Whimsical Jungle

A quick sketch and colouring I made a few weeks ago to practice drawing little animals. Another artist whose work I like is Juliette Crane. Mainly mixed media and intuitive, much of her work is centered on cute animals and characters, typically known in the artist world as “whimsical”. And to get some more inspiration and ideas, I’ve been following her free tutorials!

Circles and Rectangles

The video is divided into parts, and in the first one she shows us how to draw her whimsical characters: Just by starting with a circle and a rectangle below it! Although she focuses on owls, the same principle applies on all characters with the difference being what you add thereafter. I of course prefer the round look to an angular one, and like my heads bigger so adjusted accordingly.

Practice Drawing!

Whilst Juliette drew on a simple white paper and black marker, I went for black charcoal on a Toned Tan sketchpad. The owl was a challenge as I don’t really draw birds much. Seeing that the same principle of circle and rectangle applies to other animals, I set about doodling other creatures like a mouse, bear, rabbit, lion and even a dinosaur! And what fun that was! Great way to learn to draw various animals.

Let’s Colour Them!

And being me and not satisfied with leaving those poor lil creatures as they are, I sought about adding some colour on them! Out came the soft pastels. This medium goes very well with black charcoal. For this, I used my set by Faber-Castell. Not only was it purely for fun but it was also to practice on colours and see what worked well together or near each other. It’s just a rough colouring as it’s soft pastels in small areas.

From this tutorial, I now see how much easier it is to draw characters. The “circle and rectangle” principle certainly comes very handy! Naturally, it’s something that needs to be practiced over and over and thus I look forward to incorporating more in my paintings. Now I can hardly wait to check out other parts of Juliette’s tutorials and what else she has in store for us!