Cubby, the Pirate

This is Cubby.  He's my "almost" three year old grandson.  And I miss him like crazy.  Cubby is not the name he was given when he was born.  I was talking to him the other day on the phone, and he told me he had a new name.  I said, "a new name"?, "yes", he said, "my new name is Cubby, because I am a pirate".  So, I now call him Cubby, because he is a pirate! 
My daughter had to tell me about the new show he's been watching on Disney Junior called Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  He just loves it.  So, I looked the show up and had a great idea for my favorite little guy's birthday in a little over a month.  I was in the middle of getting ready to snazzy-up the windows in the craft room but cleaned that project right off my work bench and got to work!

I printed off a couple of colored pictures of Jake and his friend Cubby, and a silly bird named Scully, who I loved immediately.  Then I pulled out my paint chips of all my Folk Art Acrylic Colors, and I got together a pretty nice color palette to make my new friends come to life.  I grabbed my paints and brushes and got to work!

I had three 8"x10" canvas boards stashed in the craft room surfaces pile and thought it would be a cute idea to stripe lightly behind the characters as the only background.  To me, it looked a little nautical, and with the characters being my main focus of the projects, I didn't want it to be too busy.  I striped Cubby's background horizontally, and the other two canvases for Jake and Scully I striped vertically.  I used my all time favorite color, Folk Art Light Blue, to lightly dry brush the color on in between the tape lines. 

I printed the images from Disney Junior's site where they have coloring book pages for kids to print off and color.  My grandson and I have been using this sight for all of his favorite characters since he could hold a crayon.  We've done every single character from Cars, Finding Nemo, and Monsters, Inc.  (just a few of our favorites)  I cut the image out loosely, and centered it on the canvas, and placed a sheet of transfer paper underneath.  I traced the lines and had a perfect image to fill in. 

I painted the image using small brushes and tried to "color in the lines" as best as I could.  I thought it looked a little flat when I was finished, so I went in and shaded and highlighted where necessary.  This took several trips back to the computer where I could view full episodes of this adorable cartoon, and reference the characters again, and again! 
I just used a wet brush and side loaded into the shade color I wanted to use.  I followed the lines and added shading where I liked it best.  Then I outlined it all in Folk Art Licorice that I thinned down with a bit of water. 

Here they all are!  I think "Cubby" will be very happy to get these in the mailbox this week.  I wish I could deliver them myself, but this will have to do for now.