Art Show: Seven @ Ayden Gallery

Ayden Gallery is hosting a show called 'Seven' next month, in celebration of their 7th anniversary! Over 50 artists will add their personal touch to TOMS shoes. TOMS is a very noble shoe company: "With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One." Some of the big names in the show are: Ben Tour, Camilla d'Errico, Lani Imre, Kristian Adam, Mandy Tsung, Peter Ricq, Peter Taylor and Peeta. The shoes will be on display and up for auction through the month of February. All proceeds go to charity. More info in this article.



Ayden has asked me to participate in the show! Here are a few shots of my TOMS shoes. I chose to work with my size; Women's size 7. You can see I'm adding the base colour in the top right-hand pic. More sneak peeks coming soon... :D

In progress: Tuttz customs, Part 4

Vici is my 3rd and final Tuttz custom. Here's a pic of him in progress. He still has a few more layers of paint + some details left to go. To be continued...

Urban Vinyl: Ganmetall Celcius Custom Show, Part 1

Here's an in progress shot of my custom for the Ganmetall Celcius Custom Show held at TAG in LA this July. The base is Kuso Vinyl's DIY Celcius figure. I decided to paint the base coats first, then sketch what I wanted overtop of that. Can't wait to finish this guy!

In progress: Tuttz customs, Part 3

Here's a couple sneak peeks of one of my Tuttz customs for Argonaut Resins. Still got a ways to go...



Oh, some people have been asking when/where they will be available.
When = Soon! There are 3 of them, and they will be released one at a time.
Where = They will be sold in my Etsy shop.

In progress: Tuttz customs, Part 2

I've sketched out some designs on one of my Tuttz customs. Next pics will be adding paint!

In progress: Tuttz customs, Part 1

Argonaut Resins has revealed its latest resin figure... Tuttz! Argo has asked me to be a guest artist on this project and hand paint 3 blank custom Tuttz. I painted a Kalua Moola and Destroyer custom for Argo a few months ago, so I am stoked to be painting these figures and can't wait to lay down the first drop of paint on these guys! In progress pics to come soon...



For the collector, Argonaut Resins plans on releasing Tuttz in waves; available exclusively through selected online shops. The Jade versions (+ 1 painted variant) will only be available via Plastic & Plush (www.plasticandplush.com), and the Ash versions (+ 1 painted variant) will only be available via Spanky Stokes (www.spankystokes.com). Keep an eye on the Argonaut Resins blog ( http://argonautsresin.blogspot.com) for more updates on the release of Tuttz, as I hear there will be more coloured editions coming soon...

Photos: My Apartment

I moved to Vancouver just over a month ago, and here are some pics from my apartment. :)

My sewing machine is all set up and ready to go. I LOVE this sewing area, it's my favourite place to work because of the view. :)



Here's a bunch of deer that are cut out and waiting to be stuffed.



"Snow Falling on Poppies" by Krista Huot.



Left Top: "Two Sisters" by Audrey Kawasaki / Left Bottom: photo print by me!

Right: "A Want To Believe" by Eric Fortune (gift from an amazing friend!)
+ a bunch of other fun stuff like a signed Emilie Autumn poster (from another amazing friend!)



A selection of Mark Ryden's postcards from his "Snow Yak Show Microportfolio".



Some of my toy collection + DIY vinyls waiting to be customized...



Me! ...watching Amelie. :)

Mish Mash: Plush, Designs, Paintings + new camera!

Here's a shot of my craft table today with 4 commissions in the works. I'm having a lot of fun with these ones. :)



Below are my entries for Matt JOnes (AKA Lunartik)'s Lovely Cup Of Tea design competition. Check out the finalists HERE, and all the entries HERE. It was fun creating a design from a blank template (although I much rather work on a custom in person). My theme for the one on the left was: black + pink, drips and gothic lettering. The one on the right was obviously inspired by Alice In Wonderland. :)



My Mom found a stash of my old art projects from high school, and this one was my fav in the set. I drew/painted this in Grade 11 (mid 90's) for an "album cover" art project. I chose the band "Tokyo Ghetto Pussy" because I was really into their song "I Kiss Your Lips" www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAmN3ji-iVE at the time (haha). I also really wanted an excuse to draw anime-inspired characters, cause I was totally into Asian design. I omitted a "T" in "Ghetto" so the design would be symmetrical. Haha, how "ghetto" is that!!! LOL.



