This month's title, while late, is still not quite an art instruction book but is, rather, another art inspiration book: Vinyl Will Kill - An inside look at the designer toy phenomenon from Design Labs.
When I first thought of eventually publishing a webcomic, I immediately toyed (ye gads, another atrocious pun) with the idea that the characters I'd created might have marketing potential as action figures; I've even gone so far as to think about the packaging. Other artists have produced homemade items: small standees and other paper crafts, shrinky-dinks, laser-cut (!) or etched badges or, even contracted with factories to make metal pins based on their creations to supplement the donations that are typically the only income derived from webcomics. After all, as Mel Brooks's character "Yogurt" in his space-opera mashup film Spaceballs said: "Merchandising, merchandising -- where the real money from the movie is made."
Having heard of the vinyl toy phenom, from TV programs like the once-qualitative ones on G4, web searches, and seeing the actual products in the local stores favoured by trendoids, thought it might be one way to get into production. After all, I doubt that Mattel would be interested in a line of furry characters from a minor webcomic. A cottage industry might just work, though.
Hence this book. A quick perusal reveals scads of interviews with "them that are doing" and, I hope a thorough reading will reveal not only the thought processes behind creating these toys but, the mechanics of production as well.
The book comes in a box with a little window (accounting for the sheen on the rabbit above) in it allowing one to see part of the cover, which it nearly duplicates. I've also slapped my sig over this piccy as a watermark so it won't be stolen by an ebaYer too lazy to make his own scan. Also contained within is a folded-up poster and 36 collectible cards, which seem to be randomly selected from a slightly larger set. "Gotta catch 'em all"? Doesn't seem that they needed any additional marketing gimmick to sell this specialty tome but, who knows?
Sadly now out-of-print (copyright 2004) but still available on ebaY (what isn't?) some specialty book stores and even Amazon; selling as a collectible for umpteen-times its cover price.
Now, I have a background in plastic prototyping, via CAD-CAM and Stereolithography, and have done hand lay-up fibreglass work and metal casting, so will be trying to extrapolate that experience into modeling (additive sculpture) with polymer clays to sculpt the prototype figurines. Perhaps the instructional material from that effort might even make its way into this blog.
Rapid-prototyping is all about taking a project "from art to part" and, that translation often leads to something being lost or gained, as one discipline rubs up against another and either amalgamates or knocks the rough edges off. I'm curious to see how designing vinyl toys will affect my characters' looks in the model sheets, and question even if it should. After all: there's always garage kits to consider.
How about: fully digesting one art book every month? Read them, grok them, follow the instructions and examples. In a vague remembrance of some words by Ray Bradbury: "Sniff them, roll in them, wear them on your silly head like hats. Spend as much time in the children's book stacks at the library as you do at those of the vaunted adults'."
Starting this month out with something that arrived late in December from one of FPS's favourite artists, Brian Reynolds:The Art of Brian & Tracy Reynolds.
Here's my take on the Sofawolf Press Artistic Visions series advert piccy. The book is a "two-fer" in that there's two books in one, with covers on each side. Or, should that be a "two-FURR"?
Finally, the scan of the absolutely SQUEE picture that Brian drew of my fursona in it --
Still rebuilding my archives... Had to re-locate a copy of "(It ain't easy) Bein' Furry" and only found an .xm version. Won't work with my iPood so, converted it to .mp3:
But, where was Tron Guy? If you can name all the Web memes in this video, you're online too much. Seriously, get out in the sun and fresh air, see real people, play with the dog, throw the frisbee around... NOW!
Pork and Beans
Just wonder where this was in production when "South Park" seemed to first do it with "Canada on Strike." (I'd give you a link to that one but, Comedy Central doesn't seem to play full episodes on any browser I've tried.) And, why did they leave out FPS show favorite "Tron Guy"? I sure hope they at least asked you, Jay.
Free Comic Book Day '08. Saturday the 3rd, being the first Saturday of May, was Free Comic Book Day at many of your local comic book shops. Hope you got out and grabbed as many of the ~41 titles available as you could. Your next chance to do so will be on May 2, 2009.
I was able to nab only 30 (plus the 2 HeroClix pieces: Iron Man & Star Wars) but, since those I missed were mostly titles like "Archie's Pal Jughead" and "The Moth," I didn't miss out on much, save for the few Independent publishers & Small Press offerings I would've liked to have in lieu of some I did snag.
Most retailers limit your take to 2 or 3 issues so, the secret to "catching them all," besides visiting multiple dealers (which I wasn't so thorough in doing this year) is to simply pay for them. Yes, BUY the FREE comics. At least offer to: many store owners are so taken aback by this tactic they'll let you have them at their 12-50 cents per copy loss-leader cost or, even just let you take more than the limit. Not all that much a savings for me; I always end up buying a $20+ book or collectible to show my appreciation but, it's an item I'd be buying anyway, just not usually there. Slowly getting Wizard Magazine's entire series of "How to Draw" books this way.
