I have been following Juliette Crane’s on-line classes again and began a new course called Happy Painting Mini Course. Although she had already introduced us to drawing whimsical animals in her introductory course, she repeats it in the Happy Painting one as well. Always good to practice, and as she says it’s also a great warm-up!
Circle and Rectangle Theory
Juliette has an ingenious basis for drawing the whimsical animals in which she starts with a circle and rectangle underneath it. This I have talked about in my blog Whimsical Friends. Whilst she provides us PDF files of “cheat sheets” with which to practice on, I made my own. This is because I prefer my characters more rounded, and with a bit of a proportionately larger head. So here is MY cheat sheet! Looks like little mushrooms for now but you will see what happens with them! I sketched them with my Kuretake ZIG Cartoonist Black Ink (which is actually sumie charcoal ink) and bamboo nib.
The Gang
Following Juliette’s video, I went about sketching my whimsical animals and along the way I learned to draw other animals I never thought I would come across, like an antelope and elephant! It’s also not like me to add mouths, noses, snouts or beaks but thought I’d give it a shot. Glad I was again able to go explore beyond my comfort zone! Another thing Juliette suggests is to embelish the animals with flowers or feathers. Also some accessories are also cute like collars, pockets and pearls which I already do anyhow in my drawings.
Let’s Add More!
Although I was happy with the cute animals, I was not too sure about the composition. I felt there was an empty space in the bottom right side. More characters were then added! Not sure if that was such a great idea as it now looks quite cluttered but then again it gave me more practice with sketching. I doodled in a little mouse and a kitty. Although her eyes are a bit lopsided, she’s still kawaii and resembles Hello Kitty but without the bow. I then finished off the drawing with some flowers to fill in the spaces in between.
More fun with sketching cute whimsical animals! It’s a great way to practice from time to time and even warm up before starting a major painting. In addition, I was able to discover more characters to draw and develop my ideas further. The sketch could be coloured in but for now I think I might leave it for now. I love how it looks as is!
For more information on Juliette Crane, here is here website where you will also find her wonderful courses:
My Kawaii Quarter 