My Cardboard Life: new characters

Here are some new character ideas I've had for My Cardboard Life. Some I prefer more than others, but I'm not saying which (don't want to hurt anyone's feelings).

If you can see a favourite amongst those, you can vote for up to three of them here in the My Cardboard Life forums

Messing around with collage

Experimental animation: Faces film

Faces film from The Juzzard on Vimeo.

I made this film from some black and white photos of my face doing different strange expressions. It's a bit weird! Was fun to make though.

Super Colin!

This is a new My Cardboard life mini-comic that I've made. It's a collection of all the Super Colin related My Cardboard Life strips. (including the power Pauline and Polar King stuff)



Just put it on Etsy...here it is

Colin brownies that went wrong

I tried to make some Cardboard Colin brownies, but the faces turned out all wonky. Oh dear! Thought I would share a pic of them anyway. At least I tried! And they tasted alright too. I think if I tried to make these again, I would use icing instead of melted dark chocolate for the face. The dark chocolate was just too liquidy.

Review: Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

It's been a while since I read one of the SF masterworks books (which I claimed I would read all of) but finally I've got back on it, and have read Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon.

If you were looking for some characters, and an actual storyline, this is not the book for you. In fact it is a history of the entire universe from beginning to end told from the perspective of a man having some kind of out-of-body experience.

A really interesting and certainly a thought provoking read, although I've got to say, bits of it were a tad dull. The parts which followed individual planets and the history of their occupants were lot more enjoyable and entertaining than the long sections about flying through the cosmos etc. I would definitely recommend reading the book anyway because the whole concept is so huge, and so different from anything I've read before, I think anyone could read this book and find something in there which makes them think about the universe in a new way.

My Cardboard Life books now available as a set of 4

The My Cardboard Life mini-books are now available as set of four. I'm not sure why it's taken me this long to do this, Volume 4 has been around for a while now!

Anyway...here it is on Etsy.

Illustration Friday: Unfold

This isn't anything new, but I thought it was particularly appropriate for this weeks Illustration Friday.

My Cardboard Life cards and prints

New greetings cards! And these ones are Cardboard Colin themed. I've used some of the three panel My Cardboard Life strips to put together a collection. Here they are in my Etsy shop.



The strips included are...
T-shirt
Puppy
Diet 2
Pan-pipes
Bubble bath



As well as the new greetings cards, I've also added My Cardboard Life prints to my Etsy shop. And by Prints, I mean a print of any of the My Cardboard Life strips in the archive. here is the listing

Dogtooth Dave

This is my new friend, Dogtooth Dave.

I really like the dogtooth fabric that I used for his head. The pattern was pretty busy, so I added a strip of white to go behind his button eyes and his mouth. Looks kind of like an eyemask or something.


Dave is now hanging around in my Etsy shop...here he is

My Cardboard Life: Sketches

Some examples of doodles I did prior to making certain My Cardboard Life strips.

Collage Cats card: Happy Birthday

The final card in the Collage Cats series! And it's a classic greetings card message. "Happy Birthday".

here it is on Etsy.

Norman

A new cube-headed plush guy, he's called Norman and I've used grey silk, and white silk.

Every time I make one of these I seem to make the head bigger. I will probably keep doing this until the head is as big as a house and the body is as small as an ant.

Norman is in my Etsy shop...here

Beautiful Mugs

I've become a serious tea fan over the last few years, and I think having a nice mug to drink it out of makes it taste even nicer. I wanted to share some photos of my most favourite mug...

This mug isn't actually mine, it's my Mum's. It's the perfect size for the right amount of tea, and the design is really cheerful too. The text on it reads:
"H.R.H. The Prince of Wales The Investiture at Caernarvon 1st July 1969"
The Prince of Wales' Investiture is some kind of ceremony to do with being heir to the throne or something, I dunno, but this is the commemorative mug about it. Apparently it comes from a set of four in different colours My Mum only had this one, and her sister and brothers had the other ones. I like to think this is the best one.

I've been searching around Etsy for more nice mugs and here's what I found...



Village of coffee. Vintage stoneware mug from Kultur. This is the description on the listing:
"The picturesque town of Coffington surrounds your coffee or tea when you drink it from this mug. None of the residents are out and about on the streets, rumor has it they are all inside enjoying a hot beverage, just like you."
I thought that sounded very sweet!