Below was an assignment for Life Drawing class. First we drew the model (I drew her twice because I was bored :P), then using pieces of construction paper, I ripped off sections to block out shadows, highlights and midtones. I did this in highschool (mid-90's). I kinda like it.



And last but not least... my Dad gave me his old 35mm Canon TLb camera (made in 1974)! Wooo hooo! It's got a 50mm 1.8 lens and a 135mm 3.5 lens. I used to shoot with this baby in highschool (yes, I'm that old). It's pretty good. I shot about 95% of my Toronto Graffiti pics with it. I'm really looking forward to buying some 35mm film and shooting with it again.

In Progress: Destroyer Custom

I'm so excited! I was asked to be a guest artist for O_Negative's DIY Destroyer resin figure made by Argonaut Resins! This is the ONLY sneak peek you'll get before his full-paint reveal. I'm really looking forward to painting this guy, as he's already got a pretty sick design! :)

In Progress: Deer + Kalua Moola + Etsy Shop Feature

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Thanks to everyone who entered my plush deer giveaway hosted on TokyoBunnie's blog! This giveaway set a new record on TB's blog with 127 entries!!! Congrats to donelleohio who gets to take home a new deer. I plan on having a few more giveaways in the future, so stay tuned! :)
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Here are a few in progress pics of things I've been working on lately. After spending weeks painting the Kalua Moola custom, I wanted to do some sewing again. I've been working on 10 plush deer, and some of them will be hitting my Etsy shop tomorrow. But for now, here are some in progress pics.

Body parts waiting to be sewn...


After hours of work, the deer are all sewn up. Now I decide colours for noses, eyelids and dots...


Lucky is unsure about the growing deer herd...


Here's an in progress pic of my Kalua Moola custom. I had just put sealer on his lower body which is why he's drying upside down. ;)


And last but not least, I was super pleased to discover I was featured on Plastic + Plush's Etsy Wednesday blog feature (09/09/09)! Yay for little brown Ghostie!

In Progress: Kalua Moola Custom, Part 3

Here's another in progress pic of my Kalua Moola custom for the Artist Crossover Series with Argonaut Resins! As you can see, I've painted a bit more on this guy since my previous post. I added a teal cloud to the bottom part of his body and his ears, and I've drawn the tribal-styled designs on his forehead and I'm painting them in dark purple (I know it looks a bit like black, but it's really dark purple). Still got a ways to go...

In Progress: Kalua Moola Custom, Part 2

Below is a pic of my Kalua Moola custom with the first 2 or 3 coats of purple paint on him. This paint is very thin and takes several coats to build up a nice smooth opaque look (it took like 10 coats), so that's why it looks a bit "patchy" right now. I left parts of him white because they will be painted different colours. You can see my design + colour key sketch in the background. ;)


In this next pic, I've finished the purple base coat (you can see it's nice and opaque after lots of layers), and I've started painting his eyes. I like to start with the eyes because I think that really starts to bring the character and personality alive. Do you like the yellow paint? :) His nose, ears and bandages will be a different colour, so I've left them unpainted for now.


Next I added an outline around the eyes. I think his personality is really starting to come through. You can see what colour his ears will be....


More to come soon...

In Progress: Kalua Moola Custom, Part 1

Here's a snapshot of my blank Kalua Moola figure waiting to be customized. Look at how tough he is! He's so ready for me to bring on the paint. I've drawn up a few ideas already (you can see some in the pic), and I'm very close to deciding on my final design and I can't wait to slap on the first layer of paint!

I couldn't believe it when I first received him -- he is hand cast! I'm so used to the factory made vinyl toys, and have never held an original hand cast vinyl toy before. It was like seeing an original painting or something, very exciting! If you'd like to customize your own Kalua Moola figure, then you're in luck! Argonaut Resins is selling 8 DIY KM figures in their online shop. Grab 'em now because they're going to sell out fast!

My very messy Craft Table!

I always like seeing what other people's craft tables look like, so I thought I'd post a pic of mine as of right this second! It's so messy and completely unworkable at the moment, but that tends to happen when you have a billion projects on the go. I added some tags + description to this photo which you can check out over at Flickr.

