Life Drawing Scarecrows

Our entry into the scarecrow festival was a life drawing class!

The whole thing was based on the joke that a naked scarecrow would just be straw. And it was an excuse to display some of my paintings.

We used the same heads from last year and just added wigs. Everyone has a bright red bob wig, right?

We named this artist scarecrow Ruby. She's wearing one of my actual paint shirts.

And this is Phillipe - because of the beret - and he's wearing my other paint shirt.

He's wearing my Dad's trousers and when we were putting him together in the house me and my Mum would often see him out of the corner of our eyes and think he was my Dad.

Making the model was the biggest challenge. She's a chicken wire frame filled with straw. My Dad made the basic body shape but he based it on my proportions which meant it ended up looking like a child because I am a tiny person. So I added a big ol' behind to give this lady some curves.

The drawings pinned up behind her are some genuine life drawings I did at college.

We had a sign saying 'life drawing in session' and had a little table set up with paper and pencils, inviting people to do their own drawings which they then displayed on the line.

Adorable!

Over the weekend people walked around our town with a map that had all the scarecrows plotted on. A lot of people came right into our garage to have a proper look. The maps came with a voting slip and guess what; our scarecrow got the most votes! I think the only prize we get is glory, but I'll take it!

This Week I...

...checked out the entries to my town's scarecrow festival!

Here are some of my favourites.

 For the first time someone else in my road entered and this was theirs. A bee keeper! At first I was baffled by the Crunchie bars until I realised; honeycomb!

This one is probably my favourite. The speech bubble says, "I said start packing not fracking."

Fantastic effort guys.

This was a topical entry as most of my town is soon to have a 20mph speed limit.

This entry cracks me up. Get it? Ahaha.

I love the egg on the floor.

I love this ice cream truck made by one of the Brownie groups, even if the man does have creepy hands.

This scarecrow was in the window of one of the pubs.

I'll show you my entry on Tuesday!

Scarecrow Preparation

My town's annual scarecrow festival is just around the corner. In fact it's this weekend!

So I thought I would show a few photos from the making process.

We make the bodies of our scarecrow by stuffing clothes with newspaper.

I knew these lime green leggings would come in useful one day.

We're using the same papier mache heads that I made for last year's entry.

They've been kept in a bag in our loft for a whole year.

This photo (and generally walking around like this) made me laugh so hard!

Last year we only used a handful of straw, but this year we need a lot more so we bought this bag for £2.50. Bargain.

We've also used a lot of chicken wire, making mine and my Dad's hands look like they've been attacked by an angry cat.

Any ideas what our scarecrow scene might be?

Not long until the big reveal!

Last year we lost out 1st place by only 2 votes! But I've heard from a neighbour that the people who won last year aren't entering the competition this year. I think they've heard about what's going on in my house and don't think they could possibly compete. We've scared them off!

Scarecrow Festival

As I mentioned on Sunday, my village had it's scarecrow festival this past weekend and this was our entry!

This was our first time entering because the last few years I've been away at university.

To make the scarecrows I made papier mache heads using ballons and added card for the noses and ears and a big yogurt pot for the necks.

We stuffed the bodies with scrunched up newspaper. That was a fun Sunday afternoon.

My first idea for the scarecrow set up was an operating theatre, since I have the scrubs, so we went with that.

I was going to make something gross and organ-y for the operation part, but then I had the bright idea to have straw coming out of the body, since it is a scarecrow. 

My Dad and I definitely went overboard with the details.

We got an old computer monitor and I painted heart monitor graphics on to acetate to go on the front.

The equipment tray has syringes still in wrappers, pliers, tweezers, a jar opener and, my favourite; scissors + cotton ball = swab!

Someone (me) had the genius idea to put the scene in the garage.

This was primarily because I thought it would frame it nicely and we could put sheets up behind, but it came in handy as we had a few rain showers over weekend and it got a bit windy, and our scarecrows were fine throughout.

The scarecrow festival was also a competition and people could vote for their favourites.

We came in second!

The winner was a Mad Hatter's Tea Party set up which spread over two gardens, so this photo is only part of it.

We've already started thinking about next year's entry. It may have something to do with another favourite tv show of mine...

Scarecrow Festival

This past weekend was my town's Scarecrow festival.

Oh yes. Be jealous.

It's one of the things that makes it seem like Stars Hollow around here.

This classic scarecrow was seen outside of one of the lower schools.

My friend Lizzi and her family made this Gordon Ramsey scarecrow.

He didn't always survive the strong winds we had on Saturday.

The jubilee was a big theme. And my friend Laura's mum works for slimming world. So of course there was going to be a plump Queen. 

The Olympics was another theme and this awesome diving scarecrow also made reference to the hose pipe ban as the sign on the paddling pool reads 'water shortage'.

I think this was my favourite as it's obvious a lot of time and effort had gone into it.

Just look at that face! Wonderful.

These two houses always work together on their entry. Last year they had scarecrows playing tennis over the fence, and this year the scarecrows were playing golf.

I was going to make a scarecrow this year, but with my work experience I didn't have the time. I will next year for sure though! I've already got ideas...

Are there any quirky traditions where you live?