12oz cup fishy from CircaCeramics. One of the things I like about this mug is the shape. It's really low and wide with a big handle. There's something very visually appealing about it. CircaCeramics has loads of very nice mugs, bowls and plates in this style and I had a hard time picking just one. The images are applied with a Print Gocco and screening black overglaze before firing.


Ceramic TEA FOR ONE black and white from julespompules. The black and white stripes against the red, as well as the way the teapot is sort of leaning makes me think of a Tim Burton film. I've never really understood why you would want to use a teapot for one person, but if you're using loose tealeaves, rather than teabags, then you actually have to. Plus, you get to have two cups of tea this way. The little plate comes with this set, and would be good for putting biscuits/cookies on!

Another collage cat card for the collection

Here's another card to add to the collage cats collection. It's a green, good luck cat with a green envelope!



It's here in my Etsy shop.

I've got one more of these which I will add soon. I sort of want to make more too, but then again, maybe it's time to try a new theme/collection.

Cylindrical Secil

Here's a new plush friend that I've made. He's called Secil, and he has a cylinder shaped head instead of the usual cube head shape I've been mainly using. The two different fabrics I used clash a bit, perhaps in a good way but then again...maybe not.

here's the back. As you can see, Secil has a slightly deformed body with big shoulders and no neck. I feel a bit sorry for him to be honest, what a mess.

Close up of the face.

I've just put Secil up on Etsy. He's keeping that lonely sassy octopus company. (she was the last plushie left in my shop before)

here he is in my Etsy shop

My Cardboard Life: new look website

mycardboardlife.com has had a bit of a makeover. Check it out, and let me know what you think!

Collage Cats card: I'm Proud of You

Here's a new "Collage Cat" greetings card. It's a sort of congratulations or well done type card

It's already available in my Etsy shop...here

Winkelyn

I actually made this sassy lady ages ago, but I only just realised, I never put her up on this blog! So, sorry about that Winkelyn. She's made out of linen.

As you can see, when I was sewing the face on, the polyester stuffing was coming out with the thread. It looks a bit messy. This is why I usually use buttons for eyes! cleaning up those bits is a nightmare.

Another Collage Cat card

A new greetings card for the Collage Cat collection. I never used to like purple, but its really growing on me recently. It's a thoughtful colour. I'm still working on more of these cards. Not sure how many I will do all together!



I've put the new card in my Etsy shop. here it is

My Cardboard Life volume 4

At last! Volume 4 of the My Cardboard Life mini comics is here!


I had a bit of a dilema about what, or who to put on the front cover this time. Volume 1 was Colin, then we had Pauline, and volume 3 was Colin and Pauline together. I considered having the Polar bear for volume 4, but I just couldn't bear (no pun intended) to cut out so many bits of canvas. It's too fiddly. So in the end, i opted for Colin again, but this time, he's wearing his special slogan t-shirt.



Here it is inside. 20 pages long.



This is one of the strips featured in volume 4. It's one of my faves.



My Cardboard Life volume 4 is available now in my Etsy shop

Hanging Tweed Teddy

I made this little guy last night whilst watching Scent of a Woman (1992) which didn't have all that much to do with women. Or scents for that matter. It was quite good though.



The pictures don't really illustrate how small he is, just over three inches tall. Maybe I should have taken some photos with the teddy next to a coin or something, isn't that what you're supposed to do?



I've just put the tweed ted for sale in my Etsy shop here he is.

Mosey Blain

Some book covers that I've done for a couple of books about a psychic teenage detective called Mosey Blain.



The Diaries of Mosey Blain by Cealarenne

She's sixteen; she's smart; she's psychic. Saving people shouldn't be this hard.

For most teens, having paranormal powers would be totally nang, wouldn’t you think?

And for Mosey Blain, it would be, if the whole psycho-rama came with a user friendly set of instructions; an on-line demo; or maybe even a handbook.

