Boys Toys Illustration Prints.

It was my Dads birthday back and March and I always struggle to bet him something original every year, what do you get that man that has everything. So i decided to make him some sort of print, and it came to me that he would really love something to do with his pride and joy, his Subaru.

I took some snaps of the car, side, front and back so that I could produce some Illustrator drawings accurate to the design of the car. The print is also customised with the number plate ,car badges and the background colour is matched to the colour of the car.

As with the typography custom prints the illustrations were printed on A4 cream matte paper and framed with a white Ikea frame. Examples of the finished product can be seen below along side a second more recent print that was produced for another Subaru owner.

Sparkle Melt Exhibition.

Recently I took part in an exhibition at Bar Loco Newcastle, a night of art and music set up by the amazing Shambolica. A theme was set for the art pieces of Sparkle Melt, a fab open brief that I was excited to to produce some art work for. A great selection of local artists and some from further a field all contributed pieces of art work that were up for sale on the night.

I began designing an idea around the concept of my character faces and also including some sweet treats in them, like ice cream and cakes that could be incorporated into the melting brief. I first sketched out the rough ideas I had formed that turned into these sketches below...

Initial Designs.

I then developed these drawings into more finalised designs, rethinking some of the placing of the melting items and also the formation of the hair. These then turned into the final designs below...

Final Designs.

For each character a part of their hair decoration was designed to be melting to keep in with the theme of Sparkle Melt. However now with the designs finalised I need to work some sparkle into them to complete the brief.

My first thought was obviously straight to glitter, but I wanted a solid colour of glitter that I feared the likes of glitter pens and loose glitter just would not be able to achieve. Plus I also wanted the glitter to be quite flat for framing and these methods would have a raised effect and probably prove to be very messy. So I came up with idea of using glitter nail varnish, this medium would produce a glossy long lasting finish and I would be able to achieve the solid glitter colour I wanted.

I did a few glitter tests on the cardboard medium I had chosen to produce the art work on to establish what the outcome would be and how the cardboard would react to the nail varnish. The results of this can be seen below...

Glitter Test.

With everything planned out the only thing to do was to get drawing and produce the pieces. The final pieces can be seen below along with them framed and hanging in the exhibition...

Final Pieces.

The night was a roaring success and huge fun. I am glad to say that the cake piece sold before the exhibition opened, which was very unexpected and amazing. Unfortunately ice cream girl still resides with me and very much needs a home. 

If you are interested in purchasing or would like one recreated please don't hesitate to contact me on paper.rabbit@rocketmail.com  

Thanks For Reading!

Cardboard Art

Back before Christmas I took part in Pure Gallerys Cardboard Shelter which raised money for the homeless of Newcastle. For this I submitted two one off A4 cardboard illustrations (shown below) and I was pleased to say that they both sold on the night. Since then I have fallen in love with drawing on cardboard and currently working on a piece for a friend who also bought one of my cardboard shelter pieces.

Birdcages is the theme for this piece and its coming along nicely. Below are some images of the piece as it is now, watch this space for the finished article!

Notebooks Galore!

This week I have been working on some further notebook designs to add to Etsy. By doing this I am trying to establish what is a popular theme and cater for this in notebooks and a range of other products. For this notebook I have taken inspiration from Paperchase prints and designed a sweet treats composition of doughnuts, cakes, lollys and chocolates.

Below is pictured the steps of creating this notebook that will soon be up on Etsy for sale :)

Etsy Notebooks!

Pictured below is the selection of notebooks that i now have on sale on the craft marketplace Etsy. All notebooks are 100% hand drawn with original illustrations and stamped on the back with the Paper Rabbit logo. All illustrations are drawn with Posca paint pens and colour added with Copic graphic markers.

These few notebooks are only the start and I am working on further stock as I write this, so watch this space :) Fingers crossed all you peeps like what you see and part with your pennies, I guarantee you will enjoy using these notebooks as much as I did making them. Click here to view them and my Etsy shop.

Custom Note Book Doodles

For my first blog post I thought I would start with a few pieces I have been working on over the last couple of weeks, which include two CUSTOM SKETCH NOTE BOOKS. These are simple plain brown note books from Paper Chase with a paper texture and decorated with black and white Posca pens with custom character illustration. The aim of these is to hopefully earn myself some pennies and also to develop the designs further onto more note books. 

Below are some snaps of the finished note books and some from mid production. A few design issues need to be ironed out then these and some others will be going on sale on Etsy very soon.

Thank You :D