Custom designed pattern and handmade by me.
Approx. 11 inches (28cm) from nose to tail.
Made from velvety soft fleece with a faux leather nose and hand-stitched sculpted wrinkles on the face and feet pads.
Weighted with plastic pellets for a squeezable fat belly and stability in the legs.
I also involved in a fantastic online course for Art Business – which is turning out to be just the help I need and filled with a wonderful group of artist.
One fairly important priority for 2016 for me is to do more traditional work. Digital has so many positives but I truly love working in pencil, ink and watercolor. I convinced myself that digital was fast, easier (as in no set up/clean up, my computer and tablet are always right there waiting), less stressful (unlimited undos). But in actual fact tradition is more natural to me (its what I’ve done from the very beginning), therefore its faster and less stressful then working on a computer! And not having undo makes the work better – if I really mess up I start again from scratch and the piece is always better for having done it twice.
So with that in mind I bought some new paper and started drawing in ink again the quiet time over Christmas/New Years. Slightly missing white Christmases inspired this pin up girl.
“Portait Plushies” designed from photo reference, simplified and translate into cute toy form.
Made from soft fleece and filled with cuddly polyfil with black plastic safety eyes.
Small but squeezable size plushies:
– Zac approx 30cm long – All back with white chest spot
– Maggie approx 17cm long – Gold and white with circular spot at the base of her tail
My concept (black & white only) was translated into a sculpt by Lee Jae Chi of Zealot Miniatures. The finished product is made of resin and stands roughly 32mm high. Only 100 were produced and sadly with the master sculpt damaged by the casting no others will be made.
I decided to quickly add some color to my original concept to work out how I would go about painting her as a miniature. I would also like to make her a custom base like the one in the concept. I hope to have time to paint her soon and I really look forward to seeing how other people interpret the design!
Official miniature painting by Leigh Carpenter inspired by my color concept.
