Hey Presto Commish - pt 3

Hey everyone!

Here're a couple more of those illustrations I did for Hey Presto Limited.

The Powers pictured here are Invisibility and Dice Prediction!
There are two more left to show you, but if you haven't already then check out X-Ray vision and Quantum Tunnelling, Levitation and Telekinesis in my previous posts!

Adventure Time - Finn plushie!

Hey there Adventurers!

A little while ago I showed you the felted Jake the Dog plushie I made for my sister's birthday. 

(If you missed it, don't remember, or wanna see it again, CLICK HERE!)

So today I'll show you the other half of the duo, Finn the Human!

And, as always, here is how I made him!

 

As with Jake, I drew a template to get the scale and everything right, then twisted armature wire into a rough skeleton frame. Next I grabbed a ball of light blue felting wool and felted it around the centre of the wire armature for his main body.

Next, with pink wool you flesh out Finn's arms and legs. As I explained with Jake, I've found the best way to do this is by wrapping a thin length of felting wool around the wire armature and then poke around the outsides with the needle so as to avoid stabbing the wire and breaking the needle!

He's looking a bit naked, so next thing to do is felt in his shorts! Cut off a short length of dark blue wool and simply felt it over his body and legs. Make sure to define his waistband and the cut offs of his shorts first, it can be quite tricky to keep the edges of the colours clean and un-fuzzed! Here you can also shape his hips and crotch a bit better...

To do his shoes felt black wool and shape his feet first, then roll out short lengths of white for his socks. Again you need to be careful to keep the colours separated and defined, I found felting the white to the black rather tricky, the black liked to show through and mess the colours up.

Oh! Here you can also shape his hands and thumbs!

Something's missing, he's a bit headless... roll out a ball of white wool and felt it into a kinda arch shaped disc, usually when felting a separate shape to attach to another I wold keep on edge unworked, but this time felt all edges as the colour you'll be attaching it to is different and we want to keep the distinction. Next roll out two little sausages for the ears of his hat and stab away, these you can leave fluffy to attach to his head.

Almost there! Roll out a very small amount of pink wool, just enough to cover the white, and felt it onto the front of his hat to make his face. Remember, stab along the outline of the shape first, then felt the middle. Lastly glue or sew on two small black beads for his eyes and felt on a very thin length of black wool for his mouth! (be careful that parts really tricky!) 

Oh! Almost forgot his bag! Apparently I didn't take photos of this part...

You'll need to cut off two equal sized lengths of pale green and a bright green wool and felt them into semi-circles of roughly the same size, I drew a rear view template to gauge the size here, then attach them together by poking the needle through both halves to felt the join and make a two toned circular disc.

Next for the straps, as before cut two smaller equal lengths of the pale and light green wool and from them separate out four fairly thin pieces. Felt each piece separately into little sausages of equal size, then pair them up light green to bright green to create two straps. 

What you want to do next is position the backpack on his back, then with Finn lying on top, wrap one strap around the top of his arm and stab away to secure it to the backpack. Do this again on the other side, then poke a few times on the straps and in the middle of the backpack to felt it a little to Finn's body and secure it in place.

And there he is! A fully posable Finn plushie!

And there you have it! Finn and Jake ready for an adventure!!

I'll get my sister, budding photographer that she is, to take some nice professional photos of these guys together!

*Note: Plushie Finn does not stand without support, in the final photos there are needles in his feet enabling him to stand on the foam base.

Hey Presto Commish - pt 2

Morning all!!

I've got a couple more illustrations from my recent commission from Hey Presto Limited to share with you!

Last time I showed you X-Ray vision and Quantum Tunnelling, here we have Levitation and Telekinesis! 

Stay tuned for a couple more soon!

While you're waiting, check out Hey Presto's YouTube channel! They have some very cool clips of sneaky tricks!

Hey Presto Commission!

Things have been a tad thin on the blogging front recently, and I apologise!
These past few weeks have been very hectic with preparations for our upcoming house move, everything has had to take a small step back while we're living in and out of boxes. But I hope to make posts more regular once we're settled in!

However, this past week has found me an exceptionally busy bunny on the illustrative front (as any of you who follow me on Twitter will know!) and now I can finally reveal what I've been feverishly working on!

Justin Monehen from the magic design company and book publishers, Hey Presto Limited contacted me about producing 8 illustrations for a new product he's working on!

Here's a look at a couple of the finished coloured illustrations and pencils!

As you can probably tell, they're depicting kids with powers! Here we have X-Ray vision and Quantum Tunnelling!

I'll blog up a couple more at a later date, but till then be sure to check out what Hey Presto is all about on their website: http://heypresto.com

Or find them on Twitter: @HeyPrestoLtd
and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/heyprestolimited

Adventure Time - Jake plushie!

Since I got into needle felting I made a couple surprise things for my sister, whose birthday was on Saturday 18th. She is OBSESSED with the Adventure Time cartoons and so I though I'd make her poseable Jake and Finn plushies!! 

