How do you say "Bunny" in Polish?

I was commissioned by my best friend to make a special Christmas gift for the niece. She really loves her Bunny stuffy and they figured making an original piece of art celebrating it would make a great gift and more than likely last longer than the stuffed toy. I included my process below.

Sketching this a number of times, this piece gave me a surprising challenge, how to capture the essence of a simple stuffed toy. Once I got the sketch right I increased the design to fill the area to be painted.

I traced the design and transferred it with tracing paper and light grey chalk onto a Baltic birch panel.

I locked down the drawing and added a basic value map with a wash of warm Burnt Sienna paint.

I added middle value lights and darks in grey for my dead colour layer.

I then did some big form modelling in lighter and darker greys to create more form and coloured in the nose.

I knocked back the cool grey with a warm yellowish fur applied with thick strokes of paint to give the effect of the feeling of her soft plush toy.

I added details and brought back the outline with Burnt sienna to help pop the image off of the remaining wooden support. finally I signed and dated it on the back and added picture hanging supplies to the back, wrapped it and delivered it.  I heard she loved it and her mom was so appreciative she shed a tear. Win for the arts!!!

Year of the Rabbit - Finished images for T-shirt prints

Here are the two final images for the Taoist Tai Chi society t-shirts that I designed. I cant wait to see them in real life. The colors this year are black and robin's egg blue.

One rabbit will be on the front and the other will be on the back.

 

 They will be available at the Taoist Tai Chi society Main office just off of crowchild once the Chinese New Year has been ushered in.

Year of Rabbit - Part 4

The next phase after giving my eyes a rest, consisted of punching up the darks and bringing out the highlights.

 

The detail level is increased with the reduction of brush size, down to a number 4 round to detail the fur and crisp up the edges.

I  used zinc white thinned down for the highlights because it is more transparent less chalky than titanium white.

My next step is to cut out all the blue backgrounds in photoshop. from there I turn the images to eps files and email them to the Taoist Tai chi society so they approve them for printing.

Year of the Rabbit - Part 3

I blocked in the main parts flushing out the rabbit's body mass using burnt umber and titanium white.

I changed the ears and filled them in and on the next painting threw in a blue background.

Highlights have been introduced and now I just need a fresh perspective to put in the finishing details.

Year of the Rabbit - Part 2

So here is the second phase of the three rabbit paintings.

 

I blocked in the darks with a number 4 flat brush.

 

The paintings begin to get some form and depth with the application of the darkest tone.

Blocking in the eyes adds life and a focal point. I decided to change the ear on the first painting to give the profile a bit more mass.

Year of the Rabbit

I began painting 3 options for shirt designs for the Taoist Tai Chi society this year. Here is my introductory process.

I painted them with Stevenson and Golden acrylic on canvas.  My first step was to sketch out my preliminary drawings taken from sketches base of photos I found online.

I used a grid to blow them up from my sketchbook to the two sizes of canvas I selected.

I then roughly brushed in some light and dark browns to give each fuzzy body some form.

Year of the rabbit

Here are a few preliminary sketches for the Year of the rabbit shirt that I was asked to design for the Taoist Tai Chi Society. I designed their year of the tiger shirt last year and rumor has it...it was a hit, being their best selling T-shirt to date.  That is a lot to live up too. A guy like me with a nickname like 'bunny' shouldn't have a hard time designing a year of the rabbit shirt after all.

So do I go for cute, graphic, realistic, conservative? Je ne sais pas......

Wabbits and tigers, oh my.

Well, I had a meeting in regards to designing a t-shirt for the Taoist Tai Chi Society and it's a go. I am very excited and have a strong idea in development. I am doing it as a painting on canvas to be photographed rather than doing it with illustrator. More fine art -less graphic design.

While watching some docs last night I did this sketch. Done with my Copic marker and some prismacolour pens in very low light.

 I took some food out of the oven and let it rest. About 20 min later I naturally exclaimed "rested and ready, hot and sexy!" I don't know where it came from or why I hadn't said it before. It's my new motto;)

Here is a hare (my nickname is Bunny after all) in the moon pounding the elixir of immortality under a cassia tree. Cassia is what we often buy but in the grocery store labeled cinnamon.  In many asian cultures it is not a man in the moon that they see but a rabbit.