Makin' Stuff Outta Paper

Paper. It's my new thing. I haven't had this much fun painting in a loooong time. How did this come about you ask? Let me tell you.

Every year, my job at the good ol' Saint Louis Science Center is to design the overall look for SciFest (a pretty cool 5 day science festival we host every year). The only problem is that the mascot we inherited for the event is this dumb doll head with these goofy glasses:
Luckily, I was able to talk the powers that be into letting me use my artistic genius to recreate the head every year in a different medium. (I actually work with pretty great folks who are really into letting creatives be creative - it didn't take much convincing.)

So last year I went with linoleum cut:


I hacked away until I got this:


Then I slopped ink all over it, and pressed it into paper to get this:

Which I scanned into the computer and cleaned up to get this:
Which ended up like this on the program cover which you may have seen last year in your Post Dispatch before you threw it in the garbage- I mean, the RECYCLE BIN:

But that was last year.

THIS YEAR, thanks to the last minute suggestion of my co-worker and opposer extraordinaire, John Schmitt, I went with paper.

The original sketch:

The crappy first version:
The mess in my apartment:
The knife wound that ruined any hopes I had for a hand modeling career:

The Final logo:

(click on picture to zoom in)

The final poster:

(click on picture to zoom in)

I'm really happy with how it turned out. All of the sleepless nights, caffeine-induced panic attacks and crying fits were well worth it.

Lots more to come concerning paper. Stay tuned. Right now we're working on a Paper-Cut commercial that I'll post when it's finished. And yes co-workers, it WILL get finished.

Want to know more about the greatness of paper? Check out these sites:
http://paperforest.blogspot.com/
http://onlycreative.com.au/carlos-meira/#more-1510
http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/07/paper-artists.html
http://jaredandrewschorr.blogspot.com/