Singing Bees and Dancing Daisies

3/19/2015

The other morning my husband called me over and invited me to take a Facebook quiz, identifying cartoon characters from my childhood.  Now as a child, I was a (very) early riser and as a consequence, used to watch a ton of old cartoons before everybody else was up.  (Davey and Goliath at 6 am Sunday morning anyone?)  So, I aced the quiz and thought it was way too easy.  I mean Popeye?  Why not Prof. Whattasnozzle...now that would have been a challenge!  It made me think about those old cartoons and about drawing in general.  Many kids work at copying their favorite characters and I was no exception.  It is a good drawing exercise and really makes you appreciate the line work of the artists. All this leads me to rubber stamps.  When I'm drawing a stamp I try to make the line work clean and smooth ~ with a good balance of detail and areas to color.  I'm sure at times that elements from those old cartoons creep into my work.  I particularly loved the "Silly Symphony" type cartoons with dancing bees and singing daisies.  Here are a few examples that were both fun to draw and are fun to color~ "Miss Kittykins" no. 2211, the tilted "Wacky Cake" no. 2210, and my "Baby Owlie" no. 2213.    One of the classes I teach is "Oodles of Doodles", which tries to bring out everyone's inner cartoonist by adding patterns and embellishments (and maybe even a dancing daisy or two) to stamped images.  The pictures we see as children are imprinted on our brains.  Sometimes it just takes some instruction and encouragement to bring them out.  I think those cartoonists must have loved their jobs because doodling can be so relaxing and fun!  I'm glad to have those happy early morning memories and to have drawing be a part of my daily life. hint:  "google image" Prof. Whattasnozzle