Salvador Dali Activity page

For Salvador dali's activity page I thought it would be fun to create an activity where the reader designs their own crazy moustache for Salvador as he was very well known for his bizarre moustache creations.

I started off with a line drawing that I had created. I then erased the moustache in photoshop and added a title and some text so the reader knows what to do. I decided to keep the image un coloured to allow the reader to add their own colours if they want. 

Salvador Dali Development

I started off drawing Salvador Dali by looking at photos and old videos that he was in. I liked that he always seemed to be pulling funny faces on most of the photos that I found of him. I wanted to capture these poses in the drawing that I did of him. I started off with a few sketches, as soon as I decided what I wanted the drawing to look like I took it into photoshop and completed it digitally.  

Initial sketches 

When I was happy with my initial sketches I scanned in the drawing that i wanted to used and cleaned it up in photoshop. I changed the levels to make the whites white rather than cream and the blacks more black.

I then started to build up layers of colour until I was happy. I started off with a solid base colour for the skin tone. 

 I then added shading to the cheeks and coloured the eyes and lips.

I then proceeded to colour in the hair and clothing I stuck with darkish grey colours as I feel this worked as a nice masculine  colour scheme.

 To complement the dark green eyes and add a pop of colour I coloured the tie in burgundy. I think this worked out quite well with the rest of the image. I then decided that the image looked a bit strange and realised it was because there was no shading on the neck so I coloured it a bit darker than the face colour. I think that this worked out well and finished off the image nicely.

Salvador Dahli research

Salvador Dali lived a very obscure life, he was very eccentric  and had a lot of quirks. I thought he would be very interesting to include in my book as young children will find him very fun to learn about. Here are some facts that I have found so far. I have also included a photograph of him.

Full Name: Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali I Doménech
Born: May 11, 1904 in Figueres Spain
Died: January 23, 1989 (age 84)
Movement: Surrealism, Cubism, modern art, dada

• Dali thought that he was the re incarnation of his dead sibling who was also called Salvador Dali. His parents even encouraged him into believing this.
• He produced more than 15000 paintings in his lifetime. He also created books, short films and illustrations. 
• Dali would do anything for a bit of extra money, you wouldn't think it from looking at his paintings but he even created the Chupa Chups logo.
• He has an intense fear of grass hoppers.   
• To ward off evil spirits Dali would carry around a piece of lucky driftwood.
•  Dali was fascinated by the shape of cauliflowers, he even once once drove around in a limo full of then and handed them out to the people of Paris. (They got very confused.)
• He liked strange pets and even had an Anteater and an Ocelot.
• Dali had a very unique moustache that he would style in all sorts of wacky ways. 
• He once sold a strand of hair from of his famous moustache for $10,000 but instead of sending the hair, Dali sent a dried out piece of grass. He was worried that the person buying his moustache would use it for which craft.  
• When Dali went out to a restraint for dinner he would invite a large group of his friends. He would pay for everyone but to avoid the large bill the Dali would draw on the back of his checks, the restaurant would never cash the checks because they had an original sketch by Dali which would probably be worth more than the bill itself.   
• Dali painted very surreal images that depicted things such as melting clocks, elephants, eggs and other very peculiar objects.