http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk en-gb lauramcdonald.co.uk 2011-9-11T00:00:00Z lauramcdonald.co.uk http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#102319 So over the last week or so I have been making sticking and cutting to develop something new that I can sell on eBay and Etsy. I decided to stick to my female characters and recreate them in fabric to be used as broaches charms and decorations for various types of bags. Hopefully these will make me a few pennies for my pocket.The first item I started was a character I had created for a painting I changed her slightly to work with the fabric and got making. Her face is plain cotton fabric backed with a thick fake leather fabric and her features painted on with acrylic paint. Her hair horns and eyebrows are made with felt with stitched detail. A little few extras of a button fabric hearts and two pins to finish her off. Because of her compact shape she was perfect for a bag charm hence the ribbon fastening. The result of this can be seen below...The second face I made was based on the lead character from the film Sucker Punch I sketched her out whilst watching the film but changed her a ... 2011-9-11 19:59:09 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#99484 My uncle is a huge Duran Duran fan and has always wanted the album cover of Rio in some form or the other. So for his birthday this year I recreated the iconic album cover on a canvas painting. I really enjoyed doing this one and was also extremely happy with the outcome. In doing this I may continue the theme and do some more well known album covers from the 80s because of course this was when the music was the best 2011-7-31 00:09:31 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#99482 Below is the final logo created for my friends business Party Perfect it incorporates two of the previous logos into one. The characters are from the ice cream logo and the striped background from the cupcake and balloon logo. It was suggested that the text was too hard to read but I dont think so if you have an opinion on this drop a comment on this post. With the final logo approved I decided that I would do a little extra work on it and turn it into a business card and a sheet of merchandise examples. These are only starting ideas and could probably do with a bit more development.and the merchandise... 2011-7-30 23:20:37 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#97422 Here is another of the logos for Party Perfect business my friend is setting up at Peter Jones Academy a bit of Kawaii character fun here. 2011-6-30 22:25:10 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#97258 A friend of mine Jodie Bennett was recently accepted into Peter Jones National Enterprise Academy where she is setting out to set up her own business planning parties for children aged 0 to 13. She has asked me to design her a logo for this business using the name Party Perfect. The following images are the logos I have produced so far for her to choose from. 2011-6-28 21:19:34 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#88948 Below are a selection of necklacess that I have made from 1988 Scrabble tiles.I originally owned a necklace with my name spelt out in Scrabble tiles however it broke which inspired me to purchase a set of tiles and make my own necklaces etc. This proved to far cheaper than buying them already made and plus I can have anything I want like rings and soon bracelets. The construction was quite simple to connect the tiles together I drilled small holes in the upper left and right corners and looped these together with metal jewelery loops. For the words that where all attached together like the LAURA necklace I also glued the tiles together with super glue. Some extras were added to some of the necklaces like shoes and a note book to the BARBIE necklace and beads to the ZOMBIE necklace.These are FOR SALE and if you want something else written in Scrabble it is no problem. Just send me an email and Im sure we can sort it out.......lauramcdonaldrocketmail.com.Thanks for Reading 2011-3-11 01:07:09 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#86699 So at the minute I am looking for a job after finishing my Masters and this involves producing an attractive CV. When I started putting my CV together I really wanted to put a photograph of myself on the front page however after trying this out it looked really cheesy and slightly cringie that I had a mug shot of myself on the front page. So I decided that I would create a cartoon avatar of me instead keeping it quite simple but stylish.The results of this can be seen below I made a big feature of my glasses as I feel they are my identity which then carried on throughout the rest of the CV as a theme.My CV can be viewed by downloaded from the DOWNLOAD option on the main page.... 2011-2-10 23:20:01 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#86651 Because of my mother I have really started getting into Knitting I started out simple and did a few scarfs for myself and other people then I thought I would have to get a bit more adventurous and knit something that wasnt a straight panel. So......I recently bought a small NetBook and spent hours trailing eBay looking for a funky cover for it however they were very much all the same until I came across a seller who had produced a knitted one. Instead of buying it I thought it would be a good next project to make my own. The outcome of this can be seen below I even taught myself from a book I got for Christmas how to make knitted flowers which were surprisingly easy to do. Finished off with a few buttons I found in my sewing box I am very pleased with what I have been able to produce all on my own What do you think of my knitted creation drop me a comment...... 