Red Monster Robot

Remember last year's Z Robot? Well, this summer's project with my dear 7 years old nephew Leo has been as much fun as the previous one: I really hope this becomes a tradition!

Adrin, the Red Monster Robot is a voracious bull-demon beast with thousands of teeth, little horns, a long tail and a huge stomach that keeps little treasures.. for a while.

See him in detail in the pictures below (If you notice, we had to change the eyes, as one of the previous little red plastic beads snapped after the monster head-butted the table. But the accident was ok in the end, as these yellow wooden ones are much more evil looking!).

Measures: 11 x 7cm, 11cm tall. The tail is super long, I can't remember how much, though!

Some pictures taken during the MAKING OF process: Painting, nailing the mouth... and even adding some brains to the inside of the head!

Leo's brilliant drawings of his Monster-Robot: no one told him to do this, no one helped him and still he came up with these fully accurate and highly technical sketches!

My absolute favourite is the last one, with the description of each and every one of the parts used to make it (Confirmed: playing with LEGO is very good for kids!)

These read: 'La parte delantera de mi robot' (My robot's front part), 'El lado derecho de mi robot' (My robot's right hand side), 'El lado izquierdo de mi robot' (My robot's left hand side)

 And the last two: 'Por debajo de mi robot' (Underneath my robot), 'Las piezas de mi robot' (My robot's pieces)

A great team job!

Vintage London Posters

Two fantastic vintage posters from the 70s, quite big and mounted on wooden frames.

They are both rather colourful drawings with pencil lines, showing
a couple of highly distinctive images of London streets, with the gorgeous red telephone boxes designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and the red cast iron pillar Royal Mail post box.

Sold as a couple or separatedly.
Mesaures: 57x 80cm

'Leo's Costumes', a game-book

Finally, another costumized present that I made for my beloved little nephew! This time, as he is now beginning to read on his own and starting to write, it's a book. Not a 'common' one, though. This one (with the cover in deep blue, his favourite colour) hasn't got much text, but it features a hero that he surely likes: Leo himself!, dressed up as various cherished subjects. It's almost Carnival, and anyway he loooooves costumes, any time.

But the fun doesn't end here! Each picture is cut into three sections -head, body and legs- that can be flipped separately, creating quite a few combinations. Some, I must say, are quite amusing... I really hope he'll enjoy it!

Here are some pictures that I managed to take with my crappy phone camera (I didn't make this project at my working place, and guess what -I forgot to bring the camera... just so like me)
Above: the first page, with the Dinosaur Costume. Below, the cover and second page featuring Red Ridding Hood Costume:

Third page shows a Rocket Costume, and fourth is Leo's favourite sandwich -Ham! turned into a costume

The fifth page, with a Magician Costume, and the sixth with a Cook Costume

Seventh page features a Formula1 Pilot Costume, and the last one shows embarrased Leo in his underwear, without any costume at all...

A couple of the various funny combinations that are obtained by flipping the different strips of paper:

And a few details -as much as the phone camera allowed... watercolour and pencil on paper, with protective sheets of clear plastic.

Doodle Tray

This once was a little blackboard for children to draw on it. Plenty of children, judging by the state in which it was when it finally got discarded: even the back of it had messy doodles!
I liked it. And I liked that it showed the story behind it. It was still quite sturdy, but really scratched, with dirty splashes of paint in the wooden brim and no drawings left: just some names written with pen in a corner.

















So I decided to give it a second life -as a tray. A tray that somehow kept the look that the old blackboard had in the past, when it was covered by delightful doodles...
I have some drawings made by my nephew Leo (almost five now! and such a genious with the pen), plus also looked in internet for other sources of inspiration. Then I copied some of them as best as I could -interesting exercise.

I sanded the board and a couple of vintage handles that I atached to the sides; then painted the wooden parts of the future tray plus the back white, and stressed the brims to keep the 'old' look. For the sake of harmony and love for detail, I painted the carving in the handles of the same deep blue than the surface of the blackboard.

The 'doodles' are also made with white acrylic enamel. That alowed me to create various effects, from wobbly but well defined lines to splotches, or even blurry areas filled with the tip of the fingers covered in paint -just like children do. I should have worn an apron, me too!. Finally, I have applied several layers of latex (for the shine finish) and varnish (to make it resistant to scratches).
Now it is a handy tray of 32 by 60cm, but also a homage to kids Art!.