Meet Mr.Scarecrow!

This post includes a bit of the process and vision for re-illustrating a main character from a family-childhood-classic,
Mr.Scarecrow from The Fat Slow Pumpkin!

I decided that once a year I would further elaborate on a "book" I scribbled up as a child: The Fat Slow Pumpkin. It's a tale about a chipper but bumbling pumpkin looking for a friend. He eventually befriends a scarecrow who later saves him from oncoming traffic because, after all, he was too fat and slow to save himself! 🤣 (check out last year's character development here: The Fat Slow Pumpkin) The story has been held onto by my family and revisited for laughs year after year. It's a great reminder as to what wonders and humor childhood brings. 

Below are a few of the original doodles of this epic tale. 😉

Inspiration:

(above) "He was looking for a friend" and "He bump into a scarecrow"

(above) "hello Scarecrow. Can you be my friend?"

These few pages of The Fat Slow Pumpkin were developed between the ages 6-7. As I re-illustrated the scarecrow this year I couldn't help but elaborate on the story in my head for I had so many questions - how did the pumpkin bump into the scarecrow? How long was he looking for a friend? Did he run into other conflicts first? Where is the pumpkin? Where is the scarecrow? What time of day is it? So many questions had to be addressed if I wanted to really bring character to these festive imaginary friends of mine. The more I sketched, the more answers I found.. Who knew revisiting a children's doodle could be so engrossing?

I now imagine that The Fat Slow Pumpkin was on a journey to find a friend the moment he awoke one magical Halloween night. He bumbled his way around his rural surroundings, asking all kinds of things to be his friend (maybe a spade, a cat, a carve-less pumpkin...) - but they were not struck by the magic of Halloween. But then, he happened upon Mr. Scarecrow!

Sketching:

I started sketching away and a lot of my questions were answered in this phase. Where was he? Well, the scarecrow was in a corn field of course! I imagine that the scarecrow lifts his hand to the brim of his hat in greeting to his friendly encounter. This movement startles the crows so much they start hocking up their stolen lunch. Dressing my scarecrow was the most fun; I had to consider what the farmers would have deemed worthy tossing to the cause; burlap, corduroy, plaid, string, and buttons...so much texture and patterns to consider!

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startled crow sketch

Corn sketch

Compositional sketch

Inking Step-by-Step:

After I was happy with a rough sketch I started hard-lining for the final illustration. I use a light table to ink my draft onto a clean sheet of paper to get thick and solid line work. I'll make compositional adjustments or add detail as I go.

Rough sketch

Laying ink on top

Finished linework

Coloring Step-By-Step:

The step that took the longest for me to complete was coloring! There are so many options for finishing an illustration. Sometimes I'll reach for my watercolor, gouache, or oils to complete this step. But I wanted to have a great deal of play when I was working on Mr.Scarecrow so I worked digitally to render color. Adding color and texture forced me to think yet again about my character and his surroundings.

AND HE IS ALLLLLLLLL DONE!

Catch more process works on Instagram!