Month of Softies
So, I’ve been meaning to participate in Illustration Friday for a while now. There is a weekly theme that anyone can illustrate and post an image for, and you can use existing illustrations or you can do a new one. Simple, right?
Instead of doing a doodle and posting it for Illustration Friday, my first community art project post in a long time is for Month of Softies: there is a monthly theme for which you can make some sort of soft somthing-or-other to illustrate the theme. You have to sew things and glue things and cut things out and it takes a lot of time. Yeah, I do things the hard way.
When I was a kid, I LOVED Superman. So much so that I had a Superman lunchbox, a Superman towel, and, yes, Superman Underoos. There is even a photo of me and one of my oldest friends, Becca, wearing our Superman Underoos together in our high school yearbook. And since she came up, she is also the source of the Batman cape. I think it was originally made for her older brother, but we all wore it eventually. It was awesome.
My mom is a quilter. She has made quilts for as long as I can remember. At one point when I was a kid, she made a quilt that was like a portrait of me and my two brothers, though we were Amish doll style, with no faces. When I saw the Month of Softies theme for this month, “Self-portrait of the artist as a young child”, this quilt was the first thing that came to mind, and the outfit I am wearing in this doll I made is the same outfit I am wearing in the quilt my mom made.
It was a lot of fun to make this. I got to think about the Superman Underoos (I even rented the 1978 Superman movie) and the cool costume box at Becca’s house. And I got to use my mom’s old sewing machine to put the little guy together– probably the same machine that made the original quilt that inspired this guy. And best of all, this was all extremely valuable practice for a show that I am going to have some work in in August (hint: I have to make more soft toys).
March 31st, 2005 at 1:56 pm
Could you make your nephew a softie for his first birthday? Very cool.
April 2nd, 2005 at 4:16 pm
It sort of freaks me out to see one of your drawings in 3D. The depth to something that has always been flat is cool.. yet opens a whole different world of opportunities doesn’t it?
April 4th, 2005 at 2:08 am
Pretty cool!!
April 4th, 2005 at 9:03 am
Little you turned out great and I love that he was inspired by something your Mom made. I showed him to my three year old and told him about your Superman underoos and now he wishes to have a doll of himself made dressed as Spiderman with Ninja Turtle underwear.
April 5th, 2005 at 4:06 am
Great!! I love the expression!! And the cowboy legs!!!
April 5th, 2005 at 5:43 am
your softie came out GREAT.
April 5th, 2005 at 11:40 am
Super cool portrait. You did a great job!
April 6th, 2005 at 11:09 am
wowzers! that is so awesome! i am throughly enamored with it! great job!
April 9th, 2005 at 10:19 am
What a treat to see your softie. . .AND to read about your inspiration. Thank you!
April 12th, 2005 at 4:05 am
He’s great! The satin lined cape rocks!
April 16th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
David, your superman was one of my favourite softies this month. I love his ‘Oh-oh … what now?’ expression.
April 17th, 2005 at 4:15 am
Hi, I think this is great! My son age 3 said ‘ Look Superbat!’. He thought it was cool!
May 1st, 2005 at 2:16 pm
aaaah it´s adorable ^^. I was lookinga t the month of softies from last month and yours is adorable ^^ hehe. Hope you have made one this month too ^^: