If he were bright red

If he were bright red, he'd be more recognizable.

For drawing class today, we did stuffed animals. I chose this part of Elmo and a very cute elephant who was difficult to capture straight on. While I was drawing Elmo, I kept thinking about the advice that I should draw what I saw, not what I thought I should see. It is hard to draw a well known character without unconsciously trying to correct those features which don't look like the image in your head. If I were a more experienced artist, I might even be able to get away with that, but at my level of expertise, I just manage to make it look less realistic.

One thing I felt good about was that I was more willing to erase and re-do than I have been. At first, I made the eyes on the elephant too small and high, so I erased and changed them. Similarly, I first made Elmo's head too round, then made the furry edge too dark, and in each case, I let myself erase and try again.

The negative space thing worked here pretty well. I was also forced to think about how to communicate shape with shading, which is something I definitely need to work on.