Top Secret Activities— REVEALED!! Part 2

Our second big secret was our gift to Eli.

Not much music is exported from Norway EXCEPT Death Metal.

Norway, with its grassy mountains, glittering fjords, and fuzzy adorable sheep is home to a surprising amount of death metal bands. These bands combine dark lyrics and heavy metal thrashing with naturally rosy cheeks and Moms who cheerfully make potato dumplings on Thursdays. They occasionally burn down churches. The musicians, not the cheerful Moms.

Eli, who loves Death Metal, proudly proclaimed Knut a Death Metal Norwegian despite Knut’s record collection leaning heavily towards Bananarama and Howard Jones. When we told him Magnus was a family name and we had thought of naming a son “Magnus Graabein” (“graabein” is an old word for “wolf”), Eli decided Magnus would be a death metal prodigy and he would be Magnus’s manager and godfather.

Fine with us!

So for Eli’s birthday Knut and I conspired to make him a t-shirt for Magnus’s fake band, MidgardsOrm. The Midgardsorm is the Norse mythological serpent that swallows its own tail and it encircles the world.

Knut began by taking cell phone photos of himself in the position in which he wanted Magnus. Then, using those as a reference, he drew the center image in pencil. After the pencil sketch was done, he went over it in ink and erased the pencil. Knut chose to draw him in a skinny goth teenager style and included the broken string guitar and Odin’s pet ravens. Interestingly, Magnus quite resembles him.

Then I scanned the drawing and added the text. The serpent that makes the “o” is itself is taken from an old Viking manuscript. We chose to have that be the only color and for Magnus to be in front of his own name and behind the band’s name. I added drop shadows to the text, and the little “Eli Martinez Productions” blurb at the bottom. That little bit is white on black because the whole image was printed on a black t-shirt and that little line of text needed to be subtle.

Pictures of the shirt itself are soon to come!

Top Secret Activities— REVEALED!! Part 1

The big secret over here at the blog was the preparations for Eli’s birthday party!

We had two big secrets.

Iron Maiden Eddie Cupcakes

These chocolate blue frosted cupcakes are topped with jaunty little picks each featuring a different picture of Eddie from Iron Maiden album covers. Eli is a huge Iron Maiden fan and he loved these.

I can’t believe I found 24 different Eddie photos without having to use fan art.

I used Google Image Search to find Eddie pics and then I cropped them down so they just

 featured Eddie’s face.

Using Photoshop, I put the images onto a letter sized file. I was able to fit 12 Eddies to a sheet.

I then printed them onto to printer friendly Shrinky Dink plastic, cut them out, and shrunk them in the oven. The printer plastic is opaque, so they had a finished Eddie side and a plain white side.

I sealed the little images (Apparently nail varnish is the thing. They even recommend certain brands!) and superglued the backs to little plastic toothpicks. I added a little pirate sticker to the back for extra support (pirates being the most metal stickers I could find).

The images translated remarkably well! Especially the Killers album and the Wicker Man.

I’m glad I read the instructions, because you have to lighten the images by at least 50% (which is easy on Photoshop. You just use the brightness/contrast levels). Some of them were a little dark even so. They also have only one side that is printable and you tell by licking your finger and seeing to which side it sticks (very scientific).

I gave them to Lauren ahead of time and she couldn’t resist showing them to Eli early. He was able to name the album each Eddie was from, including live and exports! I know he’s a member of the Iron Maiden fan club, but he probably ought to be the president. They went very well with his Iron Maiden themed birthday cake.

Pictures from the big event are soon to follow.

Illustration Friday "Primitive"

I am totally willing to admit this quick sketch is probably the silliest thing I've ever drawn.  And that's up against some pretty stiff competition.

This is another entry for Illustration Friday.  This week's theme is "Primitive."  First I started thinking about women who look like Venus figures, then I moved on to cavemen, and wound up with "Primitivism."

I find those art terms to generally be very funny because they're so undescriptive.   Paul Gauguin a was a leading figure in that area and I started to think about where it could (not so) logically go.  The painting is Two Tahitian Women.

Voila!  Hope you enjoy it!  It makes me giggle anyway.  Please view full for maximum silliness.

Photoshop Pup

A few years ago Knut had to give a little speech at the end of the year teachers party. He decided to give a humorous speech about our little dog and how he’s changed our lives. I made up a few fake photos and included some real ones to go with his speech

We got Colin as a puppy. We got our pick of the litter and somehow he was just the cutest one. Although his mother took some convincing to let him go.

We really love him. I can’t explain why, but we just feel compelled to spoil him and share all of our food.

As you can see, he has a very sweet nature.

Although sometimes he manages to disappear without a trace.

(note: real photo)

It’s nice owning a breed with real history behind it. There’s a reason they’re called Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. Look! He has a King-shaped birthmark.

Knut probably managed something more clever, but that was the gist of things. Weirdly, every time we met Knut’s colleagues, some one looked for the Elvis shaped spot on the dog. And that was one I purposefully made to look fake!