Ovo
THE OVAL INSIDE
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Ovo is a round, rolling drawing friend, smooth as an egg and bouncy as a ball. Ovo draws ovals and circles, and Ovo has a secret: ovals are hiding EVERYWHERE.
"I want to draw an owl," says Dev, "but owls are hard. They've got feathers and eyes and claws and everything."
Ovo rolls up beside him. "Let's not draw an owl yet," says Ovo. "Let's go on an oval hunt first."
Dev looks around. "An oval hunt?"
"Look at the owl in your book," says Ovo. "What's the biggest shape you can see?"
Dev squints at the picture. "Its body is kind of... tall and round."
"An oval!" says Ovo, delighted, and does a happy spin. "Draw a tall oval."
Dev draws a tall oval. It wobbles, and that's fine.
"Now what about its eyes?" asks Ovo.
"Two circles," says Dev, starting to smile. "Big ones." He draws them.
And there, on the paper, is the start of an owl. Not perfect, not finished, but very much an owl, staring out with two round eyes.
"Whoa," says Dev. "It's just ovals."
"That's my favourite thing," says Ovo. "Heads are ovals. Bodies are ovals. Eggs, wheels, faces, flower middles, fish. When something looks too hard to draw, I look for the oval hiding inside it. Then I start there."
Dev adds a little pointy beak and some feather tufts, and the owl is done. Then he looks up at the clock on the wall. "That's a circle." At his cup. "That's an oval from the top." At his friend's face. "Oval!"
"Now you've got oval eyes," laughs Ovo.
That is Ovo's round idea.
Look for the oval hiding inside things, and start your drawing there.
Try it with a grown-up! Go on an oval hunt around the room or outside. Every time one of you spots an oval or a circle, say "Oval!" and point. Then pick one thing and draw it starting with its oval.
At the end of the day, Ovo rolls slowly to a stop on the edge of the page, round and calm. "The world is full of ovals," Ovo murmurs. "You just have to look."
Find the oval. Start there. That's Ovo.
The DoodlePals ensemble
Ovo 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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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
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Boxy
One shape at a time - Boxy, who builds big pictures from boxes and long lines, adding one shape at a time, so you never draw it all at once
