Have A Doctor Who Year!

With the year drawing to a close, a lot of people are thinking about time. Thinking about time inevitably leads me to thinking about the Doctor. Doctor Who, you ask? Exactly! Ha-ha-ha!  One of the great things about being a freelance artist and crafter, is that sometimes people ask you to make really cool things. Towards the end of this year, I had the opportunity to make several cool Doctor Who Items, and now that Christmas is over I can finally share them with you!

My friend Carter was looking for something to give to his wife for Christmas other than the usual Jewelry, so he asked for the Tenth Doctor (Played by David Tennant) in an illustration acting as Hamlet giving the speech to the skull of Yorick.  I was familiar with the fact that Tennant had performed Hamlet before, but hadn't actually seen it before. So I looked it up on YouTube. I'm not sure whether the whole thing is available there or not, but I was able to watch several scenes, and it was a very good update on the classic play. This illustration was a lot of fun to do, and I look forward to doing some more like it in the new year.

I think, looking at my work, that it must be obvious that I'm a child of the eighties. The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) will always be my doctor, when I think about the series. He's the one that I watched with my brother on Sunday afternoons, hanging over the side of my mom's bed. Over the summer, I'd made a few Doctor Who Peg People as I was trying out some new things for new products. In the fall, one of my friends bought the four that I'd made (Ten, a Cyberman, the Empty Child, and Rose Tyler) and asked me to make 9 more and three play houses to go with them. Her only stipulation was that they all had to be Doctor Who characters and buildings. WOW! It was a lot of fun picking the characters that I wanted to make into peg people, and an interesting challenge translating them and the buildings to this simplified play format. It also allowed me to come up with certain "rules" for the construction of the houses and the details of them, which I may not have ever done with just working from my head.

  

Amy's House

  

Martha Jones, Amy Pond, Eleven, and Rory Williams

 

The Tardis

 

 The Silence, Vashta Nerada, and a Weeping Angel

 

Dalek

We hope you all had a wonderful 2012, and that the worst day of the New Year is better than the best day of the last one. Until next time, take care and be good.

Your friend,

Jeffrey

Photo Round-up For The First Week Of July

All these pictures were taken on my iphone and processed with instagram. You can follow me if you want too! My user name is redherringjeff.

We love the Muppets. When the Muppet movie came out on DVD we asked our followers on the Facebook who their favorite Muppet was, and then had the girls draw a winner out of  hat for a marker sketch. Steve Johnson, Co-Creator of the Qags game system, produced by Hex Games, told us his favorite was Gonzo. So I did a drawing of Gonzo playing Qags to give to him this past weekend at Die Con in Collinsville, IL.

We ordered a couple of new dresses for Abby from Olive Juice Kids, and they are pretty awesome. They are high quality, really cute and have a European design sensibility that we really love. Abby was so funny, we opened the box which was packed with all these great details (check out my instagram feed to see some of them) and tried both dresses on. Here she's waving hi. Ha-ha-ha!

Abby and I went to the Homegrown Etsy Show at the Contemporary Art Museum in Saint Louis last week. She saw this Giraffe shirt by our friend Amanda of Sprouted Designs and just knew that Olive would LOVE it. Olivia has been really into Giraffes lately, she has four toy ones that she carries around and talks about. I love it that the first person Abby thought about at the show was her sister, and she really didn't suggest getting anything for herself until the end when I brought it up.

One of the things that's amazing about Abby turning 4 is the focus that she's developed. All of a sudden, she will sit and draw and color for long stretches of time. I love it that she's so into making things.

Check out those fingers and toes! Abby drew this person standing under a rainbow the other day in sunday school.

Working on story breakdowns and character designs for the 2013 Handmade family calendar and book of tales. The idea is pretty ambitious, but I'm really excited about it. Are there any fairy tales that you'd like to see included? Let us know in the comments! 

Thanks for stopping in! Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Some things I'm into right now,

Olive Juice Kids:
Super cute clothes and accessories, made in love in the United States that have a wonderful European sensibility.
Doctor Who:
We're only two episodes away from the end of the current season. It's a really fun "Family oriented horror show." Exiting and often heartwarming, Amy and I have been watching an episode  most nights for the last couple of months. Fortunately, there's about 30 years worth of episodes left to catch up on while we're waiting for the next season. :)

Photo Round-up For The Third Week of June

All these pictures were taken on my iphone and processed with instagram. You can follow me if you want too! My user name is redherringjeff.

