Sale on all prints in the A Little Stranger Shop. All sizes from mini prints to A3 posters, up to 50% off until January 30th, visit the shop.
The day of the Sketchbot 2 show at Munky King LA is finally upon us! If like me you’ve been checking out the sneak previews over the last few weeks on Steves blog today is your chance to see all the great customs in the vinyl-y flesh! Sketchbot 2 7:00pm – 10:00pm Munky King, 7308 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA.
The Navigator started life as a blank Sketchbot vinyl toy, i cut off his head (eep!) and painted his body with acrylic paint before sealing with lacquer. To really make the paint job pop i used a metallic flake in the pink-coloured parts before giving him a thick full gloss coat all over. The Navigator himself is a tiny plush in his own right, i sculpted his face from sculpey, painted with acrylic paint and pastels and sealed with matte lacquer. His body, including his ears, has a tiny metal armature inside to let him keep his pose. All finished off with a heart shaped nose and teeny eyepatch.
Edit: Now available for purchase in the Munky King Online Store.
I had a little free time last week and decided to work a little more on my submission for The Gnome Project by Happy Panda Toys. I submitted my initial design for it in August and wanted to flesh it out a bit, partly because i didn’t think my initial sketch and sculpt put across how i imagined the character in my head, and partly to refresh myself on sculpting a whole figure as i only seem to sculpt faces lately. This little bear is sculpted from sculpey, is currently being smoothed and sanded ready for casting, and is awaiting a plush hat and a fishing rod. More pictures soon ^__^
The Gnome project will be Happy Panda Toys first blindboxed mini series, featuring 3″ gnomes. Unlike other blindboxed toys such as Dunny or Qee there will not be one platform across the series, rather a totally different sculpt for each artist, and even ratios across the series. The artists haven’t been confirmed yet, so if you like my design and would like to see it put into production let the guys at Happy Panda know 
Initial Drawing
Initial, very rough, sculpt.
I just finished up a custom plush last week, and now i’ve got my camera back i can share some pictures here. Her name is Melek, the client wanted a gift for their goddaughter and requested a plush that embraces my take on an angel. I thought this was an interesting brief for a custom and really liked the idea of making an angel but putting my own twist on it. Usually my work focuses around animals of some kind, so of course i still managed to make her look quite bunnyish
The first image that popped into my mind when i think of an angel is that of big wings and a halo and i was sure very early on that this wasn’t the aesthetic i was going for. So i spent some time thinking about what is an angel. I am not spiritual at all, my view of an angel is a guardian offering protection and guidance. My initial sketches revolved around owl-like bird creatures, capturing an elegance, grace, and sagacious. After bouncing some ideas around with the client we settled on a more mammal-like creature, the idea being that she was a familiar of sorts, keeping a watchful eye on things.
I started by sculpting her face from scratch using sculpey, no moulds were used or taken during the entire process. The client liked a previous plush i had created that had a little girls face and requested something similar. I decided to use slightly translucent sculpey to mimic skin and give depth of skin tone, and used glass eyes for realism. Following the angel theme, for the face sculpt I wanted to create child-like innocence and capture a thoughtful, tranquil expression. After i was happy with her face i added the hair in a translucent white polymer clay. Once the whole face was baked and sanded smooth i painted it using thin layers of acrylic paint, matted it off with UV protective lacquer and glossed the lips and eyelids.
The colour palette for the whole piece was kept muted and pale, with the body being completed in various textures and types of faux fur fabric. The main body from a ever so slightly off-white fur with a varying pile, a pure white long fur section on the tummy, and white bobbly fleece under the arms, she has weighted feet and paws and can stand unassisted. I then graduated the fur in various places to stop her looking like a big fluff ball. Finally I chose the name Melek, which is Turkish for angel.
A sneak peek of my custom, The Navigator, for the upcoming Sketchbot 2 Custom Show at Munky King, LA. Theres not much else to say about this little bunny for now, it’s all hush hush until the morning of the show – full reveal on November 19th. The Navigator will be onsale at the show, If you’re interested in buying The Navigator please get in touch with Steve who is putting together a private preview list as we speak…
