Tagged: owls

Drawing Whimsical Animals

 

Recently I had the opportunity to take a two-session class on drawing whimsical animals. Seeing as I can’t even draw a good stick figure, I felt a “whimsical” class would suit me better than taking a “realistic” animal drawing class. Besides, I feel whimsical animals are better suited to my mixed media pieces than realistic animals.

We worked on the basics like eye placement and how changing the eyes and eye brows can totally affect the mood portrayed by the animal.

Testing out eye placement and eyebrows.

Testing out eye placement and eyebrows.

After copying different animals the instructor provided, we worked on our first mixed media piece. The teacher asked that we include at least two animals and there be some kind of story between them. This is what I came up with.

My first attempt at drawing whimsical animals.

My first attempt at drawing whimsical animals.

Putting clothes on animals is a sure way to add whimsy. I even gave my rabbit red boots to wear with her flowered dress.

We had a week between classes so I practiced drawing all kinds of whimsical animals. Here are some of my practice pieces.

This skyward looking bunny actually started out as and owl.

This skyward looking bunny actually started out as and owl.

Kitties

Kitties

Owls

Owls

More owls

More owls

And yet another owl.

And yet another owl.

Whimsical donkeys

Whimsical donkeys

The second session had us copying one of the instructors pictures. The funny thing was, I thought her animal was a deer and my other classmate thought it was a rabbit. The teacher said it was actually a peacock. Since only the head was showing, we all saw it a different way. So our instruction was to copy her picture, but make the animal into what we wanted it to be. Here is just the head shot of my funny deer.

My whimsical deer.

My whimsical deer.

I had a lot of fun in that class and I am quickly filling up a journal with funny animal doodles. My goal is to create several animals in a style that is completely my own.

If you are in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area. You can find the drawing whimsical animals class at Lord and Lilly’s, 611 Caroline Street, 540-371-1333.

Drawing whimsical animals or people is an ideal outlet for those of us who are stick-figure challenged!

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Autumn Vignettes My Way

It seems to me that we have been thrown into autumn this year. It is getting darker much earlier this October and the mornings are freezing, kind of like winter. Anyway, according to the calendar it is still autumn so I decided to show you some fall vignettes from around our house.

fall1Here is the only normal autumn vignette in our house. The candle has a nice fall spice scent and the little owl book houses a big stack of post-it notes. Both of these lovely gifts were from my dear sister-friend Judy. Thank you Judy!

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This is one of two bowls of green tomatoes Martin had to rescue from the garden due to the freezing nights.

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Here is a scary vignette. It is on the small table in my studio. It’s a mix of finished, half-finished and not even close to being finished Christmas items.

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And below that table sits these two lovely plastic totes filled with Christmas crafting supplies. And as you can see, those items that don’t fit in the totes I have carefully just thrown on the totes or on the floor somewhere close to the totes.

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Even the elves in Santa’s workshop could not make a mess vignette like this. Really Helen?

I

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Here’s a little vignette in the laundry room of stuff I just purchased last week and am too lazy  too busy to get to. I guess there is no way Better Homes and Gardens Magazine would want to do a Fall layout of our house. But I have a valid excuse.  I have to stock my shop and have several Christmas shows all in November. This means lots of crafting, sorting, packing and messes. But for those of you who get to come to my shop and shows you will see it is all worth it.

And last but not least, I am saving the best Autumn display for last. Drum roll please……..

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YES! It is Holly and Louie snuggled up together to stay warm on a cold afternoon. This is the only vignette in our house that I cannot claim any responsibility for!