Hello everyone! Happy Tuesday, the day to be DRAWING.
So, last night I was trying to think of something to draw for this drawing prompt. Obviously, it should be some sort of castle. And I really wanted to have a bunch of beach balls in the picture, because I loved how in Matthew’s story from yesterday the castle just gets locked up with all the beach balls inside. But I didn’t want to draw them inside the castle, because then you couldn’t see them. So, I decided to put them in the moat (where beach balls feel most at home).
Then it was time for the castle. Whenever I have ever drawn castles, they haven’t felt nearly as majestic as they should. They felt kind of more like wobbly forts that were hastily thrown together because an enemy was coming and there happened to be lots of big blocks of granite lying around – big blocks of granite that weren’t quite square and didn’t really fit together very well. Anyway, I started by looking at some castle pictures online.
I noticed that a lot of the castles I really like aren’t symmetrical. So, I drew some turrets on one side, behind a kind of outside wall. And a big building with lots of windows for meetings and dinners and whatnot.
It seemed a little empty. But I didn’t just want to draw a bunch more turrets in. I thought of some of my favorite turrets in the world, the ones on St. Basil’s Cathedral in Russia.
Aren’t they the coolest?! I would make my whole house out of cool turrets if I could. So I added a couple of those onion turrets:
And since I was now getting ideas from everywhere, why not a japanese castle?
(If you like japanese castles, you need to check out THIS LINK)
Alright, so now it was pretty much a free-for-all. What else could I add? Well, a modern day castle of sorts, my favorite, the Chrysler Building in New York City. And, a kind of Arc de Triomph in front of it. There’s also something in there that looks like the Reunion Tower in Dallas, or maybe it’s the Kuala Lumpur Tower in Malaysia, or maybe it’s the smaller of the Kuwait Towers, but without the spire? I’m not sure which it is, because I drew it out of my head without looking at a picture, but I was pretty sure I had seen something like it at some point.
And, alright, why not throw in a pyramid and another turret while I’m at it? And a gigantic banner, blowing in the breeze?
And, as a final touch to top it all off, the Eiffel Tower:
By now it was around 10 at night and I hadn’t really even started painting yet. Oy! But I couldn’t stop now. All of the drawing so far had been done on my computer, so I printed it out so I could trace the lines in ink. My new desk is a giant light table, which means it has a glass top and light shines through from below so I can see through my paper and trace it. This is an old illustrator’s trick – don’t feel bad about tracing! Everyone does it!
An hour and a half later (I know! That took a long time!) I was done tracing. And then it was time to paint. You wouldn’t believe what a bunch of tiny little spaces I had to paint for this one! I got out my tiniest brush and went at it. And I didn’t finish until three in the morning. I do not recommend this approach for your drawings!
But here it is, all done:
WHEW! Even though it took a long time, I had a lot of fun doing it.
If you’re interested in coloring in your own version, CLICK HERE for a coloring page you can download. Just be warned, there are LOTS of tiny little details to color in! It takes some patience (but tiny detailed coloring pages were always my favorite as a kid).
So, alright. That was my night last night, which makes me all the more excited to see what YOU guys come up with.
Please share your drawings in the comments below or using #bobbledycastle on instagram. And if you can, tell me where you got your ideas from – a story, a real castle somewhere, a photo you saw or something you remember. The great thing about drawing is that you can mash everything together and come up with something that nobody else could have come up with. Go to it!
Oh, and also, if you’re interested in bidding for the original of this drawing, you can do it HERE on eBay – the auction ends on Sunday the 16th at 12:30PM EST.
Huck was inspired by the Lego Yellow Castle and decided to make a castle rather than draw one. Since he didn’t finish with all the turrets and walls as he originally wanted he decided to make it a castle ruins! As we took pictures of the castle a young family started to explore. Watch out for that hidden flick missile just above the drawbridge! Will they discover the hidden treasure or the secret portal in the rock wall? Warning! Stay out of the double-lock jail if you don’t want to be trapped forever!
oops – here’s the picture
This is AWESOME, Huck!! I have to say, your castle “ruins” look better than pretty much anything I ever built with Legos. Also: flick missile? I don’t believe I read ANYTHING about that in any of my castle research (though I must say that most of my castle research included such grisly details of defense mechanisms that a flick missile seems practically neighborly).
LOVE IT.
I hope that there isn’t an age restriction to participate. I ALWAYS want to do these prompts myself! This time I didn’t stop myself –
Like Huck, I built a castle with Legos. But then things started happening to it while I was building. Things started to get mixed up. (By the way – Have you seen The Lego Movie? Literally awesome) Peg-legged Sir Rocket Daddy down there just couldn’t be nailed down to the ground. After all, there are dragons and evil wizards on other planets to vanquish!
HOLY COW! No age restriction at all! If only there were more Peg-legged Sir Rocket Daddies! It looks like your approach to building a castle was kind of like my approach to drawing one. Bravo!
Also: who does your photography? Can we please get him/her down here to take photos for us every day? (oh wait, we already tried that)
Phoebe’s castle!
Thalia: “I made a castle and everyone wants to play near it because it’s so fun. There’s a little girl with glasses, balloons, a Ferris wheel and a dragon castle, which means that there is a dragon head on top of a castle body. There’s also a chick and the sun is shining. The little girl wants to go on the Ferris wheel and she is almost there even though she can’t see too well. I didn’t want her to have glasses but then I realized her eyes were too big and one was out of the head, so I decided they could be glasses instead. Now I need to go make a tower out of magnets.”
Harry really wanted to color dinosaurs playing beach balls in front of the castle (Can you tell that Harry really likes dinosaurs?) , so I “plagiarized” a few dinosaurs from one of his story books. 🙂 Awesome job on the fantastic castle drawing, Robbi!
Nice work, Harry’s Mom!! Those dinos look totally legit playing with those beach balls! Maybe Harry should be an art director when he grows up! 🙂
Harvey and Harry’s cousins (Melody, Valerie and Paxon) came to visit us today. Right before they left for the night, everyone was coloring Robbi’s castle pictures, even in black lights. It’s always fun to use neon colors while the black lights are on.