But Mosey’s visions can leap out of the future, the present, or even the past. And these babies don’t include handy captions that read, “Hey, girlfriend, this here’s what’s happening, and what you have to do is blah, blah, blah.” So, when Mosey’s latest psychic newsflash features the abduction of Alldale High super-bitch, Carra Rishworth, she knows it’s time for her and her best friend, sardonic fashionista Lindsay Wells, to swing into action and save her.

That's if they can decide on what to wear...

here is where you can read the book.



Welcome to the Zorro Club by Cealarenne

Seven students at Alldale High consider Zorro a world leader. One of them has a gun.


Mosey thought there was only one. She was wrong. No less than seven students have turned up to Alldale High’s World Leaders Dance dressed as Zorro – one of them didn’t come to dance.


It’s Mosey Blain’s latest premonition. There's going to be a shooting at the school dance – and she’s the one in the cross-hairs. Now she’s got three days to save her own life.

And help? As if! Her mother’s planning to send her off to some weird boarding school (if she ever finds her); and her best friend Lindsey’s too absorbed by her new boyfriend.


Set in the school hall with a cast of suspects that includes students and teachers; bitches and gossips; flirts and Zorros; Mosey's time is running out. Will she put the pieces of the puzzle together in time to discover the face behind the mask? Or will showing up at the dance dressed as the inimitable Helen Clark be the last thing she’ll ever do.

For Mosey Blain, it’s a wide frame – with a lot of very ugly pieces!

you can read an support this book here

Collage Cats

Three new greetings cards out of a series that I'm working on called "Collage Cats"
There will be more of these on the way soon...






...available in my Etsy shop

Frankie

I hadn't made a plushie for a while. I made this whilst watching the series finale of Heroes, which was enjoyable unlike the rest of the episodes.
...anyway, this cuboid guy called Frankie is made of silk. I suppose he's some kind of robot.


I think I might have gone slightly overboard with the size of the head.



Frankie is available in my Etsy shop

New TNP press website

The Noir Project has a beautiful new website...TNPpress.com



As well as getting updates from the webcomics in the TNP collective, there are also some discussion forums...here.

...and you can join Team Noir and get the chance to earn free comic books and merchandise by posting TNP press fliers and writing blog posts about TNP press (amongst other things) more info on that here

see you in the forums!

Etsy treasury: wild animals

I managed to get an Etsy treasury today, it's got wild animals in it.

have a look if you like...here it is

Rejected collage cat

I'm working on some new greetings cards with collage cats on. This was going to be one of them but then it got rejected. I just thought she looked too much like a try-hard. You know, like she's trying too hard to be cool? I think it's the eyes.

I'll post up the actual chosen cats soon, when they're finished.

Doodleguys

Its been a while since I posted a doodle, so here's one out of my sketchbook.

Futuristic Dwellings

A new art zine thing that I've been working on. It's a sort of sequel/spin-off to Intricate Dwellings.


The booklet is 16 pages long and has detailed black and white line drawings of cities and towns in the future.



Just like with Intricate Dwellings, the zine comes with a checklist of things to find.



Here are some pages from inside the book.



...and it's available to buy here in my Etsy shop.

Crochet Dolphin

This is a crochet dolphin I've made, he's called Mike Dolphino (has anyone else been watching Desperate Housewives lately?)

I took some photos of him in the garden because it was sunny.


This is Mike Dolphino's fin. It's a bit deformed, but to be fair, I was making this up as I went along, and for a while, I didn't even know it was going to be a dolphin.


The tail.


Some pics of Mike Dolphino doing some dolphin jumps.


Don't worry, he was safe...

...he landed in the safety net.

Science Fiction Art on Etsy

I'm sure we all know by now that there is a massive range of exciting artwork to be found on Etsy. I've been browsing around and here are some great examples of science fiction related art.



Planetrise by Stan Bruns. I thought this was a really strange, intriguing composition with some interesting details.



Cloned Lives by Lany Devening. This reminded me of that John Wyndham book "The Midwich Cuckoos" in which all the women in one village fall pregnant with identical babies who grow up to have telepathic abilities. Actually, the quote at the bottom of this screenprint is from a book called "Cloned Lives" about clones in 2012. The yellow faces are really creepy!



Portrait no.205 by David Witt. "ink and acrylic on a one-of-kind monoprint". The expressive black brushstrokes bring out so much character in this sci-fi style portrait.

