I was lucky to be able to visit Hawaii in 2012 and was inspired by their culture and art. I was especially drawn to their tiki statues. Ancient Hawaiian Mythology has 4 major gods, or tiki gods as they are commonly known, and many minor tiki gods, heroes and mystical creatures. The ancient Hawaiians even had inanimate objects like ropes or weapons as magical characters in their myths. Ancient Hawaiian priests, or Kahunas, worshipped tiki gods through chants, prayer and even human sacrifice. The ancient Hawaiians carved scowling carvings of their tiki gods and used the idols in their rituals We Use the Happy Tiki for our project.
Materials: Heavyweight paper, sketching pencil, sharpie, colored pencils or watercolor pencils.
Step #1: Draw light guidelines down the center of the page and across the middle, the center guidelines is important because we will try to make each side of the Tiki symmetrical. Draw a large rectangle in the center of page as shown below. We are going to carve the tiki out of this rectangle.
Step #2: Draw eyebrows, eyes and nose. Start them from the center guideline, so they will be same on each side (symmetrical).
Step #3: Draw mouth and teeth. Start these from the center guideline.
Step #4: Draw arms and hands, then draw the legs and feet. Start these items from center guideline.
Step #5: Use a sharpie to outline the lines you keep, the erase the rest of your pencil lines.
Step #6: Time to feel the tropics, add your own details to your happy tiki project. Be creative and have some fun. I used the letter “L” for Larry at top of tiki.