Splatoon Squid Pins

It’s that time of year again – Blaugust!

I’ll be attempting to blog once a day, but my posts this year will be relatively light-on. Also looking at my posting schedule it’s even more fan-art based than usual.

So with that said, let’s kick off Splatoon week!

Splatoon has been slowly consuming all my free time with its tight gameplay and colourful world. So it’s no wonder that I’ve been doing art based around it!

These little guys are a little over an inch each and are laser cut on my new shiny laser engraving machine. (That in itself deserves a blog post I don’t feel qualified to write yet).

I first prime the MDF with a gesso that makes it suitable for painting watercolours on. Then I put masking tape over the top to protect the surface of the MDF. After engraving the design into the squids, I lift the masking on the areas that I’ll be painting black.

I use acrylic paint or a black marker to fill in the black parts and after letting it dry I move on to the coloured part, which I fill in with a watercolour wash. I’m able to mix a multitude of bright, awesome colours with my watercolour paints, making each pin unique.

Finally, the squids are sealed over with a spray varnish. I have to use at least one layer of spray varnish as any varnish applied with a brush or sponge risks smearing the watercolour paint.

This multi-media approach to laser engraved designs is something I hope to expand on! I’ll share another experiment tomorrow.

Want your own Squid Pin? Head over to my store and grab one for yourself!