Footy Ed and Fairy Ed covers

I know within the paper toy community that work is usually offered to download for free. Whilst I respect the paper engineers and designers that do this, I believe there is a market to sell paper toys to the public. I've drawn on-the-spot caricatures at markets for years, and though I made a few dollars doing this I 've always wanted to have a product to sell to those people who aren't brave enough to sit down and have me make friendly fun of them!

I'm working towards making my fairy and footy box ed's into a product that I could sell at craft markets. The designs for the actual toys are nearly complete but I want to sell a package, an experience that customers can engage with after they've made the toy. So this week I've knocked together some covers that the paper toys would be sold in. On the inside of the cover would be a scene or background that would go behind the paper toy.

Whaddya think?

Footy Ed

This week I've made a Footy Ed. That's footy as in the Aussie rules egg chasing variety celebrated most ferociously in my current residence of Melbourne. I'm modeling the zebra like stripes of the Collingwood Magpies, who appear to be the Manchester United of the competition. The photos are a bit poor, taken with my camera phone. I've struggled a bit with the net for the ball, but with a few further tweaks I should have a ship shape Sherrin!

I've got some extra time on my hands in the next couple of weeks so will be posting some bumper updates. Watch this space!

Pozible Fairy!?!

Thanks to the folks at Pozible for a great workshop this week. Pozible is a crowdfunding site which I'm hoping to launch a campaign on in the coming months. Well if Punk Paper and Foldable Me can do it why not Box Eds!?! Got some great ideas, met some great people and had some great wine and nibbles!

First day of spring in Melbourne so I made this Fairy Box Edwina with my 4 year old daughter. As we were built it outside whilst enjoying the sunshine we thought we'd take some photos of Edwina in her natural habitat! Had a play around with a border too, need to take a bit more time and care with it. However this week I'm gonna work on my logo so will have it looking a bit more professional next week.

Before the beginning

I was going through some old sketch books this afternoon and I found my first paper toy sketches and realised that there was a before the beginning of my last post. So this week is a prequel of sorts. 

The sketches below offer you a glimpse into my tiny mind, and the process I've gone through to develop the paper toys in last week's post. I've filled a few sketch books with this kinda stuff but I've omitted the pages where my mind wandered and I started drawing boobies and willies and rude stuff! Click any of these images to make them bigger.

The sketches show how I've attempted to work out nets and templates that could be used for a range of themes. I wanted to keep it simple so that my kids (I have a 4 and a six year old) could put them together. I also needed a style that would appeal to them and would allow me to make only a few changes to come up with a different character. It's taken a lot of tinkering and tweaking but I'm getting there.

From these sketches I started to add a little bit of polish and worked up some images on an iPad.

Then I took a couple of these characters, Frank Jnr. and Kodilocks, and started making prototypes. I'm still tinkering and tweaking things but reckon I'm not far from a finished 'product' whatever that may mean!?!

In the beginning . . .

Eh up folks! I'm an illustrator based in Melbourne, Australia and have recently discovered the joys of paper toy engineering.

Originally inspired by Cubee Craft and a whole bunch of creative dudes and dudettes at Nice Paper Toys I decided to give it a nudge. For the past few months I've been tinkering with nets and templates and different looks and styles to make my own range of paper based creations.

So here's a bunch of photographs that show where my blood, sweat and tears have been poured.