Cake, candles, and a Badger?

Cake, candles, and a Badger?

Bippity Boppity Boo!

February always feels just a tad bit special because it only has 28 days. It also tends to feel more special to me (and likely my fellow Georgians), because Georgia weather gets a little bit colder and the chance of snow increases for us during this month. Okay, it increases only slightly, and I haven’t seen snow on the ground in a few years, but I can hope, right?

Today I want to highlight the Birthday Badger because he’s been such a big hit! I think what I love most about the little dude is that I drew him with the intention to be on a greeting card - so with the intention that you would gift the badger to someone else. But it turns out that everyone wants a Birthday Badger for themselves, too! And that makes me really happy to know.

With the Birthday Badger, I didn’t have to do too much sketching. I had an image of my head of the badger with a homemade cake on his back, and what you see in the finished drawing is pretty much exactly what I saw in my head. This situation doesn’t happen too often, because even when I can visualize a drawing in my mind, I usually have to do some work to get it translated onto a sheet of paper. It was fun to see him come to life!


The story behind the badger is...

He’s on his way to a party for one of his forest friends, and he volunteered to make the cake (since he obviously loves to bake). He made a four layer cake, complete with four different flavors of cake and frosting, plus candles AND sparklers (what a guy!). He got all dressed up for the shindig (a lá his fancy collar and party hat), and is carrying the teeter-tottering, flopsy cake on his bake.

If you’re wondering what other animals are coming to the party, never to fear! I’m working on two more animals who are on their way to the Birthday Bash…so stay tuned. In the meantime, the badger’s leaving us in the dirt, so we better hurry up!…

Drawing the Badger

The first thing I did on this drawing is the badger’s face. I always start with the face, because if I mess up the face, I can easily start over without having wasted too much time on anything else. And, the face is one of the most important parts of any “character” oriented piece. If the face isn’t right…the rest of the drawing won’t feel right. (At least to me!)

The Icing on the Cake…

I love cake! (Okay, I actually prefer cookies and pies…and ice cream…but cake is still wonderful). Here’s a progression of working on the cake, which was so much fun to draw! I worked around this part of the drawing as I felt like it — there’s not much rhyme or reason to how I went about it.

(How something feels when I draw it is just as important as what it looks like. Sometimes I finish a drawing but don’t end up liking it as much because it doesn’t sit right with me, or something I did feels off. It doesn’t mean the drawing turned out bad…it’s just a feeling! I don’t really know if all other artists have this same quirk, but it’s definitely true of me when I’m working on things!)

Time for real cupcakes…

I’ve never discussed photography much on my social media or blog, but I do all the photography for my website. The badger was especially fun to photograph because I wanted the pictures to be, well, fun! I picked up some mini cupcakes from the store, plus sprinkles and candles, and used them as props around the Birthday Badger cards. In the bottom left photo, you can see the set up and how I arranged the props. (And yes, I did eat a cupcake or two!)

For the photos of the Birthday Badger print, I decided to use some fun carnations I found at the grocery store. I think they look a bit like fluffy cotton candy, which was perfect for adding a little bit of fun to the images, but still making sure everything looked natural and nature-full.

Where to find the Birthday Badger…

When the badger isn’t attending a party, he can be found on...And psst…he’s also going to be available on a mug…and a mouse pad…soon! Check my Instagram and Facebook pages for updates about these coming-soon items.

Thank you for reading the blog, and I hope you enjoyed learning about and seeing more of the Birthday Badger. I hope you have a great week! Now, back to the drawing board.

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