Toy Elephant and Lion Drawings & Paintings
In 2015 I shared this post on new toy elephant and lion drawings & paintings. Yes, the elephant made a friend! As part of my Daily Drawing Project, I was drawing a large toy elephant starting in early 2015. I then started drawing other toy animals, including a music box with two horses. Then a toy lion has joined the elephant. Here's how...
How the Lion Found His Way into My Elephant Still-Life Setups
My focus in daily drawing was on a single toy or object. Then my grandmother visited my studio and brought a lion toy as a gift for my child. She gently placed the lion in the arms of the elephant. At the time I was very focused on drawing the toy elephant alone.
Uninvited Change Can be the Catalyst for New Inspiration
Adding the lion to the set-up threw me off. At first I was annoyed that she changed my setup without asking permission! Then I couldn't help but notice how cute the two toys looked together. Sometimes an uninvited change is an inspiring one.
The lion and elephant looked so sweet cuddling each other. So I started including the lion in the still-life setup and in my daily drawings. The drawings eventually inspired me to make the orange painting of the two toys together. So my grandmother's uninvited intercessions was the catalyst for this new artwork!
Toy Elephant & Lion Friend, Pencil on Paper Drawing, 9″ x 12″, 2015
How the Toy Lion Changed My Daily Drawing Practice
After the toy lion joined the elephant, I began experimenting with drawing and painting two toys together. This proved challenging in a making short daily drawings. Before then I would work on a daily drawing for at least 20 minutes. However, I found that 20 minutes is not enough time to get a good composition of two toys together.
Results and changes have occurred in my art practice because of the new attempt to capture 2 toys in one artwork.
- Change in Drawing Style: If I don't have more than 20 minutes available for a single drawing, that drawing is more gestural and less finished. I just don't have the ability to mark out the composition, figure out the proportion and details, or clean it up
- More Time Needed to Draw: My daily drawings started taking longer than 20 minutes. Sometimes I'm able to dedicate longer amounts of time to each drawing. Sometimes they take hours! The painting shown here of the toy elephant and lion took time and thought. I'm still not sure if it's finished! Let me know what you think...
- Shy Again about Sharing my Artwork: I found myself a bit more reluctant and shy to share the more gestural, less developed drawings. Each time I change my drawing style, focus, or subject matter, I found myself nervous to share the new explorations.
Toy Elephant & Lion Friend 2, Pencil on Paper Drawing, 9″ x 12″, 2015
How the Lion is Making His Way into My Paintings
I also made small acrylic paintings of the toy lion alone. Friends were happy to welcome this change they were tired of seeing so many elephant drawings and paintings around my studio and house!
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