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Designing Mars Sock Monkeys in Photoshop

October 14, 2008 in Mars Sock Monkeys, accessories, custom order, diy, howto, preview, toys, wip | Comments

Photoshop’s got to be my all time favorite piece of software! I get so much use out of it. Nowadays much of its use goes to everything Maribel Made product related and drawing.

I began making mockups of future sock monkeys for custom orders, but now that it’s become more efficient to be able to see a glimpse of the finished product I will probably do these for more and more monkeys. It’s actually great because it speeds up my production time and I save myself the pain of going back and forth on ideas, which tends to drive me crazy!

Custom order monkey with dinosaur sweater

What I did was prepare outlines for the monkey in Illustrator which I then opened and played with in Photoshop adding sock pattern and experimenting with colors. In my ideal world though, I would love to have a special software to do this.  It would have an infinite amount of patterns for the sock, different sweater combinations, accessories (and if I didn’t make these with links to buy) and knitting gauge measurements depending on sock dimensions. Wow! I can just imagine it.

I sure love projects with endless possibilities! Although, for me it’s best to keep the possibilities in a controlled environment otherwise my mind can run loosely and I would just loose my focus…then nothing would ever happen. :(

Custom Edwin design

Talking about accessories, I think my monkeys would love a bunny from Dollmore as a pet! So Kawai!!

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Pasta de migajón (bread dough paste)

August 29, 2008 in accessories, craft, diy, howto, other art, wip | Comments

Not for eating :) It’s a paste made from the whites of commercial loaf bread, white craft glue (school glue), lime juice and glycerin (or cream with glycerin). Mom used to make flowers made from migajón in the 80s. After she added stems and leaves to the flowers (like these), she combined them to make beautiful bouquets!

Dyed migajon paste

Nowadays, it’s popular to sculpt tiny foods, much like mazapán fruit! Unfortunately, they’re not edible like marzipan, but still much alike in cuteness rankings. ;)

I’m working on a technique since what I’m trying to do is different from how Mom used it. Sculpting with it, rather than pressing and combining pieces together, is much harder than it seems…not sure if it will work. Maybe my recipe needs some adjusting.

Migajón recipe (in Spanish)

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Untitled WIP

August 4, 2008 in Drawing, Illustration, digital art, fashion, preview, wip | Comments

One day I know this illustration will be finished! My intend is to put it up for sale as a print on deviantART once it’s complete. It’s about the same size as Seijin Shiki, which I’m considering getting printed down the street.

So much still to do on this one though, but my goal is to finish it within 1-2 month’s time between MSMs (Mars Sock Monkeys).

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Henna for Summer!

June 6, 2008 in Uncategorized, other art, wip | Comments

As I was exploring Berlin, DE last week with old friends and enjoying the nice hot weather with super cold beers, I got the warm feeling of summer coming ahead. So when I got back to London, I thought of going down to Brick Lane to scout out some henna to create a mendhi for myself (just in time for my b-day trip to California)!

I found a few options at a small grocer on Old Bethnal Green Road and bought the recommended Al Qamar CONE Henna Paste. I was expecting to buy the ingredients to mix, but this seemed like a much easier and faster solution. The guy behind the counter was right. This is by far the best £1 I’ve ever spent! There is no waiting for the paste to set and no messing with home-made cones, which made it super easy.

I was pretty happy with the end result. It’s a very nice dark reddish-brown color. You can tell that the design is darkest, where I began, on my hand so next time I’ll try removing parts of the henna towards the bottom first that way the design carries the same tone of color all through out.

This is what the design looked like before the paste was washed away.

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Working in stealth

April 29, 2008 in Mars Sock Monkeys, craft, knitting, preview, sewing, wip | Comments

Now I know why it’s so exciting to be working in secret. I can’t wait to get this batch of sock monkeys out the door! I had a great response from my last sock monkey, Eriko, and I hope that these little guys will be enjoyed just as much.

These new Mars Sock Monkeys, which I named Lulu, Frankie, Stella, Ben and Sheena, were half-raised in Seattle and London because I bought the socks in Seattle before I moved and put them together here in London. They are international jet setter sock monkeys!

I should be finished with all five this week (four of which will go for sale) and hopefully do a photo shoot by the end of the week if weather permits. I’ve been thinking of a theme and will need a few props. I also have a few other unveilings. One being the new sweater design below, which I modeled after a polo shirt. This is Lulu’s puffy short sleeve hoodie. The rest you’ll have to wait and see!!

Lulu's puffy sleeve hoodie

Here are some London raised next generation monkeys to be…

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Seijin Shiki wrap-up and preview

April 11, 2008 in Illustration, wip | Comments

Last month I finished an illustration I was pretty excited about. I decided to work on something not entirely of my own and pay some homage to one of my favorite forms of entertainment, ANIME! I get so much out of watching anime, or any animation in general, because I love to draw. It’s like looking at art every cel of the way and having studied animation, I know the ton of work that is put behind such efforts. It makes my admiration for such advanced drawing techniques that much stronger. I also enjoy the complexity of the story lines and characters, which can be developed very well across continuous episodes, transforming the series into a perfect soap opera!

This illustration is based on an anime called Inuyasha by Rumiko Takahashi. The male character in the image is a feminine looking, but very powerful demon named Sesshomaru, an antagonist who turns from evil to semi-good and is constantly fighting his half-demon brother Inuyasha, the protagonist, while both try to defeat the main antagonist and villain, Naraku. The female character, Rin, is a human girl whom Sesshomaru resurrected and allows her to travel with him even though he despises humans.

In the actual series, Rin is a girl of about 12 years of age and wears a cream and orange kimono with green tones, which I tried to carry through to her older counterpart. I certainly learned quite a bit about kimonos while choosing colors and style, which can depend on age, occasion and status. In Japan, teenagers enter adulthood at the age of 20 and celebrate by having a Coming of Age ceremony or Seijin shiki. The equivalent being a Quinceañera in Mexico for a 15 year old girl, Sweet 16 in the US or a Bar and Bat Mitzvah in Judaism.

What made this piece exciting was that I wasn’t sure how it would exactly turn out since I didn’t work from a finished line art piece, but rather a pretty rough sketch, which I scanned. From there I worked digitally on the line art for the guy, then after some coloring I made line art for the girl. Once I colored both characters and was pretty happy with both, I focused on the background, doing the sky first and finally the mountains. So much fun! ^_^

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. For my first big digital drawing I would say it’s not too shabby ;) Oh and it’s pretty big. It measures 32 x 33 inches, making it the biggest thing I’ve ever done (illustration wise)! It took me three weeks to complete.

I’m currently working on a piece of my own. It’s inspired by a little bit of my culture, my likes and some nature, which I’m so out of touch with…i’m still thinking of a name for it.

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