In progress: New project in the works!

As you know, I like to keep myself busy with lots of art projects. So after deciding that my list of things-to-do wasn't long enough, I decided to embark on a new project. Here are a few sneak-peeks:



What's it going to be? Don't worry, everything will be revealed by the end of the week! :)

Kalua Moola Artist Crossover Series w/ Argonaut Resins

I'm so pleased to announce that I've been asked to be an artist in the Artist Crossover Series with Argonaut Resins! I'm going to be painting a Kalua Moola, designed by Lord Mesa and sculpted by Eric Nocella Diaz. I'll be posting in progress pics as I go along. Below is the figure I'll be customizing. Just look at how cute and tough this little bugger is!



Here's a sneak-peek at what the packaging for the box will look like. I think it rocks!!! EEEEE! (That's me squealing in excitement, lol) I'm soooo super excited about this! :)


[Pic by Argonaut Resins]

In Progress: More Deer!

Right now I have about 20 new deer in progress! ;o_o Here's a pic of them in their various stages of completion. The first stage is the cut-out deer patterns (you can see them lying on the table). Next they get machine sewn & stuffed (these ones are in the container). Then they get their head/ears/tail attached by hand sewing them all together (standing on the table). In the last step they get their eyes/dots glued on (not shown).

It takes hours to complete a batch of deer, so I usually watch movies as I hand-sew to help pass the time. In the past 2 weeks I've watched: Gandi, Hotel Rwanda, Changeling, The Reader, Frost/Nixon, Broken English, 2 Days In Paris, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Tokyo!, JCVD, Man On Wire, Bomb It, Style Wars, The Queen, Clerks 2 and Twilight.

In Progress: Custom for Munny Grubbers show @ Just Blazed

When I was working on Two of Spades (my Mighty Muggs custom), I posted a preview pic of it on my art table. That's not much of sneak peek, now is it? :\ This time I'm gonna show the whole sketch. ;) This custom is for the Munny Grubbers show at Just Blazed on August 8th in Phoenix, Arizona. I finally had a bit of time between sewing projects to sketch out a few pages of ideas (you can see some on my sketchbook in the background). I finally decided on the design that you see sketched out below. Now I start painting! :D

In Progress: Two plush dolls > pics + creative process

I'm currently making two plush dolls for a special project, so I thought I'd share some in progress pics and talk about making them. :)

1) First I start out with a rough sketch of what I want to make. I already have an idea of what their personalities are like, and I try to bring that out in their expression, outfit, and overall look. My creative process is always evolving, and new decisions are made at every step that I could never have forseen with the initial sketch (later on you can see that I scrapped the dresses, and swapped the mouths).



2) Next I choose the colours and fabric I want to use. I lay everything out in an abstract kind of way to help visualize what colours go together, and what don't before I start cutting the fabric.



3) Then I cut everything out. It's hard to tell that they'll look any good at this point, lol.



4) Then I sew everything together that I can with the sewing machine (it makes my life easier!) and I start stuffing body parts.



5) Everything is sewn together! In this pic you can see that I've done a bit of handsewing already (sewn the legs on the body, sewn the hair on the heads, etc), and I've also pinned the eyes on their faces. I do this so I can start adding the smokey-eye look (with pastels and q-tips) exactly where I want before sewing the eyes overtop of the added makeup.



6-7) I hand sew the tiny collars for the dresses, and choose which buttons will suit the white-haired girl best. Then I sew their eyes on after adding eyeshadow and blush.



8 ) I think once they have smokey eyes, the dolls really start to come together and their personality starts to show. At this point I'm figuring out what type of lace I'm going to use for the ruffle collar and other lacey accents. Their heads and arms aren't attached yet... I do those last. The white-haired girl's hair buns won't be sewn on until last because her buns sit low on her head, and I need to have room to sew the ruffle collar to her neck first. The ruffle collars are then pre-sewn (so they are nice and ruffly), and ready to be attached to the bodies. In this pic I decided on pink mouths.



9-10) The dolls are both happy (and unhappy) with their new smiles, and can't wait for me to finish them! I'll be revealing their names & backstories when they're completed. :)



...To be continued...