Ofleb Productions Montreal

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I am excited to be working with the talented Ms. Karen Belfo of Ofleb Productions in Montreal again! Saladani's Enigma is a new feature length film Karen is working on for 2011. Ms. Ofleb explains about her new film,

"Saldani's imagination and perception on reality get tangled into a web of negativity and confusion. Her enigma reflects herself. Her characters are her obsession and the man next door becomes her ticket to freedom."

visit: www.saldanisenigma.com

Hmmm sounds interesting!
Karen hired me a few weeks back to start creating a unique animated intro for her new movie. So, on a rainy Tuesday afternoon, I rolled up my sleeves and put on my favorite Django Reinhardt tunes as I worked out these 4 concept illustrations for the new intro. I wanted to create a characiture for Saldani that channels the quirky character Amelie played by actress Audrey Tautou and Betty Boop! The next step will be to work this into a nice 30 second animated piece introducing the film (coming soon in April), much like "Frank's Letter" another short film I worked on with Karen Belfo a few years ago. I'm really excited about this because I look forward to an opportunity to animate in a very gritty ink and wash style again. Yeaaaah Montreal!!!

I heart Reggie: The Mini Valentines are done!

There she is!!! Look at that face! The "Reggie" Mini Valentines are finally done and available to buy on Etsy! Here's the link to my shop: www.etsy.com/shop/hmacdo

There are 4 different colors with custom handmade envelopes to go with each card and heart details on the inside. I made the envelopes from scratch, changed the design slightly on the card to include more hearts around Reggie and decided to print my logo with a little "love note" on the back. These cards would make an excellent addition to any valentine gift that you are giving to your sweet heart this year with that bouquet of flowers or a box of chocolates. The card and envelope are made with fine watercolor and handmade papers. Each one has a red satin ribbon accent and brushed with glitter. Happy Valentine's Day!

The Reggie Valentine continued

Here are a couple of pictures from the process that I've gone through thus far to make the actual cards. The cards are just shy of 3 square inches each and printed on fine watercolor paper in different colors from my Epson inkjet printer. With each card backing made from hand-made papers, (the left over scraps from my holiday cards) I hand printed "reggie" with my signature logo. For some reason, I really wanted the reggie illustration to have round edges so I very carefully cut around the edge and used a little nail filer to mold each round edge to perfection. I think that I will probably glue them together so that I can write a little note or message on the back of each one. Just like the tiny cards we use to get from our secret crush in Elementary school! I'm also thinking about adding a bit more of that shimmer I liked so much from the holiday cards and more red satin ribbon to accent. Photos to follow of the final product in the next week as I finish this project in time for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Reggie Card concept

So a few months back I did a tiny inky sketch of Scott's dog Reggie in my sketchbook. Since then, I've gone back to that sketch again and again. I wanted to keep the integrity of the original ink drawing that I scanned from my sketchbook, but with a little watercolor here and there, I am currently working it into a new design for my Valentine's Day card.

From here, I decided that I wanted to make the concept for these cards "tiny" like the little conversation hearts that are so popular during the Valentine's Day season and present them in a variety of colors: pastel pink, blue, yellow and green, just like those little hearts. From all the die-cuts I created in my Christmas cards, I discovered that I have half a dozen of these square shaped scrap pieces lying around. The perfect size for my little Valentine cards.