The Ducklings Come to Hollins

For the 3rd year I have been creating and placing character cutouts around the campus of Hollins University during the summer term.

Each summer it is joy to choose which classic children’s book characters will be immortalized. One year I chose to focus on female characters.

Last year the ducklings marched onto campus. To make them I first looked up reference from the original book, Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey.

The duckings were a LITTLE too long to include them all on my corrugated plastic material,  which is only 40″ wide, so I had to edit a few out.

Then I cut out the whole flock with a sharp exacto knife, sprayed the material with primer and painted them with acrylics.

Robert McCloskey illustrated Make Way for Ducklings using lithographs. I tried to reproduce this and make it look as close to the original art as possible using only paint brushes.

Joining the ducklings on campus were Horton from Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss.

Peter from Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats

The Princess and the Dragon from The Paperbag Princess, written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko

Yoko from Yoko’s Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells

Paddington Bear by Michael Bond and Peggy Fortnum

School, from School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex and Christian Robinson