Hey everyone, I know it's been quiet on the Playing with Art front recently. I've been playing around with other designs that aren't paper toy related.

Plus with the impending release of Guild Wars 2 MMORPG, & the Beta Weekends. I've been gearing myself up for that also.

What I am working on, is an idea to create some of my own T-shirt designs, under the Label "Digital Action Hero". I thought it was a fitting name as I want to do Gaming/Urban culture related Vector designs on them.

Anyways, here is a couple of Logo's I plan to use.

If you want to Download the Illustrator CS4 file of a Blank Figure & have a go at designing an outfit for it., then you can Get it Here. Just make your outfit on the base figure, then export as .png at 75dpi. Use the Contact Tab to email me. If I get enough designs, I will start a separate blog for this venture.

Here is one I did, based on a Guild Wars 2 Necro Armor.
I will hopefully work on a Paper Toy very soon, so don't worry I haven't stopped.

Let me know what you thing to the Logo. Thanks, & see you again soon.

If you visit the Artwork Tab, there are quite a few more finished Action Hero's dressed to represent the Guild Wars 2 Professions

I used to play a lot of Magic the Gathering, & have recently started buying cards again, & having a play with the new mechanics. There are certainly some interesting new things to try.

I made this "Battle Station" as i've called it, to use for myself, but as always, I will share it with you. It is basically to add a bit of graphic goodness to the piles of cards that you get during a game. Namely the Library, Graveyard & Exile. With a nice area for tokens also.


All the details are Vector work, done in Illustrator CS4. The textures were added also using illustrator but I didnt make those, I decided to use some resources from other artists, as they were much more fitting. And of course it has some papercrafting in there too.

The background of the base uses a Grunge Floral by Arghus on deviantArt.
The textures for the 3 boxes use Cracked Plaster by Good Textures on deviantArt.
and also Tower of London Stone effect by Good Textures.

Thankyou to the above artists for providing such awesome resources, making it possible for me to create the MTG Battle Station. All that is left is to get yours now.

If you build & use it in a game, take a photo & email it to me so I can post here. I would love to see it in use.

Download Magic the Gathering Battle Station Here.

This is not an endorsed product by Wizards of the Coast, & all logo's used remain the property of thier respective owners.

I got this one finished & built by the skin of my teeth in time for St. Patricks Day. It uses the Witchdokta template & is basically a Leprechaun head, playing a bit of Ninja style in his Top hat also.

I never did a Witchdokta custom, as I did the big Genetically Altered version instead, so I thought it would be fun to use it for the Leprechaun, instead of trying to design a new form.
It has a slightly evil look to it, but those pesky Leprechauns can be mischievous. The main idea on the graphic is quite stereotypical imagery of this mythical being, but the peeking eyes add a little twist to it.

Download your own Leprechaun Here

This is my 1st of two templates i'm adding today, & as you will notice I only added 1 post last month. The reason for this is I had to go into hospital for a Neck operation, but as they say.. The show must go on..

So, apologies for the quality of the build in the photo, my left arm is still very sore.

With all that said, let me introduce a new template to my collection & a the 1st colorway, as I would like to do more textures on this one. Control Freak is based around a Playstation remote, & ties very nicely with my Gaming hobby. It's always nice when you can combine.
I always do the test build, then make any final changes, so there will always be slight graphical changes from the photo, but they will always be improvements.

The download contains PDF's of the Custom & Blank, & also CS4 .ai of the Blank, for anyone who wants to make an illustrator custom of thier own. Please share your customs with me so I can post them on my blog. I love to see your work too.

Download Control Freak Blank & Custom Here

My own custom of the Skateboard template is long overdue, but I decided I was ready to do it some justice. When the process of the design started I thought, ok, how about a picture of a Deck (turntable) on a Deck (skateboard), & the custom came about.
Some of the artwork used is from one of my Wallpapers called Urban Inferno.
The previous Custom by Dan Watson & the Blank template are by far the most popular downloads on this blog, so fingers crossed you will enjoy this one just as much. The Blank is also available on this post, & contains a .pdf copy for hand drawn designs & a CS4 .ai for Digital customising.

The downloadable version is 10% bigger than the one used in the test build pictured above. I did this purely to make the wheels as easy as I possibly could. They do take patience. There have also been a few graphical improvements made.

Download the Skateboard Technics Turntable Custom Here
Download updated Blank Skateboard Here

In honor of the upcoming Superbowl 46, & the fact that I still had an un-customised Throwback template, I decided to do 2 customs, & set them head to head against each other. One for New England Patriots & another for New York Giants. Who will win the Superbowl, I have no idea, but I want to know who will get the most Downloads.
The big game is just over a week away, & I will be watching (timezone permitting) otherwise i'll have to catch a re-play.

So, time to take place in the Paperbowl, & see who will win the download championship.

Download your New York Giants Papertoy Here
Download your New England Patriots Papertoy Here

Here are some LED's you can use for images. There are some pre-created Letters & Numbers, but you can Grid them however you like.

On my quest to work through all my Blank templates, & make a custom of each one. The next one up is Paper Street Racer. I added the word street to the original name, because it was originally designed to be a street racer, & I didn't want it to be confused with the iPhone app game called "Paper Racer".

With that said, here is my 1st custom of the template, sporting the Killer Snake that I designed to be used as an actual Car Graphic. The body is not based on any one car, I just shaped it to be a Coupe style.
As you can see from the pictures, there is a gap in the graphic to accomodate the Wide body kit pieces, but from a full side on view the image does line up perfectly.
The download contains an updated blank from the original version, & the Custom pictured above. So you can build this model & then design your own by printing the Blank PDF, or using the Illustrator CS4 file to create a Digital custom.

Download Paper Street Racer Custom & Blank Here

I recieved an email the other day from Liz Woodrow in Katy, TX. & she has started her own company, creating T-shirts with Rhinestone & Screen-print designs. The company is called Redheaded Monkeys & you can go check it out & see if there is anything you like.

The reason for this post is Liz wanted to use one of my designs, The Peeled Heart, on a T-Shirt, & of course I was over the moon about this. It is always nice to see your work used in such a unique way.
Thx Liz for using my Design & I hope it's popular.

Welcome to 2012, & the start of a new year of Paper Toys & Models. With my Son getting a little bit older, I am starting to get a bit more free time, & have started to look at my Magic the Gathering CCG collection. With the release of the Plainswalker Cards & the Innistrad Block, it is looking very exciting & I wanted to make some new Decks to play.

With new decks, I need Deck Holders. Instead of buying them, as they are quite hard to find here in South Africa, I decided to make one, & give it a nice Papertoy feel to it also.
I've tried to give it a Steel Flightcase type effect on the skin, with an area for the player to write a description of the Deck inside. This box will hold standard sized Cards from MTG, Pokemon, Moshi Monsters, etc. all kept in protective sleeves.

The legs are borrowed from Wheelman, as they worked perfectly I thought there was no need to design anything different. The photograph above is actually holding a deck of Cards inside, so it will stand no problems when full.

Download the Papertoy CCG Deck Holder Here