Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Drawing the Scary Monster


This is a 12 inch tall (30.48 cm) Godzilla I have had for twenty years.   My grandchildren who are now adults once played with it in the bathtub.  It was great for bathtub play since the tail twists off so the water can be easily emptied out.  My eight year old art student was interested in drawing it so  I set up a scene for him to use as a starting point.


The balancing of the monster was a bit tricky.  The fire house and the library below his feet are from a set of nested stacking blocks. The building to the far left is a box covered with scrapbooking paper which could possibly be interpreted as a modern skyscraper.

The  student decided to use an 12 by 18 inch sheet of drawing paper.  (30.48 by 45.72 cm)

The first problem to be solved was getting the monster the right size so the buildings could be part of the drawing.

After several false starts, the student solved his problem.  "If I trace around the paper I drew Godzilla on last week, I can draw the new Godzilla inside the rectangle and it will be the right size."  ( He had drawn that Godzilla on a 8.5 inch (21.59 cm) by 5.5 inch (13.97 cm)  page.





He decided he wanted an original monster, not an exact copy of the model he was working from.  This is the sign of an artist.  We take what we want from the model or scene we are looking at and add our own ideas.  The photo below shows what he accomplished at his first session.


By the second week he had more good ideas.  Instead of putting the fire truck in the fire house, he left the fire house empty.  Just the pole the firemen slide down is visible.  The firemen in the truck are out trying to save the town.  He invented buildings and added a two lane road.  The background was colored with crayons so the important parts of the drawing remained important because of their strong marker colors.


After putting the drawing on my easel and thinking about it, he decided to use a fine line marker and add scales to his monster.


The result is this great drawing.

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