Saturday, October 30, 2010

Nano Robo

About 6 months ago, I spent about 2 months designing and producing toys for various projects of mine. I made prototype robots like these fellahs and some other painted figures that I'll have to post soon too. Before returning to Japan, I made 5 different robots based on the same design using patterned paper and pieces of wood.

I call them Nano Robos. Each one is about 2 inches tall.



The original prototype was much more crude but it still functioned. I put it away for a while to do some commercial jobs and when I came back to it I was able to add a few improvements. The original prototype had a rigid spine and neck, while the new version has a torso that rotates around the spine and the head rotates around the shoulders. It's basically made out of a lower half and upper half, with the upper half rotating on the lower. They're quite sturdy too.


I also gave the green design guns.


Team Green wins!


I've debated selling these online, but can't justify spending the time. Drawing is really where my heart lies. I just happen to be the son of an engineer so sometimes I can't help my love of design. I've made a couple other types of toys like these along with the painted figures. Maybe if I can find a scanner I'll post some of the 128 page trading card-sized comic that goes with the painted figures.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

New Drawings and the 2010 MCAD Art Sale

I've been saving an update to this blog for a while now. I've been crazy busy with settling back into living in Japan and finishing up a lot of commissions and a set of 25 drawings of Minnesota.

Some of the 25 drawings were made while up north by Ely, they mainly deal with the flora of the north woods. The other 20, were made mostly in North East Minneapolis, a place that I called home for 2009 and 2010.

During the process of making these, I was investigated by a wolf, approached by mormons who told me to go to the website and had many early mornings drinking coffee with a great friend in North East Minneapolis. I'll truly always be nostalgic for North East and the great people who live there.





























This set was originally made for the 2010 MCAD Artsale, however a very dear mentor of mine sympathized with my want to not sell the original images, on the other hand, we both understood my want to visit the dentist.

Just before returning to Japan, I had to decide whether or not it was the drawings or the dentist. I hate to say that I kept the drawings. I really wanna go see the dentist, but I felt so guilty after selling my series of animal drawings last year at the 2009 MCAD Artsale.

So, this year I'll be selling some posters of Star Wars characters, colored versions of my animal brush drawings and a Megatron poster. Pick one up if you get a chance! The Artsale is a great way to help the starving student artist community in Minneapolis!

I might be putting these images into book form with a few others that I haven't gotten to scanning yet. I wish drawings scanned themselves. Seriously, it's 2010 and my images don't scan themselves. This is not the future I dreamed of.

I also made some small toy robots... photos up next time.