS #118

Happy Monday! I hope you all are doing well. This week’s sheet was inspired by an activity we did on Friday. Any ideas? A picture will be posted on Instagram today. I hope you’ll join me in character creating this week! Download BLOBS #118 here. Use #theblobblog if sharing on social media or email me your designs. Have fun!

BLOBS #117 RESULTS

Welcome! I hope you’re settling into a new routine at home while staying healthy and safe!

Thank you for stopping by for Character Results today. Before I get into designs, let’s take a look at inspiration.

Shapes appeared during an afternoon of baking last weekend. I pulled a cookbook out that I haven’t used in a while (by Ina Garten) and decided to make a Blueberry Crumb Cake. It was scrumptious! Along the way though, these forms caught my eye. After I gathered them up…

…I created a BLOBS #117 Activity Sheet. Here is a BEFORE and AFTER look at my characters.

Before I sketched these characters out, there were two things on my mind. The first was hearing about the Olympics being postponed. More unfortunate news. But, I decided to turn unlifting news into uplifting news and wondered if my characters could be part of the…Animal Olympics? Imagining the possibilities helped me reset my focus and have fun with ideas. Because I wasn’t sure of every sport represented at the summer Olympics, I did a bit of research first (who knew Trampolining was one!). After trying to connect sports with BLOBS, I used alliteration to determine animal types.

Seal performs Artistic Swimming (with penguin).

The long shape from the mixer made me think of a beam for gymnastics. Sticking with the alliteration idea, I added a bunny gymnast…

Bunny strikes a pose on the Beam.

The last shape was definitely a stretch but fun to entertain. Since mountain biking is an Olympic event, I thought of bugs biking on a backyard squeaky fried egg dog toy…

Bugs go biking in the backyard. These characters were so tiny, I decided to enlarge one and fine-tune it. Now that I had a bigger character, I could transfer the design to a CHARACTER CARD.

The second thing on my mind this week was our pup. He is getting rather shaggy. Because of the lockdown, our pup parlor is closed. This means we’ll have to trim him ourselves. Which has never, ever, happened before. So, our dog’s hairy situation inspired my last character…

Below is a time lapse pen drawing of all characters…

With four character finished, I could make a new batch of CHARACTER CARDS. They are now available to download in the ACTIVITIES section or by clicking on the image below. I hope kids will add details, color and even character traits to develop these aspiring animals even more!

Remember to print a back side too! Here is a peek at my finished cards…

Front and back sides

A time lapse of CHARACTER CARD making is below…

And that is it for results!

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you have any questions (or if you try the Blueberry Crumb Cake recipe!). I hope you’ll join me next Monday.

Until then, stay safe and well.

BLOBS #117

Happy Monday! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you had a fun weekend!

I spent a bit of my Saturday pulling inspiration for a new batch of BLOBS. I’d love to have some company creating characters this week! Download your Activity Sheet here! Curious about my inspiration? Find it on Instagram. Check back on Friday for my results and another batch of Character Cards (along with a delicious recipe). If you’d like to share your designs, send them to me by Thursday and I’ll post our characters together (amy@amynielander.com). Wishing you a healthy week!

BLOBS #116 RESULTS

Welcome to Results Day!

I hope you’re all staying healthy, safe and busy! Thank you for stopping by today. I know it has been an unusual week. My goal for this weekly challenge is to serve as a connection and be a creative break in your new routine. Whether you tune in for one week or tune in for a few weeks, I plan on being here.

It has been two years since I posted on The Blob Blog. I was not sure what was going to happen with character ideas. I wondered if I would be able to come up with anything! But knowing kids may be joining me this week, I did my best and even created a bonus goody. We’ll take a look at where these BLOBS came from first!

Last week we received the news that our schools would be closed for a few weeks. And last weekend I needed to do something uplifting. So, I went for a walk with our dog, Chewie.

Our cute pup.

I was looking for inspiration for this week’s activity. At first I had a hard time finding shapes that looked interesting to me or even hopeful. But then I noticed, I was looking down. When I began looking up at the big blue beautiful sky and the trees stretching upwards, shapes started to reveal themselves…

The negative space in the trees caught my eye…

…and I started carving BLOBS out.

Now that I had my shapes, I could make a CREATE A CHARACTER Activity. Here is a look at my BEFORE and AFTER sheet…

I had to keep pushing my 4th BLOB since my character was not working. You can see a person roughed in above (the beginnings of an idea.) But it was feeling forced. So I decided to start with a fresh new sheet and try again. That’s when this ASTRONAUT PIG came to life...

I cleaned them all up with pen in the below TIME LAPSE drawing…

Here is a look at their transformation...

After creating characters I wondered if the activity could grow beyond designs. I thought it might be fun for kids to collect their characters and build personalities. Give them a name, describe them with interesting adjectives and decide what their favorite colors + activities are. So I tested a CHARACTER CARD design out! Since illustrators are constantly redrawing their characters, kids can experience what it’s like to be a picture book artist! Here are my characters redrawn on cards…

My Character Cards prototypes

After getting front sides figured out, I designed some back sides. The goal is for kids to build onto their characters (and mine) by forming character traits. Here are questions they can answer…

This is also a great way for families to get involved in the character creating process!

After a few days of testing sizes and designs out, CHARACTER CARD Activity sheets are now available! STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS are below.

Scroll to the bottom of the ACTIVITIES page to download sheets.

Below is a time lapse showing how to assemble.

Here are my final cards…

FRONT SIDES

BACKSIDES

I hope kids had fun this week creating characters! If you spot any interesting shapes this weekend, please send them my way! I’ll be uploading a new CREATE A CHARACTER Activity sheet on Monday so I hope you’ll visit again. A new set of Character Cards will also be available next Friday.

Thanks for stopping by and stay healthy!

BLOBS #116

Welcome families, kidlit community friends and kids!

With the disruption that is storming through our lives right now, I’d like to shower kids with some sunshine. So, The Blob Blog is back up and running!

Right now many families are looking for consistency. A routine of activities that can keep our children busy and amused while providing value. I have kids of my own and we’re trying to fill in the gaps too. What I’ve noticed in my search for a “routine” is CREATIVE TIME is a must. That is where I hope to plug in and help. Kids have big imaginations and we’re all a little restricted at the moment. If you have a child who loves reading, drawing, designing or making things come to life, I hope we can connect as a creative community here.

I’ll be creating characters the next few weeks and I hope your children will join me! Print a sheet of Blobs out on Monday and encourage kids to dream up characters throughout the week. I will post my designs on Friday along with any drawings shared with me via email (amy@amynielander.com), by Thursday. If you prefer social media, use the hashtag #theblobblog.

The best part about creating characters is…there are no rules! Kids can use paint, crayons, markers, pens, pencils, cut and paste, collage or a medium of their choice. Characters can be anything- humans, animals, plants, insects, heroes, a cat with a love for opera singing or more! Check out the Blobs Archive for inspiration and designs by Guest Artists. And if you’re wondering where Blobs come from, I’ll share that on Friday as well (with a sneak peek on Instagram).

I look forward to seeing all of the characters your kids dream up! And if you’re a #kidlit illustrator - please join me! Post your results on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook on Friday. Let’s spread some sunshine together. Happy creating!