Do you see what I SEE? Training your eye to view shapes

In going thru my stack of old craft and scrapbooking magazines, I ran across this picture. It's from the October 2004 issue of Memory Makers magazine. I thought it would make an excellent topic for todays blog. Do you see what I see?

Looking at the picture you might just say...."BIG DEAL - It's an alphabet" and you'd be right... BUT........look a little closer and you will realize that the alphabets are not ordinary....they are made with objects and materials that are suited for something other than creating a letter. So...when you are looking at your stash of craft materials....do you look beyond their stated purpose for something unique? If so, your work will stand out among the rest.

You can translate this concept to just about any form of art...but I'd like to focus right now on how this concept can help you when sculpting characters. I designed my "Six Simple Shape" technique with this concept in mind. Using the six simple shapes in various sizes and putting them together-blending the seam away you will create complex shapes. It's a matter of how you train your eye to see the basic shapes or look beyond the box.

Many of my readers are very adept at creating characters from books or project sheets with instruction as to the size and shape to make each piece of the character. But could you create a character simply by looking at a picture? How would you begin? Well...the answer is....SEE WHAT I SEE. Dont look at the complete character - break it up into parts. (arm, hand, leg, foot, body, face, hair-each individual piece of hair etc...) Now examine and identify each basic shape of the part. As for proportion, my philosphy is...if it looks to big IT IS....and if it looks to small, IT IS. Character creating is whimsical anyways, so dont frustrate yourself with perfection, just give it a whirl and try....I challenge you....

Challenge yourself to create something by looking at a picture. Maybe its a picture of a snowman from a catalogue or some other type of character from a greeting card. Become adept at this and I think your characters will take on new life and you will see tremendous advancement in your work.

When you've mastered that.....come back for more. I'll have a new challenge for you.

Im back to working on more characters for ebay................