Boxy
ONE SHAPE AT A TIME
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Boxy is a sturdy, square, steady drawing friend with neat straight sides and a calm way of doing things. Boxy draws boxes and long lines, and Boxy never, ever rushes.
"I want to draw a bus," says Jas, "a big one, with people in it and wheels and windows and a driver." She stares at the empty page. "But it's too much. I don't know where to start." Her pencil just hovers.
Boxy steps onto the page, square and solid. "Let's not draw a whole bus," says Boxy. "Let's draw one box."
"Just one box?"
"Just one. A long one, for the body of the bus."
Jas draws a long box. It is a little bit crooked, and that is fine.
"Now one more shape," says Boxy. "What would you like?"
"Wheels!" says Jas. She draws two circles under the long box. Ovo would be proud.
"One more shape," says Boxy.
"A window." Jas draws a little box on the side. Then another. And another, all in a row.
"One more?" says Boxy.
"The driver!" Jas draws a tiny box for the driver's seat, and a round head. Then a long line down the front for the door.
She stops and looks. There, on the page, is a big bus, full of windows, rolling along on its wheels. "I drew a whole bus," she says, amazed. "But I only ever drew one shape at a time."
"That's my idea," says Boxy, standing up very straight. "A big picture is just lots of small shapes, one after another. Boxes for the bus, boxes for windows, long lines for doors and roads. You never have to draw it all at once. You just add the next shape."
That is Boxy's steady idea.
Build big from boxes and lines, one shape at a time.
Try it with a grown-up! Pick something big to draw together, like a train, a castle or a robot. Take turns, and each turn add just ONE shape: a box, a circle, or a line. Say what your shape is as you draw it. Watch the big picture grow.
When the bus is finished, Boxy sits down beside it, solid and calm, and Jas draws a long straight line underneath for the road. "There," says Boxy. "Now it has somewhere to go."
One shape at a time. That's Boxy.
The DoodlePals ensemble
Boxy is one of the friends in DoodlePals. Each friend shows you one idea by how they act; meet them all and you have the whole subject.
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Scribble
Wobble first - Scribble, who draws wobbly lines on purpose: every drawer's lines wobble, so a wobbly line is not a mistake but how drawing looks - keep going
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Ovo
The oval inside - Ovo, who draws ovals and circles and finds them hiding inside things: heads, bodies, eggs and wheels all start as ovals
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Zig
Points and zigzags - Zig, who draws points and zigzags: a point makes an ear, a roof or a tail, and a point drawn again and again makes a zigzag pattern
