art

I’m a WIP

A pencil-esq digital drawing of a robot head among a large bouquet of flowers; including daisies, roses, dandelions, forget-me-nots, and lilacs.
| Leslie Born

I’ve only been using Procreate for a few months now, so obviously there is still a lot I’m learning. But I’m enjoying every step. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve said “that’s what that does?!”, or “it can do that?!”. I’m really enjoying getting to flex my creativity again.

Procreate automatically creates a time lapse video of what is done in each picture and can be exported! I’ve realized that my starting process is pretty clunky and it makes me giggle to watch the video:

Whenever I get a new idea for a new robot friend, I create a new canvas and scribble or sketch my idea. Then I don’t come back to it until I’m ready to do it completely. (“Tie, cliche Father’s Day”)

Then I do a hasty “pencil” sketch. Like most base sketches it’s pretty messy, but it’s a building layer. I figure out placement, guages, gadgets and faces.

After that it’s refining the outlines and filling in colours. A lot more clean. I’m guessing this stage will evolve as I go, but it may not I don’t know. These robot friends are in a very different style that I’ve ever done before, so I really mean it when I say I’m on this supermurgitroid journey not knowing where it’s going!

I recently did a more “formal” portrait of a robot friend, (the feature picture for this post), and it felt nice to make something that felt a bit more like my old style. I have yet to do a robot friend in watercolour paint, not sure if I will or if it will be weird. This is where I’m a WIP. This is all new to me. I’ve got a lot to learn about what I’m doing, where I’m going and what that looks like. But I’m grateful you’re on this journey with me – it’s nice to have company!

Take care,

Leslie

Why Supermurgitroid?

Supermurgitroid Robot No. 3 is an atomic, mid century modern inspired robot. They are round, with green and teal accents.
| Leslie Born

I have always been fascinated by Mid Century Modern art (which I’ll get into another day), and recently I was doing some research and came across a website that listed 1950s slang. I found my two new favourite words there: Ginchiest and Supermurgitroid.

Then came my robot friends, and I kept trying to think of something fun to name my artist shop that had to do with robots. 

I kept going back to supermurgitroid because it reminds me of Snagglepuss (Heaven’s to Murgatroyd); it sounds like it should actually be a word relating to technology or science; it’s fun to say; and it’s very cool and exciting that I’m finally sharing my art with the world!

This has all left a mark on my timeline that I am so proud of. I’m proud of my robots, I’m proud of myself for taking this step, I’m proud of the amount of time that I’ve been able to put into this.  The last 2.5 years have been a struggle (as I know they have for most, but this story is also for another day), and spending time on Supermurgitroid has reminded me about what I love to do for me.

Right now I’m revelling in the fun that has come from having some kind of robot portal in my imagination, and getting all my robot friends into the world!

To see more of my friends, they’re all posted on the Supermurgitroid by Leslie page (link below in logo), on my Threadless Artist Shop or on Instagram – please come by and say hi!