Showing posts with label Kid Robot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kid Robot. Show all posts

Monday, May 26, 2008

The Ballad of Sir Jurie

Place not ye faith in Hippocrates,
poor healer at best twas he,
I say to you sir,
tis no better cure,
Than that served by great Sir Jurie.
-From The Ballad of Sir Jurie

In my quest to try new things and break out of my creative comfort zone, I recently grabbed a Mini Munny. I discovered Kid Robot when I was interning with these people in NYC. There was at least one collectible, blind-boxed, designer-painted vinyl figurine on every desk. It was awesome.


I wussed out on buying a DIY vinyl for a few months, until a couple members of the old ICG crew picked them up. I decided it was high time I reminded myself why I'm not an Art Director.


I picked out a white MM, and was overjoyed to discover my "mystery accessory" was a bat. I immediately scrapped the lava monster design I'd been thinking of (I may do it later) and started thinking about what I could do with a Louisville Slugger.


I hate baseball, so making a ball player was out. I briefly considered painting him to look like a proctologist. But I would have had to make a white lab coat, and I really didn't want to sew anything. Eventually, I thought it would be entertaining to make a knight, with a bat instead of a sword. When it came time to the name, I guess I was still on that doctor kick though, and I dubbed the little goof "Sir Jurie".


I learned a couple of things:

1) Sharpies are not your friends. Using them is a one-way ticket to Smearsville. Population: you.

2) If you don't paint well on paper, there's no reason to believe you're DaVinci on vinyl. My spray-painting went surprisingly well (I haven't touched a can since college). The paint markers? Not so much.

3) Munnys are theives. I was excited cause a MM is only 10 bucks. Then I bought a can of metallic spray paint, two paint markers and a can of fixative. All in all, the shiny little bastard put me out about $25. A lot of this stuff I'll use over, but I was foolishly thinking I'd be done with just the metallic paint and a six-pac of sharpies. (See item 1)


Overall, he ain't bad for my first attempt. I kept it simple. After I had so much trouble just painting the black and brown, I decided to skip highlights and shadows. The metallic base is really what makes it, so I didn't want to give myself any more excuses to screw it up. I ended up changing the visor at the last minute because I didn't have faith I'd be able to do the sketch justice. Then I changed it again when I totally fucked up the alternative. But I am really happy with the "tail hatch". That and "X-Calibur" crack me up.