Negotiated Reference

Michael Paulus did a series of illustrations based on well known characters where he took the original design and tried fitting a skeleton to their forms, as if they were alive and actually existed.

It reminded me very much of my Mickey design, although where as Paulus appears be approaching this from a scientific angle, mine wasn't at all!

Via Kidrobot I actually stumbled on the work of artist MOIST, who has done a similar thing to Paulus and my Mickey design, in that that he has imagined and created the skeletons for fictional characters (including Mickey) but one step further... Taking toys, he has dissected them and fitted his skeletal designs into the existing toy...

it just goes to show that either a) there are no real original ideas anymore... or b) great minds think alike... i prefer to go for b)

Fanfiction prints: Apart from taking the traditional styling of a thick black outline on the characters, the combination of illustration and photography is again something I can attempt to do... the only thing I need to make sure of is that I have a theme and a good set of photographs to work with..



It seems like almost everybody has heard of Banksy, you cant go anywhere now without seeing one of his books on a coffee table or an amateurs own version of the stencil graffiti style he made popular.... (a lot of his original work is difficult to find nowadays.. especially around Manchester)... I know how easy stencils are to actually create and its kind of nullified their impact seeing so many copycats, but it's Banksy's ideas and humour that are key to his work... this sort of 'sick' sense of humour, poking fun at society and generally having a laugh and fun is something I try achieve in my own work.. (and I feel I have succeeded to some extent with my own characters)...

It seems that poking fun isnt just a recent thing either, as demonstrated by TOPPS, Wacky Packages. These American trading cards from the late 60's take well established brands and subvert them in a similar way... much like practical jokes such as the whoopee cushion, fake chewing gum and bangers.. these card designs are childish but funny, they make you (me) laugh... and thats the main thing!! Similar to these are the Garbage Pail Kids, but theyre not as funny or as relevant in my opinion!