2011-2-10 12:48:02 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#68783 So with the character finalised I am starting to experiment with the materials and fabrics. Because the body is already decided that it will be cast in silicone this only leaves the head. Originally the head was going to be the same as the body however there is a certain style and texture I want and silicone just cant achieve this. So I bought some Sculpey and had a bash at making a head Ive never used this material before and was a little sceptical about how good it would be with blending and what not compared to that of plasticine. However I was really impressed with it and found that it had many characteristics similar to that of plasticine and obviously one big advantage that when baked in the oven it turns hard. I really dont know why I havent tried Sculpey sooner I have sort of fallen in love with it and now have gone on a sculpey craze making lots of rings from it lol.Anyhoo back to the head prototype below are the pics of it before cooking and after. I filled the head with regu... 2010-6-24 22:54:03 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#67512 So I have been sketching and thinking about my character for a while now and thought it was about time I tested my drawings to see if they are as pleasing to me in 3D as they are in 2D. First of all the character has changed slightly from the last blog and developed her a little further until I was sure I was happy with her whole look. Aspects such as her mouth hat and hands have been changed and also some accessories added like her pearl beads and the newspaper in her pocket. This sketch basically formed a pattern so to speak for me to make the model everything is plotted out on the sketch so I know which elements go where. I then took this sketch and transformed it into a prototype 3D model. In the process of making models I always tend to get new ideas as to what would add more character to the model and end up adding a few extra accessories. This model was no different I changed the gloves from being on the hands to hanging out of her other pocket and also gave her a few staging a... 2010-6-9 14:28:52 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#66201 Digital Artist magazine are currently running a competition to create a unique peace of design using a piece of vector graffiti they provide you with in the style of grunge. You win a years subscription to the magazine and since I am hugely skint and the magazine is over a couple of quid so I decided to give it a bash and hopefully win myself the prize.There are probably a whole load of really impressive entries from professionals and Graphic Design students so I really wanted to do something different with the vector graffiti given that hopefully no one else has done. So the only logical choice for the subject had to be Hank. I turned the graffiti vertical and added a check texture to it added some pink and blue paint sprays and splashes to incorporate the grunge effect and finally added Hank into the centre wrapping the graffiti design around him. Im pretty pleased with the outcome and fingers crossed I win the years subscription or even have him printed in the magazine. This desig... 2010-5-26 17:45:07 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#63603 So Im know in my final stage of my Masters which has been going really well and Im being to refine my character and move towards the final design. The character is set in the 1920s so I have been doing loads of research into the fashion of the time and also what was happening socially to really make the world and style of the character as real as possible. I have come to a sort of final design but I think it needs a bit more work as I am not totally happy with it. Im happy with the clothes but there just seems to be something missing. There are a couple of little tweaks I want to make to things like the fur collar and hat maybe these will make it right for me. The characters story is that she has been turned out on the street with all the possessions that she has left after the death of her husband so I want her clothes to look a little worse for wear and possibly details like one of the eyes on the fur collar to be hanging off. These I will start adding know as I have the basis of t... 2010-4-22 17:16:51 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#58234 Lately alot of the art work I have been doing consists of sketching then putting it straight into Photoshop and Illustrator to colour it up. I used to work alot with pencils markers and paint but I feel I have drifted away from this into the digital world and I really want to go back to this a create some work that is purely hand done with no aid from the computer. I love working with Photoshop to colour drawings and add textures but there is nothing like using the traditional methods and producing something that is purly created by your hands. Sooooooooo........ I decided to start simple and chose a fine liner and sum white acrylic paint taking inspiration from the work of Gris Grimly. I also have found a new love for drawing on brown paper which works really well with the black ink and white acrylic highlights. Hopefully this will be the start of some new art work that will be computer free totally untouched by Photoshop. Watch this space...... 2010-2-12 23:19:08 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#58239 With the great weather well I think so we have been having lately all the lovely snow I decided that I would take a strole with my camera and see what I can capture down by the river Wear. It is a beautiful place at the best of times but even more so when it it covered in a thick layer of the cold stuff. Here are some of the snaps I took on my River adventure..... 2010-2-12 00:38:26 http://www.lauramcdonald.co.uk/page16.htm#49574 So here is my first blog post on this here website of mine to kick this off Im going back in time a little to July when i had my Degree Show at University. This was where everyone doing their BA displayed their work from their final major project and the public plus family and friends were invited to come and view the work. Which leads me to the picture displayed below amongst my work on display was my character Hank made for a previous animation. The free newspaper The Metro did a secret review of the show where myself and some of my class mates got a mention. Best of all though Hank got his mug shot put as the main picture to the article he certainly gets around this gangster rabbit. He does have too be one of my favourite characters that I have created and possibly one of the most simple. He was also a character that I did not design before i started making him he was a flowing character that developed as I made him I suppose you could say I made him up as I went along. I do like... 2009-9-28 13:14:59