MY MUNNY.

Just a few shots of the Munny I've been painting for my current brief exploring toys. After looking into getting a small vinyl figure of my own being made professionally I soon realised it was going to cost a lot more then I first anticipated. Looking at it from a reproduction point of view it would be dead costly as well so I think this little chap will have to do for the time being. Time to focus on my big plush toy instead.

Not yet finished. Was loosely based on a wolf mask wearing tank character from the summer work.

MATTHEW LYONS.

The work of Matthew Lyons seems to appear on quite a few blogs/tumblrs at the moment and I can completely see why. His creative imagination and use of composition as swell as colour choice is stunning. I particularly like the way he uses digital technology that looks very hand generated and provokes questions into how its produced. I did a little research about his working method and its all created in photoshop using the lasso tool then using textures and home made brushes builds up the images to look as though they've been hand rendered. His use of unusual and exciting view points makes his work stand out from the crowd and reminds me very much of film still and title sequences (something I'm dead interested in).

His characters seem to contain so much personality and life by capturing posture and stance perfectly. You can clearly tell he's influenced from 1960/70 sci-fi films and their preconceptions of the future. Reminds me a lot of scenes from Barbarella starring Jane Fonda.

The use of basic shaped elements in an exciting composition looks effortless and works incredibly well with the futuristic scenes.

The work is an absolute treat to look and and has heavily inspired me in the work I'm currently making myself. I'd definitely recommend checking out his blog as there's more mind blowing work to check out.

MINI MONSTER.

Today I built a small prototype of the monster I'm going to be making later on this week. Went a lot better then I thought.

Last Meninas : Part Tres

This is my final piece for the collaboration brief set over summer. I'm pretty stoked with how it's turned out and feel I'm sort of getting to grips on how to use acrylics and touch images up in photoshop easier. I'd like to expand this a little further and include the characters in some later work either my personal or uni. All together our groups final pieces look pretty sweet as a set and you can really tell the links between them all and each persons distinct style. Glad I got my teeth stuck into it and enjoyed working with my boys.

HENSON'S MONSTER.

I managed to find a pretty awesome blog about how Keaton Henson and a mate created a massive, fluff filled version of one of his sickk illustrations (Dave) whilst doing some research for a current brief. I want to make myself one of these 9 foot bad boys for my new flat. Maybe ever bigger, depends how adventurous I'm feeling. If this fails I intend to make a  few slightly smaller versions of some characters in my sketchbook for my current brief. After making one and seeing if it's is easier then painting a vinyl toy it'll determine on which I'm going to use for my final piece. I really, REALLY want Dave.

Check out how Dave came to life on his own special blog here. It's pretty mint.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.

Last night I had the pleasure of watching Spike Jonze's version of "Where The Wild Things Are" and fully fell in love with it. I'm not sure how I haven't ever come across it before and have never read the book as a child. The story was random but seemed to flow effortlessly and I found myself instantly lost in the wild with Max. The story follows Max as he travels into the wild with a handful of very individual monsters (Bill the bull is without doubt the coolest) ,living and exploring this new landscape having argued with his mother. After speaking to other people I didn't realise that it differed from the original classic children's story by Maurice Sendak.

I thought it was relevant with the first part of my current brief where I have to make either a toy/piece of textile/game/puzzle. I think I'm going to make either a plush toy/vinyl figure based on some characters from my summer work along side some new faces as well taking inspiration from the monsters in the film.

The monsters reminded me of a 9 foot tall plush toy Keaton Henson made for one his exhibitions last year and is sort of the thing I'd be wanting to do if I decided to work in that media. He used a combination of furry materials and images painted onto plastic stitched together to create a huge, cuddly beast. I'll put a new post up about it as soon as I find some photo's.

I looked into some of the films merchandise and found there was quite a lot of toys aimed for children however I'd buy most of it myself. Big kid at heart.

Some of the large vinyl figures look absolutely awesome with some insane detail been put in and I'm also a big fan of the soft characters and how simplistic they are,total opposites. They're all pretty expensive to buy so I should probably bare this in mind when making my own as I don't have much of a budget to go on.

I'm still undecided but think that making a vinyl figure like the black Kurbrick one above might be my easiest option, providing I can get a decent shaped blank vinyl to work with. The Kubricks are character block figures made by Medicom Toy of Japan. They're usually about two inches tall (the size I'm wanting to work with) and resemble a cross between LEGO and Playmobil figures.

DAY & NIGHT.

When I was in Munich I saw ToyStory 3 dubbed in German in 3D.Strange experience to say the least.Before the film,Pixar had made another one of their short films titled: Day and Night.I'd completely forgotten about it until talking to a friend earlier.Anyway, I managed to find the full film on youtube for everyone to enjoy. Click here.



I thought the concept behind the animation was amazing if not a little predictable at times but worked an absolute treat. On the big screen in 3D it looked insane. Made me think a lot more about using layers,shapes and textures in a clever way with more thought behind the. Don't get me wrong ToyStory 3 was good but I much preferred this.

OS GEMEOS & BLU in Lisboa

A sick piece of art on the side of a huge building.A collaboration between Blu and OsGemeos for Crono festival in Lisboa (Portugal).I've seen some of BLU's stop motion animations before and they're pretty epic to watch if not for the size factor alone. Unfortunately the video that accompanies this is just purely them painting the piece.Check it out here,it's well worth a watch.






Os Gemeos blog

Blu's site

GOFONTYOURSELF.

Just stumbled upon this beauty of a site called GOFONTYOURSELF. A collection of different typography both 3D/2D by various designers and illustrators including the AMAZING Timba Smits and Brett Stenson. I've got a huge grin on my face right now. Typography makes me far too excited.

TRAVEL SNAPS.

A selection of some of the photo's i've taken from traveling last month on my slr. I did take a few on my 35mm Praktica but not holding my breath with the film. Think the light gauge wasn't working so I was going with my own judgment.We shall see later though.