Extreme China close up

Here are a few pictures that my broker from China sent.  I asked her to send me pictures of certain details of the animals--- like the sewing around the mouth and the entire body, plus the eyes.  I have had some problems when it comes to the factory cutting out the pieces for the eyes of the orange character plus the photos that she was sending me were way to bright.  So this is what she sent me.

Items for sale at Shoparooni

Here are some photos of characters that are being sold at Shoparooni.  I made sure that the prices were reasonable because the holidays were coming up and I thought that they would make good gifts. 

Jamal and Evil Wood

These are two characters that I did about 2 years ago.  I still want to go back and work on Evil Wood character.  I have a few masked evil characters that I have drawn that I know would be really funny.

As for Jamal -------------------When I lived on Hillcrest Street in Cleveland Heights he was a boy who lived next to us and he always wanted to play football.  So Jamal and which seemed like every child on the entire street would show up on my porch and want to play.  

 

Bald Spaceman

I just love to draw bald characters.  I am in the process of learning how to use my drawing tablet.

I had more drawings but I lost my flash drive.

BALD IS THE NEW SEXY

Character development

Here are a few pictures of characters that I am working on.  I try and take a picture of the character before I stuff it.

China Prototype

Here is a photo taken by my broker of  what the factory had made.  The color is darker than I want.  I am still working with them on it.  I had to have the factory remake the character at least 5 times.  You should have seen some of the samples they sent me---- by e-mail.  They looked like either someone was blind or they decided themselves on how they wanted to make it.  So as I always tell her     Please, Please,  Please have the factory follow the template that I have sent you.  I send the factory a template for every piece that needs to be made, plus the original.  So far this has been the hardest part of working with someone overseas.  I wish I could fly their but that is not going to happen.  Most of our conversations happen by e-mail and I must say that they have been very rough at times.   There is a language problem.  Something which would take a second to tell someone takes forever with my broker.  I must and I mean must have patience.  Lately I have been doing skype video conference calls with the broker because for whatever the reason something is getting lost in translation and I still have to have Sam with me when I talk to her.  I thought that I was making myself clear but I guess that I was not.  I have to talk really slow and sometimes I just do not know if she just understood what I just said to her.

Pattern template

This is a basic pattern that I use to trace on to fabric.  I make the template out of a heavy weight artist paper.

China Prototype next to the original

Here is a picture sent by my broker from China.  The factory did a good job matching the original.  I am having a hard time with the company finding the same color that I made the original.

Patterns

Here are a few examples of how I make color copies of each part of the character.  I will make a copy of the eye and all of the parts.  Then I will take the eye apart and make a copy of it.  Then I will put color samples on each page.  I do this so that the factory has the color sample plus a break down of the  parts.  

Sample Character

After I decide what I want the character to look like I then will make a small felt piece.  I  will also work out other types of details that I need to do.   The mouth was a issue that I had to work out.

Character development

Here are a few examples of how I work on designing a new character.  I usually draw about 50-100 quick little drawings to stimulate my mind.

Custom Dunny

- Here are 2 pics of a Dunny that  I customized for a show at Shoparooni last year.  Everything is made of felt.  He looks pretty funny.