Sketchbook Snack: Drawing Funky Chickens

1. Intro: Hello, and welcome to Sketchbook Snack drawing funky Chicken. In this class, we're going to relax, have fun, and most importantly, play in our sketchbook. That's what a sketchbook snack is all about. It's perfect for when you're feeling blocked, overwhelmed or when you just don't know what to draw. And especially when you don't know what to draw, but you know you want to draw something. It's also short. So if you don't have a lot of time to be creative, you can always fit in a sketchbook snack. Hi. I'm Jenny Maclyn, the artist behind Tiny Leaf Press and the creator of sketchbook Snack classes. I teach sketchbook snacks to help artists like you have more fun in your creative practice, while also making it easy to do. So how does a sketchbook snack make it easier? Well, first of all, it's short. There's not a long time commitment, either to watch the class or do the projects. You'll spend less time watching me and more time making marks on the page. Sounds nice, right? It's also low pressure. I'm always going to encourage you to stay loose and just relax and see where the art takes you. We're not trying to make perfect portfolio pieces in this class. Just trying to have some fun. And lastly, a sketchbook snack is a little bit silly. Sketchbook snacks like this class are often going to include drawing something a little bit silly or a little bit goofy to help you enjoy the process. There's nothing more fun than looking back at your sketchbook and just giggling at how silly your chickens look on the page. In this sketchbook snack, we're going to play with mixing watercolors to create some funky tie dyed chickens. You'll see my entire process, and I'll give you some tips and tricks, but this is not a paint by numbers class. You're gonna be creating your own unique project in your own unique way. That's part of the fun of a sketchbook snack. Just relaxing into the process and seeing what comes out naturally. This is especially true when we're mixing colors like this because everyone's project is going to turn out differently. And isn't that wonderful? By the end of this class, you'll end up with a sketchbook spread that is uniquely yours. For our final project, we'll be creating a double page spread full of funky chickens that have a beautiful ti guy look. First, we're going to cover the materials you'll need, as well as how you can substitute for any supplies you have on hand. Then we're gonna dive right into our final project. This class is short and sweet, just a tiny bit of setup, and then you'll be painting immediately. Are you ready to paint some funky chicken? Join me in class. 2. Materials: Here are the exact materials that I'll be using. Just a reminder that you can substitute any materials you want. No need to run to the art store to buy anything new unless you're looking for an excuse, of course. For my sketchbook, I'll be using a Strathmore soft cover watercolor journal. Any mixed media or watercolor sketchbook will work. And, of course, this project can also be done on loose paper if you don't have a suitable sketchbook. Just make sure whatever paper you choose can handle wet material, as we'll be using a lot of water to mix our colors in this class. I'll be using these liquid watercolors by doctor PH Martin I actually chose them because they're one of my art supplies that have been sitting on the shelf for a while, and I wanted to give it new life. Maybe you have something like that in your studio. This might be the perfect time to try it out again. You can use any watercolor or ink that you like for this project. This is just the one that I chose to use. If you want to get that tie dye effect, just make sure you can easily mix whatever material you do use. So like this watercolor ink or regular watercolor with a lot of water mixed in is going to be perfect for this. And make sure that you choose two colors that are going to mix well. I'll be using blue and pink, which go together really nicely, but you can use any mix that you find inspiring. You just want to make sure that when they mix together, they're going to make a color that you enjoy and not something that's kind of off putting to you. Some other things that you'll need are a water cup. Paint brushes or a paintbrush. I'm using a round number eight from the pigeon letters, a palette or mixing dish for your watercolors, a colored pencil, and optionally a fat crayon or color pencil like the stabil woody three and one for making some texture marks at the end of the project. And that's it. After this, we'll be diving straight into our final project, so go ahead and gather your supplies, and I'll meet you in the next lesson. 3. Final Project: Part 1: It's time to start painting our funky chickens. In the download section, I've provided some reference photos that you can use if you'd like to follow along with me. But please feel free to use any reference photos you like or even just your imagination. These don't have to be perfect chickens. They are funky after all. If you want to use the same reference images as me, you can find them in the downloads below. Alright, let's get into it. For this project, we're going to break it down into three parts. First, we're going to paint our chicken shapes by mixing colors directly on the page. This is how we're going to get that ult eye dye effect. Second, we're going to well, 1.5, we're gonna wait for that paint to dry. And then, second, we're going to refine our chickens by adding linework and detail with a color pencil. So if you need to, take a break after painting and then come back once it's dry and you're ready to add the linework. For the last step, we're going to be adding a little bit of flourish and a finishing touch to our spread by adding some texture into the negative space. Ready? Let's go. The first thing that I did to prepare for painting this spread was adding some of my liquid watercolors to these little paint palettes that you can see here. I just added a couple of drops of each color to a dish and then added as much water as I needed to get the right color and consistency that I was looking for. So go ahead and prepare your materials, and then we're going to get started painting our chickens. So first, we're going to start by just painting these loose shapes. The way that I'm approaching the tie dye effect is by starting in one color blue, as you can see here. I'm filling in some pretty watery paint here just to fill that shape in. And then once I have it all covered, I'm going to grab the second color and start dabbing it into those wet areas. And this is going to allow you to create a totally unique shape for your chickens. It'll depend on where you have the most water and where you apply your other colors. And as you