In the first post, I briefly described my creative session with children Doroteja (8) and Domas (5). Later, I used the drawings by children, their stories and photographs to create 10 different ideas for a Neverland Portrait. Out of these ideas, the family chose their favourite – Doroteja and Angry Fish. The video below briefly shows the whole story of how this idea came about.
In this and future posts, I will talk about the further development of this idea and its various painterly versions.
You might have noticed that each time I am portraying the girl with the fish in an oval-shaped frame. The reason for that is because the depicted world appears as if being viewed through a keyhole or in a dream. It creates a sense of mystery and otherworldliness.
At this stage, I also had to learn how to draw a regular oval. I found four ways online.
Oval vs Ellipse
I first learned that an oval and an ellipse are different things.
The oval is simply round in shape like an egg, which does not necessarily have to be symmetrical. An ellipse is like a perfect circle that is compressed or viewed from perspective.
A perfect ellipse is most pleasing to the eye. However, with simple means I was able to draw an oval (which appeared to look very similar to ellipse but had more rounded corners) that was good enough for my paintings.
Perfect ellipse using nails and string
Compared to other methods, this technique can be used for drawing an oval that would most look like a perfect ellipse. However, this requires a wooden surface to be nailed to it. Since the paintings at this stage are on paper, I was unable to use this technique.
If, Dear Reader, this technique proves useful, below is a link to the video and instructions:
You will need a wooden surface, a ruler, two nails, a string or thread, drawing tools
Three-piece oval
It is an oval drawn out of two overlapping circles. This technique is a very simple and easy to perform. The only downside (apart from the fact that it is an imperfect ellipse) is that it cannot change the proportions of width and length. You can easily scale the oval, but it cannot make this oval wider or longer.
You will need a compass, a ruler, and drawing tools.
Four-piece oval
The technique of this oval is very similar to a three-piece oval, so
the limitations remain the same – it will not change the proportions of length
and width.
This oval is slightly longer than the three-piece oval. In addition, a
couple more steps need to be done, but it’s still a fairly easy technique to perform.
You will need a compass, a ruler, and drawing tools.
Oval of any length and width
This technique, while requires more steps that are not easy to remember, suited me the most, as it allowed me to draw an oval as long and as wide as I wanted.
You will need a compass, a ruler, and drawing tools.
DIY compass
I had a problem – I needed to draw an oval the size of an A2 / A1 paper format, which required a very large compass. Unfortunately, I did not find them to be sold in Lithuania. In addition, prices from abroad were very high. As a result, I had to figure out how to create a large compass at home by myself.
I found two quite effective ways.
One of them was to tie two pencils with a string/thread. This type of compass was a bit problematic for me. First, it was difficult to change the length of the thread. I just wrapped it on a pencil until it shortened to the length I needed. It turned out to be unreliable, so I started to secure the wrapped thread with adhesive tape, which helped but did not last long.
Secondly, the yarn turned out to be elastic, so it was difficult to predict when the yarn stretched too much or too little. For these reasons, the lines sometimes did not cross or connect evenly.
Then I came up with another way – to attach two pencils to the measuring tape. Although sometimes clumsy, this way I was able to draw nice oval lines fairly quickly and efficiently. I should mention that this measuring tape is slightly larger and stronger than usual (reaches 5m in length), so the tape part does not “break” during drawing.
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