A nice feature of the larger or, at least better attended, stores is that they'll invite a local comic book artist or writer in to set up a table to ballyhoo his latest efforts. This year was no different and, I had a fine time pestering the artist (no, I'm not saying whom) with questions about the art and business of comics, watching him draw and rooting through his portfolio, sketchbook and DVD-player video demo. He even thought I was "Press" -- guess I just come off that way in person. Got his contact info and will refer him to Fes at the WebComic Beacon for a possible PodCast interview. BTW: check out http://www.webcomicbeacon.com for about 21 back P'cast episodes about webcomics and novice creators.
Here's this year's corniest cover of the lot. I suppose it's probably a tie-in with the upcoming "Speed Racer" live-action movie. Pity they didn't make it holographic so, the scene would rotate a bit, just like the anime opening.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feb_29 There is a tradition that women may make a proposal of marriage to men only in leap years, further restricted in some cases to only February 29. There is a tradition that in 1288 the Scottish parliament under Queen Margaret legislated that any woman could propose in Leap Year; few parliament records of that time exist, and none concern February 29. Another component of this tradition was that if the man rejects the proposal, he should soften the blow by providing a kiss, one pound currency, and a pair of gloves (some later sources say a silk gown). There were similar notions in France and Switzerland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadie_Hawkins_Day Sadie Hawkins Day is a fictional holiday that originates in Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner. It was a day-long event observed in Canada and in the United States on the Saturday that follows November 9, named after Sadie Hawkins, "the homeliest gal in all them hills." Each year on Sadie Hawkins Day the unmarried women of Dogpatch pursued the single men. If a woman caught a man and dragged him back to the starting line by sundown, he had to marry her.
Happy birthday to me. Today is my birthday, one I share with Scottish bard Robert Burns and, I still have yet to enjoy (if that's the appropriate word) a haggis. That is, beyond my having been once granted the customary gift basket by the Freefall Forum, containing a canned, albeit virtual, sampling of such.
And, I took my only ride in to the dealership, facing a possible $1500 transmission repair or replacement, causing family to postpone the traditional party celebrating my latest trip 'round the sun. Happy birthday to me: the cake is, indeed, a lie.
On the plus side, a break in the weather has since uncovered the last of New Year's Eve sabrage attempt, a piccy of which I now, belatedly, post.
And so, it begins... This is, I'm afraid, a not very auspicious beginning to actually posting here, as opposed to simply reading the journal entries of Friends. For, if the start of this year is any harbinger of what's to come for the next 366 (yes, it's a Leap Year), then perhaps I should just try to sleep through until '09.
At the stroke of 12M, as the big new ball dropped in Times Square, I attempted to open a bottle of celebratory champers using a technique call "sabrage." You can read about it on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabrage, which contains a nicely-assuring bit on the physics of why it works, and see a very entertaining instructional video (of a successful attempt) at this video site I've recently discovered: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-open-a-bottle-of-champagne-with-a-sword.
The reason the previous paragraph contains a parenthetical remark, is that MY attempt was far from successful; very nearly disastrously so. Even though this can be done with various kitchen utensils; even a spoon, I had chosen a weighty Tanto (the Katana, despite being the source of my "nick," feeling far too unwieldy for dispatching a bottle). I'd even come fresh from watching the abovementioned video, and others, and was quite assured I could pull this little bit of showmanship off.
THE BLOODY THING BLEW UP IN MY HAND!
I suppose it's only by the grace of God and the bottle I chose, by virtue of its having a substantial punted base, that my hand went unscathed -- apart from a minor scratch that didn't even draw blood -- and, that I didn't spend this holiday in a hospital, as I did Thanksgiving. I still haven't recovered all the bottle shards from the front walk (don't try this IN home, kids). No sight of the annulus with cork still lodged in it to be found, either; a fresh snowstorm has seen to that. I suppose only the Spring thaw will reveal where they flew off to, after the remainder of this tragedy has been shoveled off into the lawn or lava rock bedding, where they'll then pose hazards to the groundskeeping crew.
Even more ironically, while trying to remove the tamper-proof overwrap from the neck of a bottle of Chicken Wing sauce with a common chef's knife later, I inadvertently cleaved its top clean off with a flawless execution with this very technique. Mmm... glass splinters.
The spare, albeit warm, bottle of bubbly got opened more conventionally. Cheers, and have a Happy New year!
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sakana_katana's journal
Post here more often? Umm... idaknow.
