Art of Bruce Whistlecraft

Tease!

Designer con will see the launch of the first production G.N.O.M.E toy.
This special edition version will be limited to only 100 pieces.
I will be signing them at the 3D Retro booth from noon until 3pm this Saturday (20th).
I believe they will be $65 each.

Gyroscopic, Non-Ornamental Mechanised Excavator
Originally created to excavate the labyrinthine tunnel system for Retropolis’s underground pneumatic railway, the G.N.O.M.Es have proven themselves useful for many other tasks. Currently employed on an ambitious continent to continent sub sea corridor project. The peculiarly hard ocean floor rocks have begun to give them headaches. Several of them intend taking some time off when it is over and plan a little jaunt to the centre of the planet for a vacation.

The second volume of Kidrobot’s compendium of Art Toys has recently been released.
It’s a veritable who’s who of underground toy based art.
And I am happy to announce several pages of this splendid volume are dedicated to my humble works.

You can pick it up from most good bookshops and of course online.

I am making another trip to the US of A next month to appear at the art toy convention Designer Con. ( Website here. )

If all goes to plan I should be launching a special edition of my G.N.O.M.E toy there.
So come along and say hello.

When:
Saturday, November 20th, 2010
10 am to 5 pm

Where :
Pasadena Convention Center
300 East Green Street
Pasadena
CA 91101
USA

Kidrobot’s 2010 Dunny series sees another Doktor A design released into the world.
“Whistlecraft and Son’s Patented Self Stoking Flunky Engine” never needs tending or maintaining.
Ideal for those tedious or unpleasant domestic tasks around the modern home.

Now is your chance to purchase an “Artist’s Proof” of this Dunny direct from the artist.
Each of the 25 pieces is signed and numbered under one foot and comes with a like numbered print of the character.
Of the 25 purchasers of this release, one lucky random person will also receive the original ink drawing the print was taken from.

Toy :
3″ tall rotocast articulated vinyl figure. With original box and series sticker.
Print :
Printed in sepia archival inks on Sommerset velvet cotton rag with rounded corners.
Each signed and numbered in pencil.
Paper size : 4.75″ x 6.25″
Image size : 3.5″ x 5″

£25 per set.
One per customer please.

This figure will be available to purchase from the Spookypopshop
at 6pm Sunday 29th August (UK time).

The Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester UK is having a launch party of the 2010 Dunny toy series on Thursday the 19th Sept. Thats next Thursday. Starts 6pm.

And I hope to get along to it.

Today my new Dunny toy from the upcoming 2010 series was revealed on Kidrobot.
Go check him out.

The range is released into the wild on the 19th of August.

The next step on the process is for the toy company to make the tooling prototype sculpture. This is either created by a craftsman in wax or as in this case and more and more these days, created in a computer 3D model and then outputted to a “rapid prototyping” machine which creates the form in resin.
Either way at some point photos or renders come back to the artist to oversee the process and just check everything is tying in to the original idea and design. Also at this stage things can be altered a little or tweeked in a slightly different direction if the 3D version of the figure just doesnt look quite right. I mean by this that something drawn in 2D can look balanced and fine but when it’s translated into 3D it can look unbalanced and need adjusting to look good again. This is of course all subjective to the eye of the artist but as they are the art director on the project it’s up to them to speak up at this point or else let the toy go ahead with possible oddities.
For example the screw on the drill on the GNOME’s head was rendered as drawn but to me looked off. Suggestings for a different way of doing it were made, the model adjusted, a better shape arrived at.
Also alterations were made to the hat rim to allow the hat to lock snugly into place without the need for any other fixing mechanisms.

Here are a couple more examples of how details can be altered at this stage to get everything looking bang on.