can see, I'm doing, you know, little dabs here and there, making the chickens legs a different color, and then adding in little dots of color elsewhere. And sort of blending the colors together on the actual page. And I'm also going to add in a little bit more water from time to time to help those colors mix together and just sort of swirl around and get that tidite effect. As the colors mix and as they dry, you're going to get this really nice combination of three different shades, your original primary colors and then the color that they make when they mix. So in this case, purple. And you can already see that starting to happen on the page, even though it hasn't dried yet. I'll do one more chicken, and then I'll speed up the process so that you can get to drawing your own chickens as quickly as possible. This time, I'm starting with my pink color, and I'm just feeling the shape out as I go. I am using the reference photo, but it's more of a loose guideline because we will be adding details in in a further step. But right now, we just want to get that basic shape down with our Tidd colors. And this chicken or rooster, I suppose, has a very fluffy tail, so that's why I'm doing those brush strokes like that for the tail. So depending on which reference photos you use, you can explore making different chickens on your page just like this. So as you can see, I did the same thing. I just mixed the two colors, added a little bit of water, and then kind of felt my way through. It wasn't really anything precise. It was just these Where do I want to add a little bit more color? That's part of the magic of this exercise. Alright, I'm going to go ahead and speed up the video now so that you can see how I placed my shapes and colors on the page. I'll meet you back here in a second. Okay, great. So now we have a full spread full of our basic shapes with our tie dye colors. We need to let this paint dry. So depending on how much water you used or what materials you used, you might need to give it a little while. Maybe come back tomorrow once the page is fully dry, and you're ready for that next step. I'm going to go ahead and let this wait, and then I'll meet you in the next video where the paint will be dry and we'll go over our lines and details to create these chickens. See you there. O. 4. Final Project: Part 2: Now that we've waited for our paint to dry, we are ready to move on to the next step, which is adding details to our basic shapes in order to actually create something that resembles a chicken. So what I'm going to be using for my lines and details is an ultramarine prisma color colored pencil. You can use any colored pencil, a pen, a marker, whatever your preferred media is for outlines and details. If you have a very steady hand, you can use paint and a paint brush, as well, of course. So what I'm doing here is just using the reference photos and filling in the shape that I created in the previous step. I'm not adhering strictly to the reference photo. I'm more using it as a guideline, and I'm going heavily stylized because that's how I like to draw. Most things. So if you have a different style preference, of course, stick to that. This is fun and unique to you. Just go through shape by shape and add in these lines, draw feathers, some texture. I like to do little facial expressions to make them a little bit more anthropomorphized than their reference photos, but you don't have to do that if you don't want to. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and speed up this process now so that you can just get a general idea of how I did my chickens. But get to drawing your own a little bit faster. Feel free to watch along and then pause the video to do your next step or to draw along with me. All right. Now that I've got all the lines and details filled in, I'll meet you in the next video where we're going to add our final step and finishing touches. See you there. 5. Final Project: Part 3: It's time for the final step of our project. And that's just adding in a little bit of finishing touches and filling in that white space around our chickens. And, of course, you might have a different amount of white space than I do if you chose your spread differently or use different reverence photos. So you're going to need to adjust this for your unique spread. A great option for this kind of filler marks are lines and hatches like I'm doing here. You could also do dots. You could fill in with little flowers or other smaller motifs that are related to chicken. So maybe pieces of grain or, you know, other farm yard things, whatever your imagination wants you to do, you know, and then I also want to mention I chose to use the same color as my lines and details, but this could be a really good option for adding another little bit of color, a pop of color in there or just to tie everything a little bit more together if you wanted to use a new color. Since I used pink and blue for my watercolors, they created this nice purple on the chicken shapes. So this could be a really good opportunity to tie it all together by adding in the color that was the result of the two primary colors being mixed. So it's entirely up to you what you want to do here, whether you want to do stars and sparkles or lines or dots. But go ahead and choose your texture and your material and fill in those white spaces until you have a full spread like this. All right. And then once you've done that, I will see you in our final video where we'll talk about next steps and finishing up class. See you there. 6. Next Steps: Congrats on completing the class. How did it go? Did you love your funky chickens? It's not always easy to take time for yourself in your creative practice. So I want you to be proud of yourself for making this time and for sitting down and doing something that's just relaxing and fun and just for you. For next steps, if you're in need of another sketchbook snack, you can check out the whole series. I've got classes on drawing Goofy Dogs, dreamy Dragons, and Me. I'll add the links below so you can check those out if you haven't already. If you'd like to share your work, I would love it if you submitted your project here on Skillshare. It absolutely makes my day to see student projects and I check out and respond to every single one. If you want to share on Instagram, you can tag me at Tiny Leaf Press. Just be sure to tag me in the actual photo so that I can see it. Instagram changes all the time, but as of this filming, that's the best way for me to see it. Lastly, I am always making new classes. So if you'd like to be notified when the next one comes out, be sure to follow me here on Skillshare. That's all for now. Thanks again for joining me in class. I hope you had fun and I hope to see you next time. Bye for now.