This is a little exercise in making big changes with just one line. The line is the chin line (starting from under the nose and going down to the horizontal line at the bottom of the cartoon).
Steps 1-7 show you how to make this face…steps 8-14 redraw the same face but each time make the chin come more and more toward the neck line.
You might want to draw along and try it…then invent your own character and move the chin line to make it look different each time.
Have fun!
To begin making a pattern…and I had no idea how this would look at the end…I drew 4 random shapes.
From these 4 shapes, I played with how they were placed to each other until I got something I liked. I did this for three different creations. This gave me 3 creations to choose from. I decided on creation 2.
I played with how I would stagger creation 2 and decided it looked best (to my liking) to go diagonally. Then I repeated the same row over and over until the page was filled. Once it was filled, I duplicated the whole pattern on a seperate layer in photoshop and played with moving it over the top of the first layer making different patterns. I liked their unpredictableness and somewhat randomness eventhough I began with a pretty symmetrical pattern look.
Let’s play with color now….
Pretty self explanatory…but to show you how photoshop can help you (as an artist or designer) to play with variations and go to color places you wouldn’t normally….
Time for you to play….! Yeah, technology…this really is it’s strength to help you design and be able to try many more options that you normally wouldn’t have to time to try traditionally. But the strength of traditional art needs to be in the equation also…the spontaneity of hand done things and the freshness it brings will make the strength of technology produce some unique things quickly and able to alter or adjust again from that point.
What’s going on here?!
I keep asking that question with the Pick and Draw Game that I developed and use to help kids open up their creativity that God has placed in them and to build enough confidence for whatever the next creative-growth-step will be for each person. And the context of this is a very simple drawing game that continues to provide alot of fun and success for those who try it.
But it doesn’t end there….much to my surprise! An Occupational Therapy clinic in town has used the game daily with patients that come in for help and they are experiencing some very good things happening in the therapy! Yeah Holly Street Physical Therapy!
A children’s grief counseling center at a major hospital in Memphis, Tn is having great success with the kids that are trying to help through huge grief issues. The game is building a good bridge between counselor and patient in a fun way…opening the lines of communication to help the kids be able to talk in a creative way about what is going on inside of them.
Pick and Draw has been used by a teen mission group in Kenya and in the words of the person that used it there….
I took “Pick and Draw” with me on my five-week missions trip to Nairobi Kenya, and was able to use it in a foreign environment. I can testify from my experience to its ability to be a powerful tool in drawing people together that may otherwise have a difficult time connecting. “Pick and Draw” can be used as a valuable medium of communication, and is a bridge for people to connect. The simple, user-friendly nature of the game allowed it to be used anywhere. As soon as I began to set up the “Pick and Draw” cards, approximately 10 curious Kenyan orphans surrounded me. To their delight, I began to include them in the game, and they were easily able to understand and follow the setup of the game. Furthermore, I was then able to connect with them in a deeper level then I had been able to before, through our simple, but meaningful shared experience. “Pick and Draw” is a wonderful tool in connecting many people of all ages, and I saw this firsthand through my experience using it in Africa.
Beyond that, Pick and Draw is being used by families that want to connect together around a fun game instead of in front of the TV. From the youngest (5) to the oldest (70’s), everyone had a wonderful time and was even surprised at the cartoon characters they drew while laughing and having fun! The game has become a wonderful tool for grandparents to play with their grandchildren when they come over.
A Down Syndrom girl (15) in California loves playing and drawing from the game and it has been a good tool to connect and learn facial communication. This has also been the case with autistic kids and kids with long term sickness …giving them a way to create within their limitations.
These have been my surprises that God has opened for Pick and Draw and I am just thrilled that people in many places are enjoying and growing by using the game. Imagine my delight!
They are $10 a deck ($3.50 shipping and handling) and you can send me an email if you want to get a deck….frontporchcreations@gmail.com. I’d love to send you one and hear how you like it and how you use it!
