Ghosts, Fruitcake, Characters, & Travel
Ghosts & Fruitcake
Many of my drawings and illustrations are ideas in my head that collide together. For instance, the ghost of Christmas past and poor holiday choices, like eating to much fruitcake or drinking to much eggnog. What if the ghost loved the holiday season because of the abundance of fruitcake and eggnog?
These were some of the idea collisions that lead up to the illustration above. A happy ghost eating fruitcake.
Character Development
It is rare to get the exact character I want on the first drawing. I draw with a Bic felt tip marker in my sketchbook to force me to iterate and develop more ideas.
The ghost character, who I named, Marley, went through a couple of variations. Marley is a nod to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
The first attempts had a traditional top hat, which was ok but nothing special. On the last drawing, I a added a newsboy style hat with a plaid pattern. The new hat gave the character the mischief and charm that I was looking for. Arms were another thing that didn't work on the character. I figured a ghost could levitate objects, so no arms were needed.
I would like to explore this character more with a story, phone wallpapers, or expressive stickers.
Travel, Observation, and Imagination
I’m traveling next week to visit family for the holidays. I always try to carry something to draw on with me. Airports and restaurants are great places to people watch and notice the details of mundane objects. Drawing makes travel more fun. Capturing things and people realistically is not my style. I would use my camera, if I wanted a realistic representation. Letting my imagination collide with observation is much more fun.
Maybe Marley, the ghost, will travel with me.
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