Celebrating with Whimsies

Hello gorgeous one!

Welcome to November. Can you believe the

year is almost over? I can't believe how fast

it's all gone! It feels sort of sad, yet also

good because I really feel we've

accomplished something! :)

This month, we are continuing to reflect

back on our year and celebrate some of the

changes that we've made. If you haven't

made any big ones (I know it was tough for

me to find any of the big changes I had

hoped to make) then celebrate just the

small ones, like for instance, I managed to

do some exercise here and there, even

though I had hoped to do a lot more. Still

I'm celebrating these small changes too. :)

Technique wise we're going to create some

whimsy characters, yay! I used the

following supplies in this lesson:

Water soluble crayons

Graphite pencil

Graphite crayon

Collage papers

Gel medium

White acrylics

Rubber stamps

Ink pad

Dylusions Ink Spray

Black fine pen

Q-tip/ Ear bud

Before we start, let's practise a bit of

whimsical drawing. 2 Things that make

things more whimsical looking are:

1. Distortion/ Exaggeration of features:

ie: larger heads/ smaller mouths/

noses/ round head shapes, more

elongated head shapes etc.

2. Using simplistic shapes: rectangles

for bodies, simple circles for heads

etc.

So let's give it a practise on a separate piece

of paper. Try out all sorts of combinations

and feature placements. See what happens

when you place the eyes higher in the face

or lower in the face etc. Which look do you

like best?

Drawing your Whimsy

Step 1. Because I wanted my character to

be exactly centred and I'm a bit OCD when

it comes to centred stuff, I drew a line

through the exact middle of my page. You

don't have to do this at all, but it helps if

you also want to centre your character.

Step 2. I then started building my

character around the centre line. I used an

[almost] perfect circle for the head, left out

a neck and a simple shaped body.

Step 3. Her legs too were simple little

things pointing slightly inward.

Step 4. I placed her arms up into the air

as if she was cheering and gave her hands

with fingers. Though hands without fingers

are totally cool for whimsy creatures.

Step 5. I placed my character's eyes

midway the face, but you may want to play

with placing them higher or lower (this goes

for all the features).

Step 6. Her nose and mouth were placed

quite low in the face, close to the chin,

again, you may prefer a different placement.

Play! :)

Step 7. I started 'building' up her eyes.

Step 8. Started work on her hair and

added some cheeks.

Step 9. I have a love of bearhats lately, so

this one HAD to have a bear hat too! :)

Step 10. I added accessories to her

clothes like buttons/ pockets/ bows/

collars.

Step 11. I decided she should have 2

little critter friends. So sketched them in by

her legs.

Shading your Whimsy

Step 1. The way I shade my whimsies is

the same way I shade my portraits. Funnily

enough I follow a different shading pattern

almost every time. I don't stick to the same

colours, although I do have some I always

come back to. For info: I always use a

salmon or pink salmon as a first layer. I

often use a pink or rose pink for the darker

areas. I may or may not use: 'orange-ish

yellow'/ 'ochre'/ 'russet'. I tend to use

'raspberry' for the mouth and cheeks (these

are the watercolour crayon colours/

names).

Lately, I've come to incorporate a tiny hint

of blue in the skin tone and I often drag the

eye colour into the skin as well. Ha! The

message here really is: find your own

preferred way of layering your skin tones,

experiment, play. Eventually you'll find

something that really resonates with you. :)

Step 2. I applied a light layer of salmon

crayon to her face and activated it with a

brush.

Step 3. I used orangish yellow and pinks

to build up the darker shading areas. You

can take the paint straight off the crayon

with your brush, or you can apply the

crayon to the paper first whichever suits

you more.

Step 4. I added in some light blue in the

areas where you expect the darker shading

to be.

Step 5. I added colour to her eyes and

dragged some of that colour into the

surrounding areas for extra shading.

Step 6. I used raspberry for her lips,

cheeks and some of the extra shading on

the face too.

Step 7. Use white acrylics and a thin

brush to add highlights to the eyes, nose

bridge, bottom lip, chin and forehead.

Step 8. Go back in with your graphite

pencil to firm up some of the detail you

may have lost while painting. The graphite

pencil is also awesome for adding more

shading where you feel the character needs

it.

Step 9. I used a fine black pen to darken

up the pupils and outer lines of the iris.

(And resisted the urge to outline everything

else, but gave in later, argh! ;))

Creating a Collage Dress

I wanted to collage her dress with a cool

vintage/ dotted scrapbooking paper. Here's

how I did it:

Step 1. I use a transparency film but if

you have it, use: transparent paper, to

outline her dress onto. (I couldn't find my

transparent paper, so film works too, but

paper is easier).

Step 2. I placed a piece of tracedown or

tracing paper (which has graphite on one

side) face down onto the vintage paper and

traced over the dress I had drawn earlier

onto the transparency film.

Step 3. I cut out the dress and glued it

down onto her body.

The Background

You'll see that I struggled with parts of

creating this particular background. This

was mostly because I used a dark spray that

I don't normally use. I stuck with it though

and wanted to share my 'how to clean up

messes' process so that you can see that not

all is lost if this ever happens to you! I was

in the end pretty happy with the

outcome, while at some point I considered

abandoning the whole thing! :) Lesson:

never give up! :o))

Step 1. I cut out some 'bunting'/ 'flags'

out of some music score paper (to go with

the celebration theme).

Step 2. I tore up more collage papers and

laid them out and glued down.

Step 3. I then used some Dylusions spray and

sprayed it onto the background. Turned out this was

too dark for my liking really, the beginning of my

problem, but hey! I wanted to go with brown and

brown it was indeed! Be aware that sprays are much

less forgiving than the crayons. Go carefully with

sprays (another lesson learned!) :)

Step 4. I toned down the dark brown with

some white acrylics (golden fluid in this

case).

Step 5. We take a small break from background

doing and added some colour to the hair and colour

to the hat.

Step 6. And the legs needed stripes, of

course!

Step 6. And her legs needed stripes, of

course. :)

Step 7. Ok, back to the background, what

am I going to do with that muddy

background? Mh, first: whimsy girl needs to

stands out a bit more. I added an 'aura'

around her with a yellowish orange.

Step 8. I brought back the bunting/ flags

with some crayon and graphite.

Step 9. I created a floor/ ground onto which

whimsy and her critters were standing.

Step 10. Background too dull, needed more

contrast, so I added black stars (my fav), however,

they were pretty dark, so I dulled them down with

a bit of white acrylics too.

Step 11. I added a dark brown border around

the entire page helping it to feel contained and

adding more contrast.

Step 12. White dots with q-tip to finish the

background off added more variety, 'sparkle' and

again: more contrast.

Step 13. Don't forget the critters! Because I had

lost a lot of their definition I add a white layer of

acrylics back on to them (you may want to use gesso

instead, it responds better to crayons). And then

shaded them both.

Finished!! Ta-da!

Lovely bunch, this is officially my last

'artsy' lesson for this Life Book year. Next

month, my lesson will be all about how we

are going to bind our books. Soooo, I feel a

bit sad about this being my last art lesson,

but also: SO excited to hopefully be seeing

some of your books! :))

Thank you all so much for being on this

journey with me this year. I've had an

amazing time with all of you. Big huge

moonbeams, starshine and muffin hugs to

all of you!

Now let's go make some whimsies!

Lots of love,

Tam xoxo

- You are Loved -

www.willowing.org