BIG "C" little "a"

Spring themed plush

2009-04-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

Here are my spring inspired pieces, they were pretty last minute ideas (I designed and created Liam O'Brien ON St. Patrick's Day), so not quite as elaborate as Feb.'s challenge- but still keeping in mind Leo's ideas about color- making sure that it reflects/reinforces the nature of the idea without overwhelming it or taking away from the overall aesthetic.

St. Valentine

2009-03-23T00:11:00.000-07:00

better late than never, right?

Spring

2009-03-12T06:25:00.000-07:00

What theme shall we do now that it's almost spring? How about Spring? Maybe give ourselves until the end of April?

The King and Queen of Hearts

2009-02-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

Here's my February post, I've always wanted to do my own version of the King and Queen of Hearts, and here was the perfect opportunity. All the details took me longer than I thought! If you want to see more pics, head on over to my blog or flickr.

UPDATE:

So, John Quinn asked a great question in the comments for this post that I will try to answer here. He noted that he'd like to read more about the design decisions we make for these posts based on Leo's teachings. Excellent idea, don't know why we didn't do it before. :)
Ok, so here goes with my thought process based on what I learned from Leo Monahan. Whenever I approach a design I always ask myself the same things: are there enough variety/size of shapes, is there a point of interest, are all my colors/textures integrated well, if there is line work- is there variety of thick and thin, is the spacing of the elements interesting, is it interesting overall to look at, and how well does it solve the design question? In the case of these plush, I wanted to make sure that each plush was an interesting overall shape, and that there were obvious as well as subtle heart references throughout the pieces. For both King and Queen I used a fabric that had a million tiny pink hearts printed all over it for their "skin". In the case of the King, I made his mustache curl into subtly warped heart shapes, and used a heart shape within his belt buckle. With the Queen, her hair makes a heart shape on each side, her nose is a heart shape, etc. There was also the "royalty" aspect of this project that had to come across as well. I used a rich red velvet for their robes, and gold trim to reinforce the idea of wealth, status. I new from day one that the Queen needed a ruffled collar- a nod at Elizabethan times. I also wanted to incorporate the color purple- symbolic for royalty- without taking away from the red palette. I used a purple shade for the Queen's eyes, and a lighter one for the King's nose. Another aspect of Leo's teachings, and the one that pops into my head whenever I get to figuring out color is the squint test. If i squint my eyes and the color disappears into the other colors, (usually not what I'm going for) then I need to keep working on it until it doesn't. I also try to remember not to keep things even everywhere- which is why the Queen has 1 heart on one side of her robe, and 2 on the other, and her arms are in different positions. As for the King- if you notice he has more shirt space on the left side of his robe than on the right, and has 2 different heart buttons, and his ears aren't in exactly the same place. I also felt that I needed to balance the white hearts on the robes-so they didn't just distract the eye- with white accents elsewhere: their collars, and white in the Queen's crown. (brighter red accents in the King's crown to incorporate the robe color.)
Hope that gives you a better idea John! :D

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-14T21:33:00.000-08:00

February's theme is:

2009-01-28T15:46:00.000-08:00

VALENTINE! So I want to see some great work from you all- the deadline is as usual the last day of February by midnight. Since it's not a leap year that means the 28th for all you procrastinators out there. We have a little extra time for this one, so get cracking! I got this image from the Taschen book "Valentines: Vintage Holiday Graphics"- it's full of these old school Valentines- hopefully it'll get the creative juices flowing. I look forward to seeing everybody's ideas!

Valentines?

2009-01-26T22:00:00.000-08:00

What say ye, all? For our next theme? Come on, I want to make a calendar!

Christmas

2009-01-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

Merry (belated) Christmas!

A Santa and some holiday Rabbits

2008-12-17T12:03:00.000-08:00

Here's my holiday contribution, hope everyone had a great Christmas, and a Happy New Year! :D Now that I've given this "Red, White, and Blue" Santa to my mother-in-law for Christmas, I thought I'd add this to my post. Let's start the next month off with a bang and see some great new work!!

