Thanks for stopping by!
If you follow me on Instagram, my inspiration may look familiar. Since last weekend was Mother’s Day, I felt extra loved (I hope you enjoyed the day too!). It seemed only natural to use the shapes from my Mother’s Day moment surprises as my inspiration.
I began spotting shapes first thing in the morning. When I walked into our dining room, two cards greeted me along with a vase of glorious flowers. I knew I could pull something special out of my daughter’s affectionate handwriting.
A savory breakfast of omelets, cinnamon rolls and fruit soon followed and the mix of berries popped from our table.
We visited my mom later (while practicing social distancing) and as we were sitting outside, an unusual butterfly fluttered by and landed right next to us. It’s inky wings were trimmed with blue and yellow spots. This was definitely a butterfly I had never seen before (but later learned it was a Black Swallowtail). Have you seen one before?
The last shape I pulled came from a plant my sister gave me. I loved its curly green leaves and the contrasting flat flower petals. I have yet to identify this plant. If it looks familiar to you, let me know!
Here is a BEFORE and AFTER look at my Activity sheet pencil sketches from Wednesday.
When it came time to create characters, designs were not flowing out of me. I was stumped right away. After tossing around themes, I settled on celebrating…moms. Being a mom to me means being loving, attentive and…fun!
Since I was stumped with my characters at first, my concepts were not crystal clear in the beginning. My sketches were much softer because of the subject matter. I needed to jump right into color sooner to help with character development. My pen drawings actually came after my color studies.
BLOB #1 was the character that came to me quickest. I saw a female profile right away. The indentation felt like the perfect place to have a baby nestling.
BLOBS #2 and #3 were the hardest for me this week. They actually morphed away from the original shape when I got to color, but the theme was maintained.
This profile is very different than the original! I felt like I was forcing my first character idea, so abandoned it!
BLOB #3’s butterfly inspiration was the character I spent the most time thinking up. I had to spin it around, again and again to help with ideas. Can you spot the detail from the butterfly wing that became part of my character below?
If you guessed the baby’s braid, you are right!
BLOB #4 was also a challenge. It needed a few spins. When I did my pencil sketch the idea was a daughter playing with her mom’s hair. But the design felt forced. It wasn’t until I used color when a dancing grandma and granddaughter came to life.
My Mother’s Day inspired designs may turn into cards for next year!
Thank you for visiting today. I hope you enjoyed watching my character design process. I’d love to see your characters if you tried BLOBS #124 out!
I’ll be back on Monday with a new Activity sheet! If you spot any interesting shapes this weekend, let me know! Stay well.