Miximals with Ben Clanton

In the last post I did for the whatsit blog (back in November!) I talked about different ways of keeping final art loose and free. My eighth tip for loosening up was about warm-ups. Today I thought I'd share one of my favorite warm-up games. It isn't all that complex, but it tends to be a favorite among illustrators for good reason. I've heard this game called many things, but the one I like best is 'miximals.'

When I play this game at school presentations and book readings I ask the audience for three different animal names. If you do play this game with kids it can be fun to pretend to mishear the suggestion or misremember it. For example, if a kid suggests a 'dog' then I might say 'Emu?! Great idea!' . . . the kids love to shout back what the actual suggestion was. BUT seeing as I do not have an audience in my studio tonight I decided to simply search online for a 'random animal generator' which turned out great. An alternative is to rip up a bunch of paper scraps and write creature names on the different scraps, put them in a bucket, and draw out a few from the bucket. Once you have three animal names or two or ten then the next step is to simply draw a picture of all those creatures mashed together. I find this never fails to get my creative juices flowing. It is both fun and challenging. You can also take it a step further and determine the name for the creature by mixing the names of the creatures.

There is a writing game I enjoy playing sometimes that is similar to maiximals in which I write a bunch of random words down, select a few, and then have to use all those words in either a sentence or a short story. The more words the bigger the challenge and the more interesting the result!

I'd love to see what sort of miximals you come up with!

Happy Whatever from The Whatsits

– Wendy Wahman

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 

And never brought to mind? 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 

And auld lang syne.

As we join hands in friendship and look forward to the New Year, we remember old friends and welcome new. And so can be said for work and art. Some oldies but goodies from seasons past: 

Ben Clanton

This guy was an art test for a book I was working on last year called IT CAME IN THE MAIL (coming in June . . . so far away!). Just like getting a parcel in the mail, the first snow always fills me with wonder and a belief in magic.

Elizabeth Rose Stanton

The holidays wouldn’t be the holidays without a little pathos . . . so here’s scene from an almost forgotten story I started a few years ago. Maybe our readers can help complete it.

Wishing everyone a happy, merry, everything!

Jennifer K. Mann

I love the birds that visit my backyard, and their songs are especially alive this time of year. Every year during Advent, I make tiny paintings of the tiny birds in my yard, to slip into the pockets of a cloth advent calendar for my children. Advent occurs during the darkest time of the year, yet these little birds remind me of the light that is just over the horizon. Soon, as always, the darkness will be replaced by the light of spring and new life.

Kevan Atteberry 

This Holiday Hello card is from 2011. It features a couple characters that have popped up in several things I’ve done in the past. I originally thought of them and worked on them a few years before this thinking it might be a comic strip—Two Unlikely Friends. Then I’ve toyed with the idea of using them in a young graphic novel. I’m still thinking about that and I revisit them every now and then. Especially around New Year’s Day for some reason.

Wendy Wahman

I drew these Nutcracker dancers for the Holiday Happenings section of the Seattle P-I newspaper in 2004. I had a whole little family of snow people adorning the event and performance listings. They sailed on the Christmas Ship, played the harpsichord in choirs and took their bows on stage alongside ghosts of Christmas’ past. A few years later, they were the inspiration for SNOWBOY 1,2,3.

Peace, love and good works in the New Year,
Ben, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Kevan and Wendy

Say, speaking of dancers… leaping onto the stage in January, is Elizabeth’s newest picture book, PEDDLES!