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Got Kraken!

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Throughout the last few months we’ve been running the monthly Splatoon tournament series Oceanink Offensive. As prizes for the tournaments I’ve been doing art!

For April’s tournament, I drew portraits of the runner-up team Got Kraken. I’m pretty proud of these. I had a lot of fun coming up with poses and trying to illustrate recognisable weapons and equipment. I erased and redrew the Octobrush three or four times, and I’m really glad I did so because the end result is something I’m very happy with. I’m only a little sad I didn’t take some photos of my earlier attempts at drawing the Octobrush because I think some of them were actually pretty good stepping stones to what became the final drawing.

3c Alph Dimitri Kraka Rudepik

Hand-Painted Callie and Marie Brooches

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As promised, here’s my next experiment in laser-cutting + watercolour detailing. I’m really happy with the results!

Here are some extra pictures to show you the process from idea to finished product.

As usual, it all starts with a sketch!

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Once I’m happy with the sketch, I trace over it with vector lines in Illustrator and use these to laser cut my designs. Remember what I said yesterday about priming the MDF and masking it? I do the exact same thing with these!

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The technique for painting these is also the same as in yesterday’s post! I peel the masking off each area that I want to paint, going from darker colours to lighter ones. I then apply colour in careful washes of watercolour paint.

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Once they’re done, I apply a gloss varnish over them. This protects the watercolour paint and gives things a nice smooth feel.

I need to work out a good process for sealing the paint before putting the varnish on, as you can see with the picture below some of the colours bled or faded a bit when I put the varnish on.

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There’s some variation between each piece – even though they have the same lineart they are each hand painted and finished!

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Pins on the back so that I can use them as brooches. I’m also testing to see if they are durable enough to use on keyrings.

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Okay that’s all for today – Stay Fresh!

Splatoon Squid Pins

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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!

squidpins

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.

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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!