I made this guy, Wolverine from Marvel Comics X-Men, in record time (about two days). My superhero main body is completely figured out which made things easy. But with this guy I wanted to try a new cartoony body. I had a dream...this is true...I dreamed a whole toy store, filled with amazing new toys that when I awoke I was disappointed to realize were not real! I sketched as many of the toys as I could remember (notepad by the bed, kids, is essential!!)
The little drawing of Wolverine in costume is the sketch I made based on the dream Wolverine. He was in his Byrne era costume but with the stripes on his side from the blue and yellow costume. I don't know my Wolverine history but I don't think he ever mixed the two eras in costume form. Anyway, once I started sketching my plans I realized that what I really wanted to make was not the costumed Wolverine at all. What I wanted was a jeans and t-shirt Wolvie! Just the casual cool Logan character seen in more leisurely scenes.
So off came the gloves and boots. This made it a whole lot easier for color as well. I don't know that I've got the yarn for Wolverine's Brownish-red/tan-yellow costume. But I do have deep maroon and grey-blue yarn! I also sketched up a profile of Wolverine's head in order to figure out the parts I'd neet to make to get the right shape. "
Keep
It
Simple,
Stupid" is a motto I always try to follow in my work (drawing and crochet). Busying something up almost never turns out well. In my past crochet projects I've tried to make the head shape by increasing and decreasing as I go around the head. Bah! Too much trouble.
Wolverine before hair! You can sort of make out that I made a long tube for his head and neck. Just straight up stitching until it felt like the right length. Then I made a chin, again based on scale of everything and my profile sketch, until it looked right. Add ears and nose which are just flat stitched and curled or folded into the right shapes. Pop on some eyes and Bob's your uncle.
Here's the completed Wolverine by the light of day! The body is exactly the same as my generic Superhero body pattern, the arms are almost the same. I think I increased the diameter of all segments for cartooniness and Popeye style forearms. I returned to mitten hands for this guy because it just seemed to call for a simpler approach (K.I.S.S.)
You will notice two things are missing - arm hair and claws. Claws are coming. Arm hair I tried in several different ways but nothing looked right. Once I get it figured out I'll post new pictures with the arm hair added.
Here's Wolverine's butt! You can see that he's sturdy enough to actually stand on his own. Most of the male hero dolls are able to. The girls can't at all because I give them such tiny feet.
"You lookin' at me, bub?"
Yarn!
j.
This is my version of a friend's adorable little French Bulldog! I couldn't keep a dog in my current apartment but this little huggable companion doesn't need to be walked or fed. She sits nicely on my couch, doesn't snort too loudly or drop chew toys into my shoes.
Oh, what's that behind Shalla? So she pooped! What the heck...even her poops are cute!
So off came the gloves and boots. This made it a whole lot easier for color as well. I don't know that I've got the yarn for Wolverine's Brownish-red/tan-yellow costume. But I do have deep maroon and grey-blue yarn! I also sketched up a profile of Wolverine's head in order to figure out the parts I'd neet to make to get the right shape. "Keep It Simple, Stupid" is a motto I always try to follow in my work (drawing and crochet). Busying something up almost never turns out well. In my past crochet projects I've tried to make the head shape by increasing and decreasing as I go around the head. Bah! Too much trouble.
Wolverine before hair! You can sort of make out that I made a long tube for his head and neck. Just straight up stitching until it felt like the right length. Then I made a chin, again based on scale of everything and my profile sketch, until it looked right. Add ears and nose which are just flat stitched and curled or folded into the right shapes. Pop on some eyes and Bob's your uncle.
Here's the completed Wolverine by the light of day! The body is exactly the same as my generic Superhero body pattern, the arms are almost the same. I think I increased the diameter of all segments for cartooniness and Popeye style forearms. I returned to mitten hands for this guy because it just seemed to call for a simpler approach (K.I.S.S.)
Here's Wolverine's butt! You can see that he's sturdy enough to actually stand on his own. Most of the male hero dolls are able to. The girls can't at all because I give them such tiny feet.
"You lookin' at me, bub?"
Pretty much my favouritest of all the superheroes is Metamorpho, due in large part to his artist Ramona Fradon. I love Ramona's art! I tried to capture the way she drew his face but it was difficult to recreate with yarn. For the most part I like how it all turned out...only his mouth still sticks in my craw as being "off". Ramona had a very distinct way of drawing Rex Mason's mouth and I didn't get it with yarn.
This year I made a few Amigurumis for some special people! Catwoman and her cats (Ebony and Ivory? Midnight and Snowy? Blacky and Whitey?) based on the Darwyn Cooke Catwoman was made for... Darwyn and his gal, Marsha. Catwoman's whip is her belt and it can be removed for capturing criminals.
Spidey was made for the brilliant and wonderful Cal Johnston of Strange Adventures. If you're ever in Halifax with a hankerin' for some comic bookin' go to Strange Adventures. Cal and the kids who work there are incredibly friendly and they know their stuff. 
Batman was made for Rachelle of Living Between Wednesdays. Check out Rachell's blog for her reaction to the doll. I'm not entirely happy with Batman's bat-symbol but it was the best I could do. I thought stitching the bat would be easier than it was. 
Princess Christi of Princess Planet was made for my good friend Brian. He's also a fan of sock monkeys so I threw one in as a leg humper so Princess Christi wouldn't get lonely. 
Mother Mary, Joseph and Baby were made for my Grandma. She's the only member of my family to get a crochet doll for Christmas. These were made small and stitched all-together because Grandma hasn't got much room in her apartment. I know it's not historically accurate for Baby Jesus to have a pacifier but, c'mon, it's adorable! Right?
