Chicken in the Bread Pan, Pickin' Out Dough! (plus pandas)

I realized that raccoons and violins don't fit too well together.  In fact, the only logical animal to play the fiddle would be none other than the Tasmanian devil.

Hopefully, at least a few people will get the joke; my binturong design is among my best-sellers, so this little devil may have a chance.
In case you haven't figured it out, here is the origin of this silliness:

And here's the design on a T-shirt:

Yup.

In other news, I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 yesterday.  Pixar cannot beat Dreamworks this year; the plot was a bit cliche, but good, the art was incredible, and (holy pistachios!) fight scenes everywhere!  But even with the copious amount of legendary-fighting-ness and general Jack Black-ness, there was a decent amount of character development.  And the Jack Black-ness had been significantly reduced.  I like Jack Black, but this is an animated action movie, not Tropic Thunder.
Granted, the fight scenes lacked the epicness of the original, which had two insanely awesome brawls, (Tai Lung's prison escape and the bridge fight) but the new villian, Lord Shen, is among my favorite characters.

Just look at his design:


From About.com

Now, imagine that doing kung fu, with its whippy tail and all.  For a few moments at a time, you can't help but forget he's pure evil and a half, and just think, "pretty burdie!"
Then he stabs a rabbit or something and you remember that the peacock is the bad guy.

Frankly, I can't believe Dreamworks is still in the shadow of Pixar.  In terms of graphics and animation, Pixar's Wall-E or Finding Nemo may be the best 3D animated movies ever created, but in general, it doesn't compare to the art in Dreamworks' recent movies.  Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon easily have some of the prettiest animated sequences I've seen, and the storylines are relatively great.  HTYD even manages to avoid the typical Disney ending, a trap that Pixar almost always falls into.

Seriously; it's not just kids watching animated movies.  Give us something that ends on a melancholy note, or maybe something bittersweet.  Heck, give us something incredibly sad.  Shane Acker's 9 (Focus Features) has been the only 3D computer-animated feature film I've seen with a remotely sad ending, but the story wasn't fantastic.  Studio Ghibli has some great art and great storylines, not all of which end on a completely happy note, but it's all 2D animation, so it's not quite relevant to what I'm talking about.

If you should take anything out of that long digression of a ramble, it's that Kung Fu Panda 2 is a great film, 8/10 stars!

See it twice, once for the story, once to see all the purdy-purdiness of it all.

What's more, school's out!  Cheers!

Happy summer!

New cheetah design! + summer, speakers, and bookity-books

Yay!  My school-related workload has been reduced to the point that I can do stuff again!  Stuff like, say, design Cuddly Critters, play with my guinea pig, go to the zoo, and volunteer at the prairie.  It's awesome.

I'll have to read two novels over the summer, but One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has far fewer pages than last year's combination of Welcome to the Monkey House and Fast Food Nation.  Last summer, my school began a school-wide summer reading program that requires all students to read the same book.  The book of choice was A Long Way Gone, which is sad, uplifting, and purposeful, but frankly, most students (including myself) couldn't get into it.  This summer, we're all reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which should be more interesting, considering that the author is Neil Gaiman.

And really, who doesn't like Neil Gaiman?

But aside from the reading, I should have a fair amount of time to be rather productive.  I plan to make a few plushies, reread the Dirk Gently books, watch The Joy of Painting on Mondays and Wednesdays and Wyland's show is on Mondays and Thursdays, and not go to summer school, among other things.

But the school year isn't over yet.  I still have to make a bottle rocket and mousetrap car before the break arrives.

On a very different note, Zazzle has some new products!  This video should give you a hint as to what it is:

If you haven't figured it out yet (hopefully, you have) they're Doodle speakers!
These speakers have been getting pretty good reviews.  At least, Zazzle sellers say they're pretty good.

Here are a few of my speakers:

All of the Cuddly Critter designs are also on speakers!

The speakers are available in my Zazzle store.

Happy summer!

MEOW

I decided to watch Cats 101 today while eating my Eggo waffles.  Mmm... waffles...
Mumford & Sons was number one on the VH1 Top 20 Countdown this week, so to celebrate, here are some accordion-playing red pandas:

And an unrelated violin-toting raccoon:

It's only toting the violin; it can't possibly play it like that!  The bow isn't even touching the strings!
I'll have to look up these instruments.  My goal is to create the most awesome fantasy band ever, with the cutest (and furriest) musicians and the best instruments known to humankind.  Of course, I think accordians and banjos are among the best instruments.  I may be the pseudo-band's only fan.  They won't even have music, so it wouldn't matter anyway.

Moby Dick fanart may come about soon.  It's a great book to read if you have a lot of time and very little to do.

Maybe I'll make a design or two for my Zazzle shop to raise money for the Japan tsunami relief effort.  Half my family lives over there, (far from the directly affected areas, thankfully) so it only seems right to at least try and help out.

Happy spring!

House Drudal

House drudals are considered domesticated animals and can be interesting pets. However, they are also considered to be dangerous due to their aggressive behavior, particularly toward other pets, and should only be kept by experienced owners.


These animals have two sets of eyes; one that perceives visible light, and another that can sense infrared light. The drudal’s second pair of eyes increases the ability of its wild counterparts to hunt in caves and at night. They also make the house drudal an excellent mouser.

Height: 14-20”
Weight: 50-80 lbs

Manatee~!

Photoshop Elements 6 and Bamboo Fun Tablet

Products with this digi-art are available in my Zazzle shop.

Animal Factoid Mugs

The season for sales is more or less over, and perhaps it is the wrong time to create new mug designs, but I did anyway.

Each mug shows a photograph of an animal, its common name, its Latin name, and a few interesting tidbits about the species.  If that's too geeky for you, I also have several mugs with the names and photo, but no factoids.

In other Zazzle news, the Cuddly Critters series is now available on mugs, mousepads, iPad cases, magnets, and coasters!  Here's the set so far:

Of course, these aren't all of the designs; be sure to check my Zazzle shop for more!

And if you don't see your favorite animal, feel free to request a critter or two or three or nineteen!  Otherwise, you can expect to see at least some of the following in the future:

• Cheetah
• Tiger (Amur or Sumatran... or both)
• Red panda
• Great horned owl
• African wild dog
• Amur leopard
• Northern hawk owl
• Ocelot
• Clouded leopard

Animal Mugs!

The adelie penguin can now be your coffee buddy!  Or perhaps you prefer hot cocoa?  Either way, it'll brighten up your mornings!

I just finished up the rockhopper penguin and (hopefully) I'll be making quite a few more for the holiday gift rush.  Most of the designs will be uncommon animals or unusually species/subspecies specific.

They're currently available on Zazzle and DeviantART.

Meow

Super Sculpey, acrylic paint, and two different varnishes (semi-matte and glossy).
I'm working on a were-coyote right now; he just needs to be painted and varnished.  Halloween pumpkins will be posted as well, and I've got some nifty carving ideas!

For now, I shall leave you with an alternate view of kitty:

Something Fuzzy this Way Comes!

Halloween is coming up! Time to get your Halloween cards and Halloween T-shirts and Halloween socks!

Hazel-Lee modeled for a few shots on Wednesday, and we might do a few more Halloween photoshoots soon; I worked hard on that hat, you know. I still have to dig up my plastic cauldron and other holiday goodies. Maybe Jack Skellington will join in on the action as well.

Critter of the Night by soyrwoo

The Cutest Bison

Let's go walk,

Let's go walk,

I'm feeling good today!

Walking is my favorite thing,

Come on now, let's go!