Stickynote Theater, Bonk Munny thoughts

Stickynote Theater? Theatre?

Okay so within the depths of the 1UP.com blogging community there's a guy called JT, who has an art thing going on called "Stickynote theater". It's pretty self explanatory... draw on a stickynote pad. I've seen this stuff before -- artists sketching on stickynotes, nothing revolutionary, but I can't remember if anyone actually made it into an official thing... as in promoting the mini canvas as a viable means of art expression. I mean, we've all done the flipbook animation thing (I know I have as an animator), but just doodling on stickynotes and organizing it on a site is pretty neato.

So inbetween making custom Munnies, working, and life in general, I finally got around to doodling it up. It's amazing how busy I am these days that it's difficult to do quick sketches on a tiny piece of paper!

My submission Going with the videogame theme: Mario, Sonic, and Bomberman sketchy style. I've always been a messy artist. I love the organic feel of a messy sketch. I guess it's something I picked up from doing life drawing when I was 16, showing the artist's thought process with lines. Doing something clean off the bat just isn't my thing.

My Tools I love sharpie markers. LOL

Checkout Stickynote Theater

Bonk Munny thoughts

Regarding my Bonk Custom Munny, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who found my custom entertaining. Seeing the great comments all over the internet rocks, the viral spread of information is amazing. Thanks to all readers/viewers who appreciate the character Bonk, and to Joystiq, Kotaku, and Destructoid.

It's great to see the positive feedback from so many people online! It was a challenge, but really fun to do. I learned a lot working with the vinyl figure, and the scupley. I'm hard at work on another :)

Speaking of Destructoid, they complied a gallery of different videogame themed Munnies! Pretty cool stuff. I was surprised to see mine featured since I never told them about my Munny, but I guess their post was inspired by it, since it came around the same time as the joystiq and kotaku plugs.

Pixar: The craziest place to work.

NakedBob sent me this link, which he found on aintitcool

Hilarious.

Albert Art Bonk Custom Munny Toy

Albert Art Munny Custom 2007 "Bonk"


Vinyl Toy Cave Boy
Pop off their arms and head, and create parts for them. KidRobot's custom vinyl toys are the Mr. Potato Heads of this generation. Having for years been popular in Asia, Europe and more recently North America, Munny's, Dunny's, and other soft figurines have been a designer toy collectors dream. And for the artists who make them, creating these toys is just another way of putting their skills to the test. It's one part urban street art, another part cutesy cartoons, with a touch of disturbing humor, the vinyl toy trend is nothing but cool. You could say it was only time before videogame themed Munny's appeared on the scene, from Emilio Lopez's very sweet Gears of War Munny to my humble little Cave Kid Bonk, the Munny is the idle canvas for big headed Super Deformed characters.
I chose Bonk because of the uncomplicated design of the character. I'm also a huge fan of the franchise having played Bonk's Adventure on the Turbo Grafx when I was younger. Along the way I made some stylistic choices as to not make an exact imitation of the character that appeared in the game. Hopefully I won't receive angry letters for violating trademarks or something.
It's quite different from painting on a regular canvas, this is a three-dimensional plastic character after all. Thanks to the Kidrobot forum though I was able to get some important questions answered before getting started. The Munny has no feet, but rather little stubs, so I took some super sculpey, carved out some feet and boiled that sucker together. Beats baking it in the oven. I couldn't resist making Bonk a little drumstick too. It's a cave boy essential. Made from super scupley.
The spotted fur he's wearing was actually found at a flea market!
Painting the Munny presented some interesting challenges. For one, I needed a lesson in patience. There were several 'prepping' steps I had to take before painting... like cleaning, priming, and sanding the Munny. Then while painting, waiting for the various layers to dry. After the blood sweat and tears, I can say that I'm pretty pleased with the way Bonk turned out.
I have to admit, arts and crafts has never been this fun before, and I'm already working on another one :P




After animating videogames on a computer all day long, making videogame themed art is a stress reliever! Bonk Munny has been featured on:
Joystiq.com
Kotaku.com Cranky Caveman
Destructoid.com Gaming Munny makers