Paper Toy torment and the flow of creative juices

I'm gonna write a poo sandwich - start with a good bit, pooey bit in the middle, finish with some good stuff! It's been that kind of week, tormented artists around the world will sympathise I'm sure. My creative juices have been flowing but have they been going in the right direction?

Firstly good stuff - I've been posting a bunch of doodles and sketches on Instagram @Box-Eds they're all ideas for possible paper toys, most of them I've doodled on the train.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They got me thinking about another line of business which is to sell some of the more accomplished ones as $10 doodles. They're quick to knock out, small and cheap to package and post. And I could take requests for custom ones like these cheeky wee children!

I'll let that idea brew for a little longer as I'm pretty busy at the moment a couple of caricature commissions, which brings me to the pooey filling of this butty!!!

I got into work Monday morning and was chatting to a colleague. This led to me looking up the website for a local newspaper in Geelong. What did I see on the front page? BoxCats!!! Papertoy caricatured footy players http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/news/geelong/the-boxcats-are-coming-and-you-will-love-them/story-fnjuhovy-1226984529448
Bastards! I do these! Why aren't mine in the paper!?! My initial feelings of jealousy and anger soon gave way to more pleasant thoughts. Learning the lesson to never compare yourself to others but to use them as inspiration is a tough one to learn. But it's a good one to learn. If other people think these papertoys are a good idea then that's gotta be good for me too. If they're popular then people will want more papertoys, different designs and styles and themes. And good on the artist/creator too! It's good to know there is a local kindred spirit not to far away. I haven't been able to find any contact details for the BoxCat creator but would be good to get in touch and share some hints and tips. So this poo has a silver lining to it.

The other thing I've tortured myself with this week is a job that I applied for. I applied for a graphic design position four weeks ago, just a matter of days after the job had been advertised. The company looks awesome, I believe my products could fit nicely alongside what they do with a bit of art direction. I identify really strongly with the guys that built it from working on it in their spare time in a back bedroom 8 years ago into an international business with offices in America and the UK. The job is to work in the head office in Melbourne just ten minutes down the road. In the job advertisement they listed 'Break Dancing' as an essential skill and pizza every Friday afternoon as one of the perks! I've been following them on Facebook and researching the company background and have grown quite attached. But as I said it's been four weeks and I haven't heard anything.

The reason I'm so hopeful is that it could be a shortcut out of my current dull, beige boring as chuffin' Nora day job pushing paper and into a more creative environment which shares my values. I guess it's also filling me with anxiety because I'm putting my work out there and showing it to people that are experts in a similar field. What if they don't like my stuff? What if they say "Get outta here kid!" I just don't know if I could take that kinda rejection!?! Channelling some Marty McFly there!!!

Ending on a good note I do know how to manage the rejection. I believe in what I do enough to pick myself up and keep on keeping on. The BoxCats and the job are just distractions from my own papertoy plans. I have to use the experiences to my benefit and continue to build my wee paper universe and hope that over time more and more people start to discover it and think it twinkles!

What's all this chuffin' paper toy shinnannagins about then!?!

So what's the point? What's my purpose? Why am I compelled to draw and sketch and cut and stick and fart around with paper fairies and kittens and bunnies and monkeys. Passions are odd and unique, no two are completely alike and not many people will completely understand your obsession.

I'm fully aware that my obsession/passion isn't going to change the world. I'm not gonna find the cure to any deadly disease or bring world peace or world famine. On the level of what I'm doing for the greater good of mankind I know I've not got a lot to contribute. But maybe for those that do stumble across my creations, for 20 minutes or so I can give them a break from the stress and pressure of things and bring a little sparkle of happiness in there. As Paul Calf once said, "It may just be a Caramac wrapper in a bag o'shite, but it's there!"

For 15 years I thought caricatures were my passion. I still love to sketch people and let them see themselves from a different perspective and make them smile. And I always thought that I'd catch a break or make an opportunity for myself that would allow me to pack in the day job. But I always did that with an element of fear. I always felt like I was chasing an opportunity that was just out of reach.

That fear has been carried over into my paper toy creations for the last couple of years. What style should I draw in? What theme should I follow? How do I pitch them on Etsy? Do I send my work in to publishers? The focus has always been on what I've not done yet and never on what I've achieved. I've chased the idea that my paper toys will let me give up the day, I can see that with more time that it will happen. But I've always wanted it to happen now! What's the formula to get me outta here!?!

