Shawnimals is family toy company based in Chicago and founded by Shawn Smith and his wife Jen Brody. Not only do they make toys, but they have produced their own game apps for the iPhone and iPad, based on the fantasy world created for their toys, called Ninjatown. Each toy has its own character description and lives in a certain part of the land created for these characters. Their designs are usually cartoon-like, cute and humorous for a young target audience. They make plush toys, key-chain toys and vector cartoon shapes as character stickers.
Here are some of the ranges in toys and collectables on the 'Shawnimals' website:
From their Ninjatown collection, this is Animal Spirit Ninja
Like many in the Ninjatown collection, this toy, Animal Spirit Ninja, follows a simple design with the only stand-out feature being the large eyes popping out behind furry bat-like hood. The effect of this and it's stumpy well rounded limbs is that the toy is made to look impossibly cute! The fur and cute design would appeal to children of both genders as it has a warm brown masculine colour but cute appeal. This is my favourite toy on their website, maybe my favourite toy ever since it just struck a cord with me. It's brown hood and animalistic body suggests it is a mysterious benevolent creature which comes from a dark forest, since it is warm and inviting brown, quite rustic and practical in design.
'Mustachios' Collection
Appealing to child-like humour and simple cartoon style, mustachios would appeal to children but also a indie hipster teenager, as most seem to have an affiliation which ridiculous or retro mustaches, steaming from the need to be nerdy or different from others.
Other collectables and art:
'Pocket Pork Dumplings' Collection
Ninjatown charms
Ninjatown stickers
'Mr Demon' one of the characters of the fantasy world
The Shawnimals company could really inspired me in my outcome as they believe size and complexity is not important: the more simple it is, the more it stands out. Also,the character of the toy really matters, even if they are part of the same collection and has a similar or signature appearance, each toy is unique and has it's own story, and that is what inspires me the most.
1+2) These are two toys my Grandmother made by a simple knitting patterns and tights, recycled as filling. Felt has been stuck on for the eyes.
3) Toys I made from recycled pencil cases and stuffed with cotton wool. The letters on the blue one's chest spells 'Robin' (for my brother) and has been stitched into the fur.
4) Plastic Toys that has been crafted to look like letters. I thought it was interesting to mix typography with Toys, so I took this picture outside a toy shop in Kingston.
Artwork from featured artists I have looked at before, artists I have just found and art from the previous project that will be featured in my outcome.
Marydoodles is the created name of an artist from Minnesota, USA named Mary. She is known mostly as an illustrator, working with paint, ink and pencils, however she is usually part of the production team behind the 'Epic Rap Battles of History' music videos, a popular web series on YouTube- were she is seen making most of the props and costumes. After the video is posted, she usually paints a visual representation of the music video and uploads it to her YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/marydoodles where she shows the making of the painting in time lapse. She herself puts the original painting up for auction and sells other copies, making her art her living.
Her art varies in techniques and materials: ink, water colours, coffee and even showing the controlling of water is shown to have an impact in the design. Because of this wide array of illustrative tools, she uses a lot of colour in imaginative and clever ways which impacts on the mood on the piece. A great deal of work tells a story, which is shown in her creation style of time-lapse. Examples of these works are 'Space Zombie', 'Time Bomb' and 'It's a Sloth eating a donut'. These stories can fold seamlessly into each other or they become a sort of cartoon strip being created as she paints.
'Time Bomb', is one of Mary's most unique paintings, not because of it's quick methods of painting and style but because of it's seamless transitions and editing as she paints, which makes it look like nothing has changed at all. She has also chosen to play parts her drawing in reverse and then normally, speeding it up in her usual time-lapse style, then slowing it down. This gives the effect of out-of-control time travel and that everything is wrong and backwards. It follows the story of an inventor travelling through time trying to save the wife from dying, however as it is a painting, it is harder to follow the story, so as Mary paints in the finer details, we get to see little clues of the real story (the suicide note), Easter-eggs to popular culture (like the Tardis from Doctor Who) and links to previous scenes through uses of recurring 'props' (the pictures in the drawing room, the rug in the gladiator pit). This leaves the audience to guess what is going on, which makes it an engaging piece. It's lack of colour fits the bleak look of the story and excessive use of water gives the aspect of the rain and it's cold bleakness, also being outside and alone, drowning in misery. Its also helps to make the tree in the final scene alive as it looks like the leaves are rustling in the wind. This is my favourite piece as it strives to be more than just a painting and be more like a film. As a result, it is not up for auction on her website, but it is still loved by fans.
Like 'Time Bomb', 'Space Zombie' incorporates more than one painting into telling a story, however this deviates from her normal method of telling a story through painting with time-lapse as all the paintings she shows are finished, put together as a kind of Stop-Motion animation to show some of the effects such as a blinking light, laser blasters, and a figure staggering along a corridor. This is almost like a contrast to 'Time Bomb' as colour is used to present menace and unease. It starts with military colours of dull whites and grey, however we see that it has a grunge look, and the childish kind of primary colours is shown with a kind of irony as it contrasts to the grim story. It is also narrated by Mary, who makes it first sound ominous, then as it comes to the story's climax, makes it a little comical with her own sound effects, which reminds of a child playing with some toys, killing each other, like a little boy. I find this piece entertaining and a great piece of story telling.
This piece, 'Who's Your Teddy?' tells its own story and in a very different way to 'Time Bomb' and 'Space Zombie'. Mary deliberately starts to draw the teddy bear first, then to show it falling of the cliff, so it can challenge your expectations of what is happening in the picture and to add an unexpected twist into the story. She also deliberately leaves out any colour until the end, making it look bleak and sad without any colour, then switching to mood to extreme comic-book with bright, intense and warm colours. It is designed to make the audience laugh as it shows improbable situations that is usually Mary's speciality.
As part of the production team of 'Epic Rap Battles of History', Mary decides to draw the finished product of the music video as they are something she has worked hard on. Here she draws my favourite battle: Columbus vs. Captain Kirk.
Here Mary shows some of here skills in other things than illustration as she makes this prop for an Epic Rap Battle of History.
I chose to look deeper into Marydoodles methods and techniques- even though I am embarking on Toy design, not Illustration- is because I because I think that I would like to incorporate some of Mary's storytelling style into my artwork and video. For example, to decorate one toy, I could try ink and illustrate the body, maybe to tell a story of its own, like a tattoo.
