So I was bored and started sketching little hognose snakes doing ballet poses, and then decided I wanted to try to design a fabric using watercolor-style motifs of many little sneks doing ballet. I asked my sister if she was ever bothered that her sister’s brain was all nonsense all the time and she said no. So I embarked on a full on snek sketching bonanza, and ordered a nice travel set of sennelier paints and a few nice brushes, got some watercolor paper, and started doing some test sketches lined in Micron.
See, I’m 43, and I haven’t used watercolors since the last time my mother bought me a crayola palette, so I had absolutely no idea if I could even do it. My mother and father are both professional artists, and I mostly consider myself more of a moderately successful doodler by comparison, Prismacolor has been my medium of choice since I was 15, and frankly, I am usually intimidated by sticks with hair at the and. But I think it is going ok, for a first try, and this seems like the kind of nonsense we can use in these trying times.
I think the only way they could be better is if some of the ones bending backwards had their mouth open I
that goofy “I’m dead” expression that hognose do. Yay, snakes!
These are all still basically tests. I am learning how the paints behave, mixing the colors I will eventually use on my “real” illustrations, developing characters, and attempting to impart as much expression into the forms as I can given that they are basically tubes with faces, and ballet depends so heavily on arm and leg positions. By the time I am ready to paint my fabric motifs, I suspect I will be overrun with snekerinas.
In hindsight, I should have realized that Lowly Worm was some kind of deep childhood inspiration. He is one of my all time favorite children’s book characters, that I somehow seldom think about now that my own kid is a teenager. Thank you!
I love Lowly. Last year I went to a game night at some new friends house and their 5 year old brought over her Richard Scary book and I spent the Longest time looking through it. I got some weird looks but that was the highlight of my evening lol
I am a huge fan of whimsy and these have it in spades. I hope to see more and the fabric you design from them. Such a fun concept. Kudos for trying the watercolors too. I see wonderful work done in them and I just can’t control them. Looks like you are a natural!
Thank you! My mother and aunt both use watercolor as their preferred medium so I am getting some good constructive critiques from them (mostly on having more contrasting highlights and shadows and how to achieve that), but I really kinda do feel like maybe this is a medium I have neglected for far too long.
These are beyond glorious The body language is just perfect. And yes, I also agree you need at least one with the mouth hanging open with the floppy little tongue!
Can’t wait to see more!
The body language is just perfect. And yes, I also agree you need at least one with the mouth hanging open with the floppy little tongue!