The new portfolio website

I've made myself a new portfolio website to replace the old flash one which I made a few years ago, and lets be honest, it wasn't very functional. It was also very difficult to update.

So please check it out if you're interested. It's at www.philippajrice.com.

The Zombie Diaries

Here are some rough Illustrations and sketches I've done for a book called The Zombie Diaries by Richard A. Kray



The Zombie Diaries is a series of short horror/comedy stories for 'young adults' here's the blurb...

Ryan Harrison was a normal teenager. Until his parents sent him to St. Agatha's Sunday Funday Camp for Christian Teens, that is. Not being really in to the whole bible banging thing, Ryan makes friends with the only other misfit at the bible camp, Roger--a chubby nerd who wheezes when he breathes and talks endlessly about orcs. Ryan also falls in love, makes a macaroni Jesus, and falls into a puddle of toxic waste, which turns him in to a brain-eating zombie! He then tells us of his adventures being undead, in love, and sixteen years old, making a great series of short stories that I am looking for a home for as a collection and individually. If you love horror, hilarity, true love, and trying to eat the brains of the family cat, then this one is for you!



Some of the stories are available to read on Authonomy, which is a sort of social networking site for aspiring authors. You can find The Zombie Diaries on the site here if you'd like to investigate.

Abstract collages

Just messing around with some different papers, and as usual, adding some details in fineliner. I quite like these so I might make some more in more colours.

Patterns in my sketchbook

here's a couple of pages out of my sketchbook. Just trying out some patterns.

Tulips

In case you didn't know it was spring. These tulips are growing in my Mum's garden. The slightly strange looking photos are due to my dodgy camera.

Experimental animation: Face, teeth and nails

Face, teeth and nails from The Juzzard on Vimeo.

I've made another experimental animation. This time, instead of using paintings, I've used photos of my skin and teeth and other things zoomed in on using an EyeClops (which is a kids toy really, like a microscope video thing, it zooms in 400 times or something)

Doodle out of my sketchbook

I did this doodle with the good old drawing without taking my pen off the paper method (apart from maybe a couple of times)

If you think this picture means I'm working on a new edition of "Intricate Dwellings"...you'd be right.

Interesting website: Multicolr Search Lab

I just found this via "Stumbleupon" and thought I would share it as I found it both distracting and enjoyable.

"The Multicolr Search Lab is a part of Idée Labs—Idée’s technology playground for visual search. With the Multicolr Search Lab, you can browse through 10 million of Flickr’s most 'interesting' Creative Commons images, and find ones that share the same colours. Choose up to 10 colours from our palette of 120 different shades."

I'm not going to faff around trying to explain it, just visit it here and start clicking on colours. The picture above appeared when I clicked pink and light grey.

T-shirt: Benjo welcomes you to the future

A new t-shirt, with a "Benjo welcomes you to the future" design on the front.

I made this with permaset fabric inks and a stencil which I cut out of plastic book covering.

It's for sale in my Etsy shop...here. It comes with a copy of the comic (Benjo welcomes you to the future)

My Cardboard Life: New website

My Cardboard Life has joined TNP Press, which is a collective of some amazing webcomics...

The Flowfield Unity
My Chronic Insomnia
Spaghetti Strap Western
Unconscious Ink
An Unrehearsed Riot

I'm really pleased to be part of the team!

Also, Cardboard Colin and friends have moved from the webcomicsnation site to a new and better home. The address is still the same...www.mycardboardlife.com.

Experimental animation: lll

lll from The Juzzard on Vimeo.

more pages from the sketchbook

Experimental animation: ZN

ZN from The Juzzard on Vimeo.

Mothers Day card

It's me and my two sisters. Not really sure which one is which though!

Chatter T-shirt

Another T-shirt. I made this one using letters which were left over from previous T-shirt stencils.

Illustration Friday: Subtract

Experimental animation: OOO

OOO from The Juzzard on Vimeo.

A new experimental animation I have made, which you can watch on Vimeo (or just watch it here via Vimeo)

Page out of my sketchbook

Still using the new sketchbook. Here's a doodle-type-thing Gouache paints, which I doodled on top of with fineliner.