Have you seen "The Avengers" yet? Mrs Handmade went the other nite for our twelfth anniversary, and it was awesome! Here's Olive posing as Captain America on one of our morning trips to Target. It's the only place open after we drop Amy off for work, so we usually go and hang out for a bit and get a start on our errands before heading to the park, or wherever.  

 

This is our Simmer-Down chair. Sometimes the kids just need a minute to catch their breath and think about the decisions they're making...Sometimes I need a place to put them while I think about what to say to them. Something I've noticed is that the days they seem to be the neediest are the days that I just don't have anything to give them. 

I bought some costume glasses at a Deals that's going out of business. They're super cheap, but the girls look so cute in them! I showed this picture to Abby, and she said "Awww, it looks just like you!" Ha-ha-ha! It's awesome having conversations with her. She's so funny, and smart, and I never know what she's going to say.

 Last week we took some of our capes and artwork to a new shop in O'Fallon, Illinois. The shop is super cute, and carries a good variety of awesome local handmade goods. If you're in the area, you should definitely stop by and check them out. They're located at 311 South Lincoln in O'fallon, IL 62269.

 I finally managed to get the first four Doctor Who peg people painted. I'm pretty happy overall with how they turned out. From left to right, there's the Empty Child, Rose Tyler, the Tenth Doctor, and a Cyberman. I've got a couple of others started, and am pretty excited about them all.

 

 We set up shop at the Soulard Market Arts and Crafts fair this weekend. The market is pretty awesome! It's an indoor Farmers Market, so it's open year round and was really busy. We had a great time hanging out with our crafty friends, and meeting new ones. The response to our work was really positive and encouraging too, which is always an added bonus that sure helps get you through the heat of the day when things start to slow down a bit.

 I added this little shelf to our display this week, and am so glad I did! It adds a little hight to the items on the table, and gives us an extra three feet of display room! It takes so little to get us excited these days, ha-ha-ha!

Thanks for stopping in! Until next time, take care and be good!

Your friend,

Jeffrey

Some things I'm into right now,

Adventure Time: it's like Spongebob times 10. Totally inappropriate and awesome, it's about a boy named Finn and his magic dog Jake and the adventures they have. Basically the kinds of things I daydreamed about as a kid...or last week. Like I said it's totally inappropriate for kids, but despite that the girls are a little obsessed with it. 

Fairy Tales: I've started working on the 2013 Handmade Family calendar, and the theme is fairy tales. I'm thinking that there will also be a companion sketch book as well. The idea is pretty ambitious, but I'm really excited about it. Are there any fairy tales that you'd like to see included? Let us know in the comments! 

Some Doctor Who To Finish Off A Week Of Being Sick

Hi all!  Mr Handmade here! I've been sick pretty much all week, and just miserable Wednesday and Thursday...Ugh. So between that and trying to keep up with freelance work I haven't done much drawing of my own.  Mrs Handmade and I have been watching Doctor Who on Netflix lately, and it is just incredible.  I look forward to that 45 minutes all day. :) Since I've been sick, and am pretty well obsessed with the Doctor right now, I thought I'd share some Doctor Who artwork this week.

 First is a little sketch I did from memory of the Tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant. I didn't really get a very good likeness, but mostly it was about working out some of the shapes that I was thinking about for his face.  Hopefully the next one will work out better. :)

This one is a faux papercraft illustration for my friend Emily at The Crafty Geek. She asked me for some help redoing her logo, and since she makes a lot of Doctor Who stuff we thought it would be cool to go with that theme.

Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Photo Roundup From The Third Week Of April

All these pictures were taken on my iphone and processed with instagram. You can follow me if you want too! My user name is redherringjeff.

Mrs Handmade is on Instagram now too! If you'd like to follow her, her user name is mrshandmade.

 

Abby turned four last week.  Where did the time go? Here we are giving a cheesey four-year-old grin, wearing the birthday crown Amy made for her and the awesome Doctor Who shirt by our friend Andrea over at Zenbot Baby. 

 

Amy gave Olive a super hero cape the other day...She hasn't taken it off since.  She'll be two next week, and it's awesome seeing her "get" that some things are special, and develop a sense of herself. We'd forgotten ho funny two-year-olds are!

 

There comes a point when the kids get tired of me taking pictures of them...Abby had reached her breaking point yesterday at dinner.  Here she's telling me "No! No more pictures!"  Then the waitress came with her birthday ice cream and a song, and she was so surprised and smiley.  Ha-ha-ha!

 I made a lot of progress on some new buildings yesterday.  This one I call my Cthulhu house.  I have this idea for using FIMO clay to add hair to my peg people. First up is some Doctor Who characters!

Until Next time, take care and be good!

Your friend,

Jeffrey