Sewing

Sorry about the delay... My op is now officially re-scheduled until April. Oh well, six more weeks of putting up with 'Evil Richard'. Hopefully he wont be too consuming over that time. He really can be a pain some days!

But that's alright, I spent the time constructively. Learning how to sew. It really is a lot of fun... yuh, I know, like, totally gay! The cat is my first attempt at sewing, he's a hand puppet complete with inner sleeve to put one's hand (although the cat IS a little tight fitting - giggle! So very wrong) He's made from an old bed-spread and the face is a inter-changeable latex insert which was made with a similar process to Vlzerdko and Brun.

The bunny is Mooncar's first attempt to sew a puppet. Pretty cool huh! I made the face, which halved the production time... even cooler! Did you know you can bake brushing latex in a plaster mold at low temperatures (70 degrees Celsius) to reduce the curing time to a tenth of the time it usually takes? Me neither... I do now. How awesome is that for thick pieces of brushed latex... And as you know it too, pass it on. The rabbits face is about an inch thick in the nose part and it took about 5 hours in the oven to set. It usually wouldn't have set for about 5 days, or potentially ever, maintaining a sloppy inner core! Experimentation rocks!



If the rumour mill is to be believed, Bunny, a rod and stick puppet, will co-star in this years Easter film along with Vlzerdko and Brun. Hence the cool de-saturated look of the photo. It is meant to be some 3rd world eastern block country... their cameras wouldn't be as good as mine :) Anyway, it's something to keep me interested while waiting for the head thingy to resolve itself. No I haven't forgotten that I'm working on the Sprites, the Easter film this year's really an attempt to work out some of my ongoing production issues with the Sprites material. Maybe I should just pitch to the AB friggin C, they're apparently short of content at the moment, and let them bring people into the project who can fix those issues for me.

Hurumph, then I'd have to give up ancillary rights... maybe it's worth it just to get stuff produced properly... who know's? It's such a confusing business!

Watchabeandoon?

So, what have you been doing?

I've been doing the usual stuff. Watching the Cricket. Setting up a bird cage for the arrival of our new budgie in a couple of weeks. Making Choc-mint slice. Learning how to use a sewing machine. Playing with the Sprites characters. You know, the usual stuff!

Actually talking of slice and sewing, this will be the post before the big slice and dice. A couple of days from now I'll be officially tumour free. Yay for that! Not so 'yay' for hanging around hospital for 5 days while the Frankenstein style facial reconstructive patchwork settles into place. Or the 3 weeks after that I'll be hanging around at home getting used to my new look head. I'll certainly be checking in here for the next couple of days but after Thursday (my time - Friday your time) who knows when I'll make it back to the web.

In the mean time here's another one of the minor characters in the Sprites. Her name is Wattle. You may need to search amongst the flowers with your mouse to find her.



Stay cool, one and all!


UPDATE: My surgery has been cancelled. Not sure when it'll happen now. Doh!

Oh well, pass on all your good wishes to the poor guy with face and mouth cancer who took operation time-slot. I saw this guy on Friday last during my pre-op clinic... when you see a guy who's a little dead in the eyes and his nose and cheeks are completely burnt by chemotheraphy... well, makes you appreciate just how good a beign tumour can be. Hope that guy does well tomorrow!

CarrotLegs

Is the name that was given to this character after one of my workmates saw the original of the sketch in the last post. The name has just kind of stuck since then. So here's the puppet that I made from that sketch.

He's (Yes, after much debate at our house, it's a he... apparently) certainly got that 'hand-made' quality of a prototype but what do you expect from a little fella made from an old work sock (washed of course!).

I don't think much of his stripes. Some of which where wet when this photo was taken making them a little messy looking but they contract as they dry. So rather than use fabric-paint as I did here I'd probably get them sewn on before the 'sock' became a puppet. Either way, I still think he's terribly cute for a minor character... well, as cute as a 45 minute puppet making effort can be any way. I have about twenty or so designs of these types of puppets all based on various birds and animals and so forth but I'll probably only make one or two more, just to illustrate their use in the show. I don't think sewing is really my strong point.

CarrotLegs

Besides being an old sock he's actually a birdy-spirit of one of these fellas, or at least their cousins, who live not to far from my place. The ones that actually fly over my place, about three times a year (they're rare birds), tend to be the Short Bill Black Cockatoo which have yellow cheeks and tail. But hey, I thought red looked cool!

Red Tailed Black Cockatoo

Like all Black Cockatoos, CarrotLegs can be terribly cheeky and likes to make loud squawking noises for no other reason than it gives people a fright when they're not expecting it. But this is usually just to cover up the fact that he is really very shy and likes to hide away very high up in trees where no one can find him. He usually takes your car-keys with him, which is where they go when you think you've misplaced them, and will only return them when you're completely frustrated or when you ask him nicely for them back.

All things too cute

The more I keep playing with the Sprites' design, the more I keep coming up with terribly cute things.

Sometimes, just sometimes, I can't stand it any more. That's when things like this happen...



Of course, the original drawing IS very cute. I'm sure there will be plenty more stuff like this, minus the gross-out, on offer during the development of the Sprites.

Random picture

The mad Dr Fergus Gnaagle chooses a brain for his latest evil robot.

Why do I always end up with a half-finished badly-imagined random-picture like this on my desk?

They're so craptacular, well, OK, kinda funny but quite poorly drawn.

I guess it's because they're drawn in 20 second blocks over several hours in between my normal work duties. I mean, look at that pathetic robot... he's not evil... he's barely even rendered. And don't even get me started on that lack-lustre excuse for a head choosing machine. I mean, why is there a music keyboard? And the background is just terribly boring... the machine should integrate into some other bigger more complex machine in the background. And Dr Fergus Gnaagle should be short and tiny and on top of a really tall ladder to reach the controls.

Hmmm... I wonder what would actually happen if I thought about what I was going to draw and then spent more than a total of 5 minutes on it. I should try that sometime.

So, what should I draw?