Welcome!
Thank you for stopping by! Did you try creating characters this month? If so, I’d love to hear what you came up with! Please share your experience in the comments!
Let’s begin with some inspiration…
I did not travel far to find my batch of shapes. In fact, last month our household was so busy I decided to just…look around. June is a big birthday month for our family and there were multiple celebrations. One, was extra, extra special. Whenever there is a birthday in our house, we decorate most of the 1st floor the night before (or early morning)! How do you celebrate your family’s birthday?
Instead of traveling outside of the city to collect shapes, I used my festive surroundings. Scroll to see how the CREATE A CHARACTER Activity #135 sheet developed…
Let’s move on to pencil sketches! Below is a BEFORE and AFTER look at my Activity sheet…
Since my inspiration derived from birthday decorations, most of my characters were…celebrating their birthday too!
The pen time-lapse drawing below shows how the initial pencil sketch designs continued to evolve…
Let’s take a closer look at each design…
GILDA THE BABY CROC came from two shapes. Whenever I get stuck on one shape, I zoom out to see if I can combine two shapes together. That’s what happened with GILDA! She is celebrating her birthday and can’t wait to open her first gift. What do you think she received?
Here is my second character…
My ELIZABETHAN CAT changed quite a bit from my pencil sketch. I wanted to push her character so I experimented with her facial features. Maybe it’s her birthday too? How do you think she would like to celebrate?
And the last character is…
…BIRTHDAY BOY WITH GIANT BALLOON DOG!
After I did a pencil sketch of this pair, I experimented with the boy’s reaction. Instead of feeling shocked (like the original sketch shows), I searched for a story nugget. I decided the boy really wanted an animal balloon for his birthday…but after searching and searching he could not find the local animal-making balloonist. His only option? To make one himself! My illustration shows his failed attempts along with the result: the biggest animal balloon yet! I can relate to his failed attempts! It took me many, many years before my first picture book was published!
If you could make an animal balloon, what would it be?
I hope you enjoyed this month’s characters! Thanks for checking in. A new CREATE A CHARACTER Activity sheet will be posted on Monday, August 2nd. Be sure to share your designs on social media using #createacharacteractivity!
Happy Creating!