NEW! Amigurumis!

Shameful! Two years have gone by since my last post. Lets sort of make up for it with three new dolls. From the top it's Tars Tarkas. I made him right after seeing the John Carter movie that nobody liked. I wish they'd at least made some toys for that movie but clearly Disney was not the least bit interested in it. Stupid Disney. I made my own toy.

Second is Admiral Ackbar from the Return of the Jedi. Made him for a friend.

And last, Jack Kirby's Demon from DC comics. I was going for more of the Funko POP big head look because I love those little plastic figures.

j.

GOBUKAN The Accountant!

This is a character I created back in college who is now seeing the light of day as a web-comic! Check out the adventures of GOBUKAN at Saturday Morning Webtoons!
j.

Yo Gabba Gabba Gang!

These guys were made for a Yo Gabba Gabba art show at Meltdown Comics in L.A. June 3rd to the 17th. Individual pictures to follow.

j.

Krampusnacht!

Time to update this here Craft Blog! I've been crocheting more than ever lately (and even doing a little bit of knitting). I'm the Artist of the Day on Teenage Satan's Twitter! Woot!

This is Krampus! He's a mythical demon who travels with good ol' St. Nick -- Krampus punishes all the bad kids by beating them with sticks. I decided he might take the REALLY bad ones away in a sack and eat them.

All these bad kids are gonna make for a delicious stew for Krampus. There probably won't even be leftovers.

j.

Trio Magnus!

Here are a group of dolls I finished recently for an upcoming art show featuring the super talented artistic trifecta - Trio Magnus. I picked a bunch of characters from among the many canvases the guys created at live art shows. The tallest, the Basket-ball dude (naturally) is about 15inches high. The smallest is this little egg at about 4inches.

Shalla Bal! The little French Bulldog!

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.
I've been refining my "cute" pattern so that the body is much smaller than the head. I think I've got it figured now.



Oh, what's that behind Shalla? So she pooped! What the heck...even her poops are cute!

j.

The Wolverine!

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.