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.

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…

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…

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…

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!