Mixed Media: Spotted Octopi

The ‘Spotted Octopi’ is made of crayons and colored pencils on a small canvas.  This piece was created in the spring of 2018 for a friend.

Story / Poem

The spotted octopi can float

along the bottom of the sea

and if there is no place to hide

they will turn their spots florescent

and become tough and scary

Creeping and crawling

On the ocean floor they be walking

Can you believe

These things are like aliens

Doing the disco

Down under the deep

Creeping and leaping around

Tentacles all knotted up

Beating up sharks and fish

Pretending they are rocks and twigs

Don’t trust them.

Don’t lock them in a cage.

They will squeeze out of any space.

Octopi are taking over

They will control our brains

Materials

• • Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Colored Pencil, Set of 24 Assorted Colors
  • Crayola Ultra Clean Washable 64 Count Crayons
  • US Art Supply 5 X 7 inch Canvas Panel Board
  • Mod Podge Clear Acrylic Sealer (12-Ounce), 1470 Gloss
    
  • Sharpie Extreme Permanent Markers

Inspiration

I love cartoons.  Something about drawing funny eyeballs always makes me smile.  I usually start with the eyes.

I like drawing octopus and squid for some reason.

I’m not sure this guy had any direct inspiration besides being a cartoon and an octopus and those being two things that I enjoy.

Thoughts On Crayons

I really like crayons.  I have always liked mashing them into paper as hard as I can and getting a nice smooth finish.

Crayons on canvas are a different story.  I was destroying them to get a clean finish.

The same with the poor prisma-colors I used on this.  Maybe I am just an extremely strong monster, but I destroyed them a bit on the textured surface.

Closing Thoughts

I have moved on to using oil pastels because the consistency and blend-ability are amazing in comparison to crayons.  Plus you can get that same smooth solid coverage I like about crayons.

I am planning on using oil pastels to create some strange colorful cartoons.  I think I need to invest in a knife to cut my pastels into points so I can do some detail work.

Cutting sticks is one task I haven’t tried much of, I’ve mostly been doing abstracts or wide lined pieces where I didn’t have to worry about the bluntness of my pastel stick.

This has nothing to do with the octopus, as you can probably tell.

I like this piece the way it is, I would leave it if I did it again.  I will probably use this guy as inspiration for some of my on coming pastel paintings of tentacled creatures.

I hope to do an entire series of underwater cartoon creatures.  For some reason I have always been partial to drawing cartoon octopi, clams, snails, and fish.

I drew hundreds of snails on the margins of my papers when I was a kid.  I like drawing their googly eyeballs on their strange stems.  They are very interesting little creatures.

Maybe I will do an entire collection of videos on funky sea creature art.  Let me know if that is a good idea in the comments below.

♡ Bekkerz