Munny Project #1

I recently decided to begin the paint process on my Munny Doll. For those of you who are not familiar with this project I have taken on, I will try to elaborate some through the use of both pictures and my amazing descriptive skills. First off, you may want to know what a Munny doll is exactly, well allow me to direct you to the company's web site. MUNNY I first saw these dolls when I was at ComiCon this summer. I walked past their booth a dozen different times and was constantly looking at and contemplating purchasing on of their dolls. Designer vinyl toys are a fairly big movement in the popart world right now and I am finding myself inextricably drawn to it more and more. Once I came home from Con, I searched out their site and spent a fair amount of time going back and forth over whether I wanted to pick up one of the dolls to play with. I have been collecting Mighty Muggs for a while now, and I thought it would be a fun activity to try and make a few heroes of my own. Anyway, the more I thought about it the more I thought it would be a fun project for school.

I got together with the art teacher at the school and I decided to see if she wanted to collaborate with me on an art/writing project centered around how we define our personalities. The students would use the dolls as a template for visually showing who they are, how they want to be seen, or how they define themselves, and then they would write about the experience. The project would culminate with an art show hosted at a gallery in Pocatello during Art Walk (an event held on the first friday of every month down town).

So, I contacted Kidrobot (the company that makes the Munny) and found out about an educators program that they run where they will provide the dolls to school at wholesale price. I ordered in a few dolls to practice on, and we are starting the larger project in a week.

It took me a little while to figure out what I wanted to do with the two Munny dolls that I had picked up, I knew that one of them needed to be a caricature of me, and the other could be more free. I have been going through a bid of a Zombie stage lately, so I knew one of them would have to be the living dead. But I didn't know what to do with the other doll! Should I make it a superhero, should it just be a cartoon of me, there were too many options. I started out by sketching some possible designs and Finally settled on the idea that it needed to look like me. So I started putting the design down on the doll.

I was surprised by how well the vinyl responded to the pencil, it went on smooth and was easily it erased leaving very little memory of the previous mark. The sketching part was perhaps the easiest for me. I finished that long before I started the paint process, for obvious reason. For anyone who knows me well, you know that I am colorblind, and I have a difficult time matching things up. Sarah, god bless her, will usually pick out my clothes the night before so that I avoid going to work wearing colors that would frighten the most Nosferatuan of Gothic students. So, i was, needless to say, very apprehensive about the whole coloring aspect of this project. I could simply do a black and white rendering, thus showing everyone else who I see the world, but that isn't me. I like to think of myself as a very bright and vivid person. Someone who is a veritable rainbow of personality and color (most of the time). Well, needless to say, I went to the art teacher to get some assistance on this part, and here is the result so far. I had to mark some of the lids on the paint so that I would know what was what, but I think that it is turning out pretty good so far, and I am excited by the possibilities of what the finished product will look like.


Here is the first stage, i forgot to take a pic of just the blank doll. Oh well!


Skin tones always look funny to me, but Sarah says that this is a good color and it seems to work well. I'm using acrylic based paint and will use a clear coat protectant when I am completely done.


I started to paint the hair and goatee, also put in the black where the mouth is. Soon this is what I too will look like I'm afraid. Hair around the edges but none on top. Not that I am loosing my hair, I just lost a bet and my kids get to shave my head at some point.


Here is the profile of the finished hear (almost, I still need to paint the eyes and the teeth).


Does it look like me?


Here is a closer shot of just the face. I need to finish some of the detail work like a nose and the lips; I also need to do some shading but so far I am pretty pleased.


I actually used two different colors for the hair, my kids refer to this brown spot as my "duck butt". I prefer the Ed Grimmley, but that is much too old and obscure a reference for any of them, and sadly enough most of my co-workers as well.


This is the Zombie Munny. I am really pleased with how it looks, But i started to color it the other day and I am running into some problems. The markers that I was planning on using (prismacolor) are causing the sharpie to bleed because they are alcohol based and much stronger and nicer than the sharpie. I may have to switch gears and try something else, I don't know. I'll keep you posted. But for now, I am having a blast with this project! Yeah me!

Cheers,
Price