Friday, December 10, 2010

More Making Stuff Thoughts

Last night I had the realization that Little Girl's school has a mascot. They're the lions. So it would make sense to offer lions to the teacher though I didn't yet have a lion design.

Now, I do.

But... Here's the thing about taking something and flattening/squaring the image. There's a thing that it has to have to make it look like that something rather than something else. The trick is to figure out that thing.

Apparently, for lions it's the eyes.
My first attempt is the one on the left, that --- well, it looks like a Pug, doesn't it? Not a lion.

So I looked online and looked and looked at lion pictures and the big thing I noticed was the darkness around the eyes -- so the big white areas I'd added for cuteness gave me dog even thought the eyes themselves are very definitely cat eyes.

In the end for Lion, I added the black, made the nose a little more curvy on the top -- and having forgotten I'd switched sizes on my hole punch to get a size I could fit the eye-stems through, I made the whisker holes too big. To fix the lack of darkness created by larger holes I added some little metal tab things I found at a garage sale last weekend. I also twisted the bottom of the ears a little to make them wider at the top than the bottom.

But I found it a little fascinating to see how much a few little differences changes the whole thing -- that works for writing too, but isn't as easy to display -- and I thought I'd share.

4 comments:

  1. Both are adorable. I think your lion needs a mane though. A little piece of fringe trim, or even some eyelash yarn tacked around the edge would probably make him scream lion (unless he's a she lion - in which case she's quite perfect the way she is)

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  2. I thought about the mane because that's what people think about when they think lion. Mane. (Maybe if I'd been able to add a mane even the pug one would look more lion) but I don't have fringe -- well except for some purple stuff I got on sale thinking to put it on something for Alaina someday, but it's both purple and only half inch long and pretty sparse compared to a lion mane -- so lion became she.

    But I finally sucked it up and took the little ones shopping Wednesday (and Thursday because we left a bag behind) and I can't go out again --even if it is only to the craft store (I have problems with crowds so shopping anywhere during the holiday season is so difficult)-- so the rest will be she as well. The teachers are all she so it seems reasonable, doesn't it?

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  3. More google image research leads me to believe that if I could have found a mane, the first might have worked. Without a mane (and made flat, cartoon style) the eye shape is the next important detail. After New Year I think I shall shop for fringe to try a lion with mane.

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  4. Those look awesome as usual. I hope they're selling well for you.

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