A LEPRECHAUN per DAY until St. Patrick's Day!

[LAST UPDATED: 03.15.2012]...

In honor of St. Patrick's day [but mostly because I've been working on a bunch of leprechaun character concepts (essentially just colored sketches) for a little side game project], I've decided to post one leprechaun per day until St. Patrick's day!  ...  And then maybe more afterwards.  I TOLDJOO all that I'd end up getting obsessed with leprechauns by working on this, 'cause I'm a sucker for mutant humanoids (my latest was a fascination with smurfs:  http://blognaude.blogspot.com/2008/05/smurfs-color-remix-done.html.  So without further ado, here they are, starting @ the top w/ the most recent...

...  Saturday, March 17th, 2012.  Hated the leprechaun ear-marked for today, THE MOST SPECIAL & LAST DAY IN THE SERIES, so decided to revamp one of the magical midgets in an earlier post in its place...
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

...  Friday, March 16th, 2012.  Tomorrow's leprechaun...  TODAY

...  Thurday, March 15th, 2012.  Not my fav. but what can ya do;)?

...  Thursday, March 14th, 2012.  To get you your leprechaun fix, I'm cheating today!  One of the great things about art, is how contagious it can be!  After seeing my blog theme for St. Patrick's Day, Jani Stephan, a second grade teacher @ Custer Elementary in Ferndale, WA [who also happens to be my mother-in-law] decided to use it as inspiration for an art project-  She challenged her students to whip up some leprechauns of their own-  Here [ABOVE] are the final and FANTASTIC results!

...  Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

...  Monday, March 12th, 2012

...  Sunday, March 11th, 2012, No pants= NO PROBLEM!

...  Saturday, March 10th, 2012

...  Friday, March 9th, 2012, HAPPY FRIDAY!

...  Thursday, March 8th, 2012
[You might recognize THIS guy from his crossover CutOut fame]
(Posting this a day early, because of a bit of free time this morning:))

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012...
There are a few others like this in which I'm just experimenting with different head shapes + features.

...  Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

...  Stop back by tomorrow for another in the series!

...  ENJOY!,

PATENAUDE

PROGRESS SHOTS, Week of ~02.26.2012 [+ a bonus thought]...

Another round progress shots from the cutouts that I've been working on over the past couple of weeks.   NOTE:  Top shots are most recent...

Added the final layer of sealant and the backings on Wednesday and these suckers are DONE[...  aside from a little touch up on the leprechaun's arm + the blue beastie's eyes]!  + In addition to wanting to ge the leprechaun done by at. patrick's day [for whatever reason], all of these suckers are ear-marked for potential side-project game ideas as well-  TWO BIRDS, ONE STONE!

I actually went w/ ~80% colored ink for this set-  Partially as an experiment +  partially because i had some nice colors sitting around;)

...  Ready for COLOR!

Off to the SAW!...

Final shots of the bunny-ESQUE heads-  from the last round-  These are ear-marked for potential cast member for one of my little side game projects.

ALL FINISHED and ready for a home!  Will it be the kids' rooms, the studio walls, or...  ETSY-determined destination!?

So...  I believe the CutOuts have served their purpose in getting me back onto the art saddle, but @ this point it seems they've become a bit of a procrastination tool/ distraction from the project[s] that I should really be concentrating-  So I might slow progress on them in the near future.  That being said, it's always fun to get my hands dirty, so I'm sure i won't be able to completely stop firing up the saw and dusting off the bristles completely;)

A BONUS THOUGHT...
In working on my side projects, I've noticed that because I don't have time to do a TON of work by myself right now [like *REAL* indie devs;)], I've actually called on help from "the ME of past" [from up to ~10 years ago] for a TON of the concepts for some of my projects.  Luckily, after a lifelong "career" in art, i feel like my style has conveniently/ finally stabilized enough, that many of my designs form quite a while ago are very consistent w/ what I create in PRESENT day-  So essentially, for the mean time at least, I'm working with a team of... me-  Kinda neat, eh?

...  PATENAUDE

Even MORE progress shots of the 2 most recent batches of CutOuts...

A handful of new progress shots-  Some of it from MONDAY night even.  How's THAT for productivity!?

...  Getting the ink on some pieces from the last 2 batches.

This is the one that Lily picked out of all 8 [with a little coaching from me as it's my FAV!].  I'm calling it part of her Valentine's present.

This is where it lives in her room [had to clear some of the flowers out of the way].  ^NOTE:  Colors are WAY off in this one-  I really need to re-shoot this^

...  A close up of the ink + more accurate colors [better lighting].

And here is the one that I picked for William [I thought it fit in well with the (THEME) of his room].  HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, little lion man!  I'm attributing his lack of enthusiasm to the fact that he'd JUST woken up-  I'm sure it had NOTHING to do with his displeasure with the design...  Right?

...  And a close-up of of it being freshly inked!

That's all for now,

PATENAUDE

More CutOuts progress...

Quick update, just because.  Getting some color on the CutOuts that I started last weeek + couldn't resist starting a few more while that paint was drying-  Which I managed to get printed, traced, cut, sanded, and primed.  I'm dying to get the painted ones inked up w/ outlines, because that step seems to add ~75% of the life.  Without further ado...

UPDATE!:  Starting to get some ink on a few of the pieces-  SEE!...

...  Close ups to follow!

ENJOY!,
patenaude

CutOut progress shots from this weekend...

Here are a few progress shots of some cutOuts that I worked on this weekend.  I'm taking a bit of a break from the main project [although still whittling away @ it in the PM] to get my hands a little dirty with some primer, ink, gouache, acrylic, saw dust, (oh my!) etc...

Printed, and traced down onto the wood w/ my ever-useful graphite paper.

...  All cut up.

...  Coated w/ primer, re-penciled, & ready for paint.

...  Not bad for 3 hours of work-  Planning on starting to slather the paint on next weekend.  Ps.  Apologies for the photo-quality-  Straight up iPhone for convenience.

...  Enjoy,
PATENAUDE

A few new SKETCH+'s...

Here are a few new sketch+'s for a little side project game idea [that's been floating around in my head for YEARS] that I'm whittling on-  Planning on trying to develop the game/ characters by doing a series of quick little pieces [+ potentially turning a few of them into (cutouts)?].  As you can see this game includes one of my most-favorite types of fictional midgets in the whole world:  LEPRECHAUNS!
[...  I can totally see getting obsessed with drawing these little guys].

...  Enjoy,
PATENAUDE

Sketches+...

Hey there!,

Here's a *light* polish pass on a few sketches that I've done over the last year-ish-  Might take them a bit further, might not-  Either way, most of them include characters that I'm a bit fond of [you MAY even recognize some from sketches past] so expect to see more of them [in some form or other] in the future...

Hopefully I'll be using this mini-project as a launch back into getting more *ME*art done in 2012!! [ps.  the various symbols scattered throughout some of the images are all TopSecret notes.  MooHooHeeHahHah...].

...This one was my quick take on a piece that my buddy, Junkyard Sam did a while back.

Until   next   time!,

...  PATENAUDE

June's [2011] round of cutouts...

...  Pretty much finalized, here is a round of cutouts I did based on a  few of my favorite character designs that I've had floating around for a while-  Most of them measure ~12" tall and use a variety of media including gouache, colored pencil, acrylic (tube and liquid), CRAYON (yes), sharpie, and spray primer (the white).  Yes- I know- nightmare for "archival-quality" but WTF cares;) + Please excuse the shots=  Straight-up IPHONE.

And a few progress shots of the next round underway...

That's it + ENjoy!,
...  PATENAUDE