Electric buzzbox family.

I hadn't intended in making a clan of these characters but it's the way it turned out. I'm not sure why these things have perfectly formed faces on them, but they really do, and they look pretty cheerful at the same time. Is someone in the factory where they are made having a little joke, or are the designers in the same mindset as me where they have faces in everything?  It might be just a happy coincidence but I'm not convinced. These thing are there on the road, smiling out at everyone. Next time you pass one, have a look and it should give you a smile. They are really quite cute, well, as cute as an electrical box can be I suppose.

The clones and their original

Birth of a box. Look how excited they are.

There's always a shy one, and a not so shy one.

The family portrait

Never work with children, animals or small boxes.

Second chair.

So it seems that there's just not enough to do at the minute so I thought I'd have a go at designing another chair. I'm kidding, naturally, there's plenty to be doing but I really like the idea of this competition and can't wait to make the full size one this week. For now though, these are some pics of the new chair.

Yes that is a cast of a lightbulb on the chair and no I didn't pick it for any reason other than to have something sitting on the chair.

I'm hoping the simpler design of this chair will make it easier to make full size. Let's hope that there's strength in them there cardboard bits.

Crown Paints cardboard chair competition...

So I've done my first mock up of the chair I'm hoping to do for this competition. It will need some simplifying maybe and definitely some cleaning up but I think it fits the castle theme I was going for.

Rough Blueprints.

For some reason blogger unrotates some photos when I'm uploading, this I have yet to figure out.

I know in my head what I'm going for here I think, and I used the drawings to work out my measurements. This mock up is 12.5cm x 12.5cm, or 1:16

Basic and not quite regal yet.

add a little flourish...

Added a shelf for flowers or a candle or your crown.

I hope this structure at the back will give it some strength. Not that I intend sitting in it for that long.

With added crown, on the crown shelf, obviously.

I think I would like to add some detail to the back of the chair, possibly some cut-out filligrie or a cut out coat of arms. We shall see.

Leftover bits, maybe for more decoration.
 Again blogger is messin' with my rotation.

I will post more pictures of the actual construction of the final chair when I am making it, and show how all the bits fit together.

And then the fog lifted....

Nearly the same photo, but the apartments in the
background change it from rural to urban.

Atlas holding the world, sort of.

The sky was so clear , I loved the contrast with the building in this one.

Finding my environments...

There's a character under the water there somewhere. But which one?

This one almost looks like a painting. No editing involved.

This could be a cliff in the clouds.

Many thanks to the environment this week for covering us with fog for the last few mornings. It made for some nice moody shots of the the piers and bridges. It's given me an atmosphere to work from in finding the type of character that would suit these shots.

And to begin...

  My project was born out of the many faces that jump out at me from everywhere and everything, from buildings to other ordinary objects and many more. The investigation into these objects and their 'faces' led me to Illustrating them using the Adobe package, and also to see which objects might make it into the realm of character design. These objects/characters need somewhere to live/inhabit, and my next stage of the investigation is into the different places that they may be found, whether that's in the hidden environments in the city or out in the open amongst us. This will involve an observation of the urban environment such as the streets, pubs, cafés, and other areas which may be not so visible immediately. My aim is to create, through various media, an environment for these characters to reside. I will be using photography, drawing, computer aided illustration, paper and card craft and painting and whatever else I happen upon in the project.

My aim is to have a fun and light hearted look at the characters that I see in the environment around me and to create their world from our own or bring them to life in our urban environment, co-habitation, if you will.

Well that's the plan anyway.