Well I've decided not to chase anymore. It's too much effort and makes me grumpy! I don't want to achieve escaping my day job through fear and obsession. If that's my perspective then that is what I'll attract. So why not change my attitude, why not relax a little and use my legendary sense of humour to attract forces, feelings and people who share my passion.

I wish I'd found this epiphany earlier, but then it's not something that can be bottled and sold in a shop. It's learnt through experience and error and failure. I know I'll continue to make more and more mistakes, but it's the only way I'll learn and grow and develop and one day (soon!) I'll have to give up my day job because my passion is a genuine, authentic and jolly ride for people to join me on!

Maybe it will come with a graphic design job I've recently applied for, maybe it will be in a few months when my Halloween paper toys are complete. Maybe it will be the experiences of those things and everything else that reveal a new path to follow. All I know for now is that my passion for creating and sharing papertoys is what I'm here for and I am choosing to create them with heart, humour and integrity.

Oh and here's some pictures of my last papertoy project, all 32 of the little footballing buggers!

Football / Soccer designs 17 to 32

Here's the rest of the football strips I've been working on which I was going to put up a few weeks ago. Blogging has never come naturally to me . . . to many words needed! Think that's why I've preferred Instagram more as my social media weapon of choice. Getting my head around hashtags and what not has been tricky but starting to build a small but loyal following.

In fact I've had REAL famous footballers liking some of my posts. The Liverpool/Brazilian number 10 Phillipe Coutinho and Chandler Hoffman from LA Galaxy. Most of my followers are just like me though, lovely hard working artisians.

I've had a bit of a break from the footballers recently and have been working on some kitten paper toys! My daughter loves them and has helped enormously with product testing. Ready to take some 'professional' looking photos this weekend and then they can go on Etsy.

Will share those soon.

Football / Soccer designs 9 to 16

Well all the kit designs are finalised for the 32 teams so here's the next 8, dya recognise any of them!?! 17 to 24 next week or . . .

I've been posting two at a time on my Instagram account too #Box_Eds and have started to gather some followers. One of them being Luca Crosta #_LUCA_CROSTA_ the young talented AC Milan goalkeeper. He's only 16 years old but is 190cm tall or over 6ft 2 in old money. A big dude with a big future!

Anyway the easiest and most enjoyable part of designing my football paper toys is now out of the way, next comes a lot of repition. For each kit they'll be several different ethnicities, a sheet of numbers and letters to cut out for the back of the shirt and also a colouring in outline. I've also come across a few design errors, the main one being the eyebrows are a bit wonky so I'll have to tweak them for all the different variations. 

I'll do some prototypes this week to break up the monotony so will post some pics on Instagram and on here next week.

Got . . . got . . . need! Need! I'll swap you three Kenny Jackets for your Luther Bissett!?!

My kids paper craft Easter Bunnies are available in my Etsy shop, I put up them last Monday. Very happy with my photographs, best bunch yet I think, though still room for improvement. So if you're looking for something a bit different from the usual chocolate egg route for the kids I reckon my paper toy bunnies will be right up your tree lined boulevard!

Sales on Etsy are still a little static. I'm aiming to at least double my total sales each month. I've got one so far, seven more needed. So if you enjoyed making the bunny why not add a Box Eds Paper Crafts sheep or monkey or cow or tiger into the mix!?!

My next paper toy project makes me feel rather nostalgic. I think you'd have to be English to truly appreciate where I'm coming from though. Back in the 80's the 'skill' thing to do was to collect football stickers, Panini I think the company who produced them was called. You'd get credit card sized stickers of a head and shoulders photograph of players from each team in the Canon First Division as the Barclays English Premier League was then known. These would come in a pack of six which you'd pay 10 pence for down at Abernethy's or Hancocks or The Anvil (names of the local newsagents in the satelite town I grew up in).

Anyway I digress, my next paper toy project reminds me of those stickers . . . in a way. You may, or may not, recognise or associate some of the strips with certain teams, I'll leave you to guess who they might be. However my aim is to have a total of 32 team strips cut, folded, stuck and photographed by the end of April, somewhat ambitious but I'm on target at the moment. Below are the first eight teams which you can use as a screen saver, eight more this time next week.