Ali J Art & Illustration

Cut out character behind the scenes

When I read up on other artists blogs and websites, I absolutely love to see their work in progress shots.  So I thought I'd go into more detail about my cutout girl who I absolutely adore.  My dogs even think she is real and bark at her.  :)

She started quite simply as this -



then I traced her by hand onto this -



I then went and painted the basic outline, and trimmed it so it wasn't so awkward to work with -



then I went and retrimmed the edges to fit exactly against the edges.  repainted the edges & detailed the hair -



put in colour -



and like magic she's finished!!  The next shot I'm particularly fond of because it looks as though she's been 'computer' placed on top of the image rather then actually standing there.

Can you keep a secret?

I can.  I just finished one of my latest projects and I'm absolutely OVER the moon about it!  Lets see if you can guess what it is from the picture above......

Spoonflower

I've just received my invitation to join the beta group for Spoonflower.  For those of you who are unaware of the site Spoonflower gives individuals the power to print their designs onto fabric.  I can't wait to get some fabric made, I know exactly what designs I'll create.  I'm going to use that fabric for some fabulous goodies which will be coming to the store in the coming months - pillows, plush dolls, pillows, cushions, pencilcases & little clutch bags.

The only concern that I have is if anyone wishes to purchase the actual fabric off of me in the future, the resale prices will be more then $30 for a yard (I think that is 75cm) of fabric which to me is quite high.  So at the moment I'm unsure if I'll be selling it on its own.

Still, I'm so excited, I can't wait to show you my designs!!!

The Evolution Of Dance

Speaking of good concepts, this idea is just brilliant!

What I also like about this is that he didn't concentrate too much on the set design or costuming.  He just focused on the idea.  Would you believe this is the most viewed youtube video with over 82,000,000 views to date and Judson Lapley has now appearred on most of the American talk shows including Oprah and Ellen Degeneres.

Advertisements can have strong concepts too

The past few days I have purposely not been drawing or creating, just researching.  It is amazing where inspiration can come from when you least expect it.

I saw this advertisement on the television and thought it was one of the best I've ever seen.  The concept is so strong and it just amazes me to think about how they would have come up with the idea.  The agency that created the concept is George Patterson Y&R.  One of their catchlines is "We can, and do, move mountains".  The commercial took one day to film and the instruments were played by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.