Funny Numbers

A little more than a week ago, my family and I sat down at the table and did a really fun activity together: a drawing exercise! My mom suggested we make funny characters or doodles out of the numbers 0 through 9, and see how each of us interpreted them.

I don't have a lot of practice with drawing or doodling, or being particularly artistic. I am more of a writing gal. If you want to see an artist, you look to my twin sister, Annette. She does the most awesome sketches and drawings EVER. You can see a lot of her work on her blog here, Annette's Art.

But anyway, I did the activity, and this is what I came up with:

It was SO much fun to draw everything! A lot more fun than I thought it'd be, to tell you the truth. I just made a block out of each number, looked at it for a while, imagining what I could possibly make out of these shapes to make them come to life, and then I just sketched around them.

And now, I will explain the inspiration I had behind every number picture. Yay! ^_^

1, a monstrous dragon attacking a poor damsel in distress. Ahhhh! From the beginning, I wanted to be really creative with my numbers, and give them lots of detail. Somehow, I saw the beginnings of a dragon in my 1, so I started out with a face (sharp teeth, angry eyes and horns), then a tail (wrinkly and spike-tipped, just because) and then feet and arms (yes, his arms are stubby like a T-Rex's. Don't laugh). At first, I didn't know how I'd do the wings, but then I just drew them shaped like bat's wings and it looked good. For a final touch, I added in the screaming stick-figure princess. ^_^

2, a strange bug-eyed whale /sea monster of sorts, about to eat two (count them, one and two) frightened fish. I didn't know what I'd end up with when I started drawing around the 2, but I filled in one of the gaps with a huge eye, then gave it another eye at the tip. Next I looked at the base, which reminded me of a mouth, and so drew in flat teeth that the creature would grind with. I finished off with its nostrils and tongue, then added the little fishies as an after-thought.

3, a stripy and dotty rattle-snake. (These things are really poisonous, so watch out!) Really, the shape of 3 is so similar to that of S. I couldn't think of anything else to draw for it besides a snake. So this was quite easy for me. All I had to do was give it a face, a rattle, and a funky pattern for the body. Nothing to it.

4, a cactus in the middle of a hot desert. This one was even easier to draw then the 3-snake was. I really started getting into the activity around this point, because I was thinking like, "Hey, I'm a real artist. Yay!" ^_^ I put random spikes everywhere, planted it in some dry grass, and placed the sun high overhead. The rays are plainly emanating scorching heat.

5, three faces of different creatures in one wild body. When I got to this number, I had NO idea what to make of it. 3 and 4 had been so easy, and now I'd run into a challenge. What a surprise. O,o I decided to skip this one and move on to some other, easier numbers. When I got back to 5, I considered it a little more, and then thought, "Oh, what the heck." So I drew a horned lizard's face on top (I thought I'd go for another dragon at first, but then decided against it), then some kind of animal with floppy ears, a thin mouth and a big nose in the gap right under it, so the lizard's mouth looks like one of the animal's ears (I couldn't tell you whether it's a cow or a dog or what, which is funny, because I'm the artist! =P I also don't know why I added a tear. I just thought it's eye looked sad, for some reason), and finally a funny sock-puppet monster with sharp teeth and cartoon-y floating eyebrows in the curve at the base. Not my favorite doodle of the bunch, but hey, what are you gonna do?

6, a silly/scary clown face. Again, I didn't know what I'd do with this particular number in the beginning. The hole in the 6 looked like a big round nose, so I put an eye in the little gap there, then another somewhat next to it. I added an arch, so it was a whole head, and gave the guy crazy hair. After that, Mr. Clown blushed and grinned as I put on the rest of his make-up. Even though I've given him a big friendly smile, I feel the way he looks at you is sort of... spooky. No idea why! =P

7, a Tetris game in progress. I love Tetris, because you learn how to pack everything together without leaving any holes or spaces. A few weeks ago, I started playing Tetris Battle on Facebook. It is highly addicting. It reminds me of when my sister, dad and I used to try beating each others' records in Tetris. In Tetris Battle, you get to play alongside other people at the same time, so it's really fun. Here's the link.

I don't have to tell you how I drew this. You can see I simply drew some blocky Tetris shapes around it and shaded them in. Quite simple, really.

8, a tiny-headed woman with a curvy figure and an interesting dress. This is my least favorite drawing. I like it much less than the 5. I honestly just rushed through this doodle. If I'd given it more attention, I would have given her a neck and less akimbo arms. I don't get a lot of practice drawing people. I have even less practice drawing people in the shape of an 8.

9, an ugly cat with a halo above it's head. (Get it? Cats have 9 lives? Hahaha. ^_^) At first, this creature didn't have any whiskers, so I thought it was an angry dog or something. But my dad, who was sitting and drawing next to me, looked at it and said, "Oh, a cat with 9 lives. That's funny." I thought it looked nothing like a cat, but after adding the whiskers, at least it looked something like one.

And finally 0, a burglar/ jail-breaker looking through a hole in the wall with a light shining in his face. Busted, you criminal! This was the last drawing I did, and (in my opinion) one of the best of my funny numbers. (Alongside the 1 and the 4.) It was fun drawing the burglar guy. ^_^

To see the works of art done by the rest of my family, see Annette's full blog post here.

Drawing numbers as characters is lots of fun! Give it a try. You might surprise yourself. ^_~