New at LitKids – Heidi
Our favorite literary Swiss Miss, Heidi, makes her debut at LitKids this week. My first version of Heidi had her positioned over the seam where the two book pages overlap, which caused bleeding problems with the silk screening. That didn’t work out, so instead I moved the girl over to the right and put one of her pet goats (which figure prominently in the book) on the left. Cute!
This print is the last of the six designs I worked on before launching LitKids in April. Which character should I do next? So many possibilities, and it doesn’t even have to be a kid. Here’s the direct link to get a Heidi print.
Alice in Wonderland, and at LitKids
I’ve been working on getting a swell Alice In Wonderland print up at LitKids. This is a tough one — out of the 30 prints I’ve tried so far, only about eight are good quality and sellable. The combination of a complex illustration and our dry weather means that my silk screen is getting clogged earlier and the images are coming out faint. I might have to put LitKids on hold until our weather gets moister.
The ones that did come out are really nice, however. I love the interplay between my design and the tinted John Tenniel illustrations from the 1946 edition of Through the Looking Glass I used. Next step: getting it on the Etsy front page!
Treasure Island’s Jim Hawkins at LitKids
I spent the last few mornings doing up a run of neato keen-o Jim Hawkins of Treasure Island prints. These came out pretty nice; Christopher even told me they were the best yet. Although the drawing has thinner lines (meaning less likely to come out in the printing stage), the screen prints ended up having a quality where the figure looks like it’s fading into the page. I also tried a neat dot pattern for the background shape. The source book was a “Fireside Series For Boys” copy of Treasure Island that has a great antique quality. I swear the book must be at least 100 years old.
Come on and check it out at LitKids!
Huckleberry Finn at LitKids
Just listed a new LitKids print of Mark Twain’s indelible scamp Huckleberry Finn. Another nice one, although this particular one came out differently than I expected (don’t they all?). I originally planned to do this one in two silk screened layers, with a solid shape on the bottom and the drawing on top. Unfortunately, the seam where the book pages meet caused bleeding problems, and so I had to fall back on the old “spray paint through a stencil” technique used in the other two LitKids prints. This time I have a lighter color silk screened over a medium color field — an interesting, subtle effect that doesn’t come across too well in the photos below. Some of the earlier spray painted prints produced a gorgeous darker blue field with a dusty, speckled texture. Those look killer. Since most of the final prints have a solid medium blue background, that’s what is pictured in the shop.
There was also the matter of Huckleberry Finn containing the “n” word. Hmmm, I didn’t notice the text has lots of “n” words! I was able to catch some of the offending words and creatively cover them up with splashes of gold paint; I just hope we don’t wind up with a pissed off customer! My opinion is that quaint 1800s language set off by a modern drawing is part of what makes these prints unique, so if someone gets a print with an un-p.c. word or two consider it one of the extra special ones.
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LitKids Is Now Open!
Today is the day – LitKids on Etsy is finally open! There are two 12″x9″ prints available — Anne of Green Gables and Jo of Little Women — listed at $12 each.
Ladies and Gents, Miss March
My first run of Jo March Lit Kids screen prints was completed this week. The pages come from an lovely old edition of Little Women. I did a lot of preliminary drawings for Jo, and I’m still not sure if this one captures her spunky spirit, but they came out pretty nice all the same. And the color palette of mauve, purple and gold on yellowing paper looks absolutely gorgeous.
I was so busy with printing that I forgot about our Wednesday video. How about a scene from the historically inaccurate 1978 TV movie version of Little Women? I mean how “1978 TV movie” is the casting of Susan Dey as Jo and Meredith Baxter Birney as Jo’s sister Meg? Eve Plumb was in this as well (being a Brady Bunch fan, that was the only thing about this production I remember).
New in the Store: Holiday Reindeer
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Cafe Press Store update (mainly since sales there have been, shall we say, tepid) — but we now have a few products with this cutely attired reindeer made in time for the holidays. I did the illustration for our Christmas cards this year, and liked it so much I decided to have them printed in color instead of the usual hand-tinted b&w. The enterprise set me back more than a few bucks, but the cards turned out nice. Now we gotta send ‘em.
New in the Store: Cute Baby Stuff
This adorable little tyke is the newest addition to the scrubbles store. Born on a baby shower invitation I designed for Max and his friend Amanda, it has now been modified to go on a baby bib, a romper, and a keepsake ornament. C’mon, you know you want one.
New in the Store: Beaver with Stick
This ‘lil guy is the latest addition to The Scrubbles Store at CafePress. On a thong. Discuss.
New in the Store: Happy Shoppers
This family of grocery shoppers have made their debut at The Scrubbles Store, available as both a spiffy tote bag and a nifty refrigerator magnet. Interesting that the drawing’s colors share a similarity to the authentically retro illustrations from a 1956 insurance booklet posted by Ward at his weblog.
Overall, I’m satisfied with this drawing — except that the woman’s legs are too realistic. They needed more simplification like the girl’s legs, and no delineation between feet and shoes. Simple is hard to do.
New in the Store: Perky Bird
This perky bird graces a couple of new items at the scrubbles store. I have it on a child’s baseball jersey and a jr. raglan, but it can be placed on anything by request. Want it on a thong? Sure thing.
Love (and T-Shirts) For Sale
Somebody I know gave me an ultimatim this week — get my art online for sale or else. In response, the Scrubbles Store has been reopened at CafePress. “It needs to be called the Matt Hinrichs Store,” responded the somebody. Whatever, I’ll address that later. Right now the only artwork per se for sale is a set of cards with my pink hippo illustration, along with a small variety of scrubbles.net logo items. The thing is, I don’t like CafePress all that much — the interface is convenient and everything, but they don’t pay much. Does anybody know of alternatives? I just want to sell basic things like t-shirts and cards. Heck, I could probably just buy a bunch of blank cards and do ‘em myself.
I’ve also updated my portfolio with a couple of pieces — a Mama Cat illustration and one of my Rurouni Kenshin book cover designs. I looove the dramatic artwork on the Kenshin cover. Things are rather bitersweet right now on the RK front since I’m currently designing the final two volumes (which are due out out this Summer), a huge project that consumed much of 2005. I’m gonna miss that guy!