December's theme is...

2008-12-09T11:41:00.001-08:00

HOLIDAY/CHRISTMAS! If you have any ideas for this month's theme, you have until December 31st to post them! If you have your November "boat" pieces finished, feel free to post those as well, I realize it's hard to keep deadlines at this time of the year. So go and get your "holiday" swerve on and get creating! :D

My "BOAT" contribution

2008-11-28T10:48:00.000-08:00

I was word listing and kept coming back to sailboats. We always see so many out on the green waters of the Bay when it's a nice day up here, so that was my inspiration for this piece. I wanted to keep it simple and readable, and everything is made from felt.

Sloterdijk Autumn

2008-11-06T10:42:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, I'm a little late on my submission for Fall. It's an homage to the autumn season and the Dutch thinker Peter Sloterdijk. Hope all is well!

And the November word is..."BOAT"

2008-11-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone, So we're off to a bit of a slow start, but at least we've started. Just a quick reminder, you can still post your "Fall" Ideas, better late than never right? Anyway, we have a few nice pieces showing our Fall theme, and now we are now onto the November word which is "Boat" Have fun with it, the due date is Nov.30, but feel free to turn them in early.

Money Tree in the Fall

2008-11-03T00:17:00.000-08:00

So with the economy being what it is I came up with the idea of showing a Money Tree in the Fall losing it's leaves. get it, Fall Season, Fall on Wall Street. I know it's cheesy, but it was fun.

Pumpkins

2008-10-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

My "Fall" post...

2008-10-29T11:05:00.001-07:00

.... is SQUIRRELS! I was doing my Leo word list outside in the sunshine the other day and I was watching our dog Waffle tear around the yard chasing after the squirrels. Fall is her favorite time of year, she can't get enough of the chase. Never mind that the squirrels are at least 15 feet above the ground in our trees or rushing along the top of our fence, she chases them for all she's worth. Has to be that terrier blood. So after trying many other generic ideas for "Fall" (and having already done a Halloween plush, so that was out) I kept coming back to squirrels, and design ideas were soon filling up pages in my sketchbook. I included 2 pages of sketches so you can see the thought process, and if you want to see more squirrel pics, head on over to my flickr.
*they'll also be available in my etsy store if anyone's interested- blatant plug, sorry!*

Quick reminder!

2008-10-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Just a quick blurb to remind everyone that we have until next friday (Oct. 31st! already!) to get your "fall" themed piece posted. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all come up with. It's finally starting to feel a little crisp in the mornings up here, and the leaves are all turning... Hooray for fall- it's about time! :D

Themes...

2008-09-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

Was driving along, thinking about this blog (very excited about, btw) and what I can do for my fall theme. Then I started thinking about the type of themes we could do for the entire first year. Since we are beginning with fall, What if for each month we had a theme based on either the seasons or holidays? I'm totally thinking about potential illustrations for a self published 2010 calendar, of course... What do you all think? The sky is the limit, no? One could do traditional, folk art, robots, monsters, Elvis, anything! ooooooh, I'm starting to drool!

Ok- not to the point, but...

2008-09-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist! I found this while I was going through a bunch of old stuff in the studio, and thought this was too good not to share with you all. Oh for the bygone days of our youth. This is a shot of Jesse and Terrell in their cube at CalArts circa 1994! I know it has nothing to do with our theme this month, except for the fact that it was taken in september in the "fall". So there! :D Hope you guys get a big chuckle out of it, and that it brings back all the good memories of our CalArts days. If this picture isn't inspiring, then I don't know what is! :D

First Theme Word

2008-09-24T13:03:00.001-07:00

Hi all, So our first official word is "Fall", since we are starting in the fall. You guys and gals can turn them in anytime between now and Oct 31st, then we'll have a new word. So start sketching, drawing, painting, sculpting or whatever. But most importantly have fun. Oh, and word lists are optional, but handy to the "Leo process", and you don't have to post them unless you really want to.