This is what I get to see during my drawing presentation with kids….I’m amazed everytime the kids hold up their pictures! And I love to see their proud, excited faces from accomplishing something creative and expressive.
And let’s don’t forget the parents that are brave enough to try along with the kids….way to go, moms and dads…you’re AWESOME!! (the whole back row in this photo was parents)
Recently, at a drawing event I was putting on in a small town, a young father (with his son standing beside him grinning) said to me,
“my son was at one of your drawing times a couple of months ago at his school. After that time (1 hour), he came home wanting to draw….and he has drawn and drawn and drawn! When his birthday came, he only wanted pads of paper and markers to draw with; so that’s what we gave him. Many of his pictures are up on his bedroom walls. Today, he came to buy one of your Pick and Draw games that he couldn’t buy back when you came to his school. He’s been saving his quarters (he had a whole handfull).”
The father went on, “and back when I heard you would be here today, I knew I had to bring him and come myself. Eventhough I got off at 4 this morning (it was 10am when we started), my boy and I weren’t going to miss this. Thankyou.”
And, the father was one of the parents that drew with all the kids….and hopefully enjoyed it!
Little Jared and his dad, if you read this, you bless me! And I pray that your Pick and Draw game will continue to help you draw and create and grow!
What I pray will happen to many kids all over, is what is happening to this little guy. I thank God for his kindness that has shown itself in this way!
Today is June 21. This is an Egg-day! As my wife, Angie, told me, this is one of four days in the year when you can make an egg stand up! (so, I wonder if it would fall over at midnight?…hmmm, maybe I’ll have to stay up tonight!).
Soooooooo….behold, the power of the egg! “Look, Maw, no hands!”
Thankyou! Thankyou!
Ok…so maybe I cheated a little…here’s what was really going on behind the egg with one of my doodle bug friends!
If you’re reading this entry after June 21, maybe you can try to prove me wrong and stand up an egg (without the help of a doodle bug!) on it’s own. And if it won’t…you’ll have to wait til September 21st! BEHOLD, THE POWER OF THE EGG! (and doodle bug!)
Now that you see the differences, why not do the same things I have done above on your own…but try another shape instead of a ball…maybe a square? or triangle? or….
Have fun! Maybe after you try this exercise, you will want to try a rectangle shape for the head instead of the kidney bean shape I used above…and let the nose, eyes, mouth and hair stay the same?
Ever wonder how to grow your imagination? Play games with it!
When I was walking past the bathtub just a few minutes ago there was a bottle of shampoo sitting on the edge. A thought came out of no where….“if you were in a dream, and you reached down and picked up the bottle, what would you find underneath it that you were not expecting?”
Wellllllll…..I’ll bet you had something immediately that came to mind, huh?! And probably more that followed..and who knows, maybe you’ll even think about it again the next time you reach for the shampoo bottle on your bathtub or shower! I hope so! God has put this wonderful part of his image in each one of us…the ability to imagine…..to picture things that aren’t tangibly there. There is no other explaination of how the imagination got in us….I don’t think God gave it to animals…but he gave it to people! And if you are one of those people that excuse themselves and say, “I’m not imaginative…I can’t do that kind of stuff” Well…peeshaw! Do you ever dream at night? Did you make yourself dream….did you dictate to yourself what you would dream that night? So…..you are actually very very imaginative without even trying to be!! Think what might happen if tried to be…really worked at it!
At the beginning, when I asked what would be under the bottle if you picked it up in a dream….I did that to try and awaken the creative side of you….if I had not said “in a dream”, you would be more likely to think in a more logical way…like, a coin or a kid’s sticker, etc…..but the imagination is alot more fun than that and a whole lot bigger and has more variety. So, by the way, what IS under the shampoo bottle?
Maybe there is actually a minature man hole cover that bugs crawl out of when they want to have a family picnic?
I think I’ll go check….
