Fluffy the Lion

Today is National Single Task Day.

I did a small cartoon box of Mack sleeping on the Ottoman.  That is Mack’s single task preference. I did have both of them in the studio with me, but Mack wandered off and Lucy is currently pestering John to throw her ball for her.  I didn’t post it but I may turn that into a small painting idea.

Today’s tiny painting is Fluffy the Lion.  The idea for Fluffy came from a blob I did earlier in the morning.  He had a lot of potential so I sketched him out and Fluffy was born.  I was originally going to try the sagrifitto technique to create the line of his body into the wood, but I completely forgot after I transferred him to the heart and went right into painting him.

The blob version, pictured here, looked more like a lion that stuck his paw in a socket, and I liked that look.  Even his tail was wiry, as you can see in the blob photo. He needed some refinement to become Fluffy but I may do the original blob version, too. 

Blobs are a daily practice of mine and many of my characters have come from these blobs.  Most of the time I see cats and dogs in the blobs.  I guess we see what we want to see.  When I get stuck, I show the blob to my husband, who comes up with something that I would not have thought of, which is nice to have someone to add their point of view.

I started with scraped paint and I usually do a whole month all at once so that there is always a blob ready for me to draw in the morning.  I start with turning the page around until I find something in the blob. This is why the lion looks awkward on the page. I usually keep to the general shape of the blob, but on occasion, I have incorporate shapes into something larger. As you can see here, I added the paws outside of the painted area. For there I and done my morning pages and move on or I take the blob further, like I did here.