I'd made these quite a while ago, but couldn't post without spoiling the surprise. But now FINALLY I can show you all!!

So, let me introduce you to Jake!!

 As with my other felting projects I took progress photos to be able to show you exactly how I made this lil guy! Here's how I did it.

First off I drew a simple template for both Jake and Finn so as to be able to get the scale for them right.  In the cartoon Jake and Finn's limbs are like rubber and wobble all over the place so I thought it would be awesome to make my plushies poseable, so using the drawing as a template I twisted some armature wire into a rough skeleton.

Next I grabbed a ball of yellow-orange felting wool and felted it into a fat oval shape around the wire to make Jake's body. As these guys are fairly small and spindly there is no need to use a core fibre to pad them out.

Next step is to flesh out Jake's arms and legs. I did this in very much the same was as I did for Chibi Totoro's leaf, by wrapping a thin length of felting wool around the wire armature and then poking it with the needle, working on a limb at a time and being careful not to break the needle by stabbing the wire.

Once you have the wire completely covered with felted wool you can begin to build up the shape of his feet and hands!

He's getting there! All that's left to do is sculpt out his droopy muzzle and ears, and felt on a little tail and his body is complete!

Next roll out a small ball of black wool and felt it into a very rounded upside down triangle shape for his nose, then two more small balls for his eyes. Remember to felt around the edges of the shapes to get the outline right, then felt the centre.

Finally add two smaller circles of white to his eyes to make his pupils and there you have it! A fully poseable Jake plushie!

He's awesome isn't he!!? I'm really pleased with how Jake turned out, he's a relatively simple shape and was fairly easy to make! Finn however presented a bit more of a challenge...
I'll do a post on him shortly!


*Note: Plushie Jake doesn't stand without support, in the final photos there is a needle in his foot enabling him to stand on the foam base.

Making Totoro!

Say "Hello" to Totoro!

Before I showed you how I created the little white Chibi Totoro in my first attempt at Needle Felting!
Well I have just finished my attempt at making Totoro himself, wanna know how I did it?

Sure you do, here's how:

As I'd planned for Totoro to be much larger than the little white fella I decided to experiment with using a cheaper core fibre as a base to felt in top of, there by saving money on the more expensive coloured felting wool!
Here I used Polyester fibre, that's your plain old teady bear stuffing! As polyester has very short fibres and is quite loosely compacted I felt I needed to start with a fairly small/manageable amount and roll it in my hands a bit first to begin the felting process, and then poke at it with a 32G needle used to heavy shaping. I used two needles at the same time to make the felting process quicker! You can add more rolled balls of fibre to build up the pear shape of Totoro's body but try not to work the polyester fibre too much, just enough that it holds the shape, as we'll be adding the grey felting wool on top which will continue to felt the fibres beneath.

Next you get a mid grey coloured felting wool and layer it on top of the white core fibre and felt away! Try and work the surface evenly and add more grey wool where necessary to cover up any places where the white shows through. Keep going until Totoro's body is completely covered.

Totoro's ear, arms and tail can be made straight out of the felting wool. As with when I made Chibi Totoro, you simply snip off a bit of wool, roll it loosely to make the rough shape/size you need and start  poking with the needle.

For the ears you need to make little tear drop shapes, leaving the largest end unworked to be felted to the main body. For this less heavy duty task I used 38G and 40G needles.

Same method again for the arms, using a larger amounts of wool and shaping them into flat bottomed tear shapes... kinda like little slugs... leaving the ends to attach to the body unworked. You can also begin to shape the body a little more here and there, defining the head and cheeks a little.

And once more, the same thing for the tail. You want to aim for a sort of fat round tear drop shape. I also continued shaping his body further by adding a little sausage of wool to his head to make a snout!

All that remains now is to add the details!

Now, grab a small-ish ball of cream wool, just enough to cover the circle of his belly. You can tease it out fairly thinly as you only need enough to just cover the grey. I started poking carefully around the top edge of the cream circle with a 40G needle first, just to define the shape, then felted my way down, always making sure the felt the edges carefully first. If you've any excess wool when you reach the bottom just snip it off and complete the circle. You can add small bits of cream anywhere where grey shows through or where the circle outline is a bit wobbly.

Next you want to get your grey wool back and make the markings on his belly. You want to snip off only a short length and tease out seven thin strips, you don't need very much at all. I started with the middle upside-down V shape in the top row, poking around the outline of the shape (aim for a sort of boomerang) snip off the excess and then fill in the middle. With the central shape done you can gauge better where to place the other two markings on the top row, and then the bottom row of four just underneath.

Lastly roll out a small black upside-down triangle for his nose and two small balls of white for eyes and felt them on in the same way as the other details, for these though you might want to use a very fine 42G needle as it can be quite fiddly.
Then poke repeatedly in the centre of his eyes to make a small hole to place beads for his pupils. I sewed his eyes in then added a dab of glue.

And there you have it! 

But now I'm going to have to complete the set and make the blue Chuu Totoro!! Look out for that one and more in the future!