For the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge, Stefan de Groot designed 12 products for RedBubble. They are all available on the RedBubble store.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE REDBUBBLE STORE
Horus Hippo History
Marinus Hollanders 1928
As the story goes, Horus Hippo was a Dutch cartoon character from 1927 that was later distributed in the USA. Horus Hippo was created by Marinus Hollanders from Cartoon Factory Hollandia. Stefan de Groot, his grandson, now keeps the legacy alive. He draws in the style of the old Mickey Mouse cartoons. This style has been made popular again with the CupHead game. The designs are very simple and is also called rubber hose animation, because the limbs of the characters look like rubber hoses.
Designs
The designs of all the Horus Hippo products have been carefully made and reflect images from the thirties. Stefan de Groot did lots of research to use products and designs from the thirties and also the font types that were used in that era. You can click on the title links to go to the individual designs on RedBubble.
Horus Hippo Movie Poster
In the movie poster Horus Hippo is disguised as Santa Clause. The toys that are around him are toys from 1930. Tinker Toys, wood letter blocks, a wind up Horus Hippo train, tin soldiers and a wind up Tin Horus Hippo. I designed and drew this poster in my favourite drawing app Procreate.
Horus Hippo Smartphone Case
The smartphone case shows Horus Hippo making a phone call in an old telephone booth. In those days you would call an operator that would connect you to someone else. I designed and drew this design first on paper with the Palomino Blackwing 602. Then I redrew everything in the new drawing app for iPad: Clip Studio Paint EX for Manga. It is one-on-one copy of the desktop version of Clip Studio Paint. You can do great illustrations and comics with it and even animation!
Horus Hippo Clock
The Horus Hippo clock is called ‘Sand O’ Time’. Horus Hippo is holding a sandglass with a chameleon on top, a reference to the changing of time. I designed and drew this clock first on paper with Palomino Blackwing 602. Then I redrew everything in the new drawing app for iPad: Clip Studio Paint EX for Manga.
Horus Hippo Pillow
It is strange how the mind works. When I was thinking about the design of a pillow for Horus Hippo, somehow clouds came up, because of their fluffiness. Then what would Horus do in the clouds? I made him into a cupid with an aureole and a golden bow and arrow. I drew this design on coloured paper with pastel pencils by Caran D’Ache and pastel sticks by Sennelier.
Horus Hippo Duvet Covers
Sometimes a design takes a while to take shape. I made several sketches of Horus Hippo sleeping in the clouds. But there was something missing. So I came up with this design of Horus Hippo sleeping in his bed counting sheep. I painted it in Procreate. First in color, but later in greyscale with a blue undertone.
Horus Hippo Coffee Mug
The Horus Hippo coffee mug I designed 20 years ago. I redrew all the poses of Horus Hippo and his girlfriend on paper with the Palomino Blackwing 602. This was good practice to learn more about the character and getting comfortable to draw him in all angles. Then I inked and colored him in the drawing app Adobe Draw. Adobe Draw is a vector based drawing app. Great advantage of drawing in vectors is, that you can scale your illustrations and the image and linework stay intact. I composited all of the individual poses in Photoshop. The Horus Hippo is avialable in three different sizes.
Horus Hippo T-Shirt
For the design of the T-Shirt I wanted to make an iconic design. I made some thumbnails of Horus Hippo on paper and combined several poses into one pose. Horus Hippo lifting up his fez. I wanted to keep this design very simple and open. I created a circle back of the character so that the design can be placed on a variety of colored shirts, sweaters and other apparel. I sketched and colored this image in the drawing app Adobe Draw. It is a vector app which enables you to scale the image into any format.
Horus Hippo Happy Birthday Card
For the deign of the Horus Hippo card I decided to make a Happy Birthday card. I sketched and colored the card in Adobe Sketch. In the beginning, when the app first launched, it was a very limited app. But with this version there are new bruhses added by the illustrator Kyle T. Webster, who makes the most amazing brushes for Photoshop. You can also upload the brushes he has made for Photoshop into Adobe Sketch, which makes it a much better drawing app to paint in.
Horus Hippo Egypt Scarf
For the design of the Horus Hippo scarf, I really needed to think of what kind of style I wanted to go. I looked at a lot of scarf designs from the twenties and thirties and designs for the Hermes scarfs. I wanted to keep the design simple and stylish. The main theme is Egypt. Horus Hippo starred in the movie Horus Hippo in Egypt, so this design is based on that movie. I took elements from the movie and also added some stylish designs. The border of the scarf has a pattern of isometric shapes which show the letter H. I made these isometric letters in Adobe Animate and used an isometric grid to design the letter H. I then duplicated them into the border. The images inside the scarf I first sketched on paper and inked and colored in Adobe Draw. In the middle there is the Egyptian sign for the god Horus. On the left I drew a cartouche with hieroglyphs that say Horus Hippo. The left cartouche is my name, Stefan de Groot, written in hieroglyphs. This design is also available as a pillow.
Horus Hippo Hardcover Journal
The prompt for the tenth 12 Days of Christmas Challenge was to design an image for a Hardcover Journal. It is strange how the mind works. I started thinking about an journal of Horus Hippo for one of his travels and came up with the idea to make a movie poster of a Horus Hippo movie about looking for Edelweiss. On the left of the picture you see the Mont Blanc mountain. Horus Hippo is climbing a mountain to find Edelweiss. He is dressed in a Tiroler outfit with a matching hat with a feather on it. He is not alone; on the left there is a capricorn watching him. This image was drawn in Clip Studio Paint EX for the iPad.
Horus Hippo iPad Case
The eleventh challenge was to design an iPad Case of Horus Hippo. Since all of the images I have drawn so far of Horus Hippo take place in the 1930s I had to think of what kind of device did people use in those days. It is quiet simple, a slate and granger or slate pencil. It is a very handy device. You draw or write on the slate with the stylus and it is scratched into the slate. You can erase it with a wet sponge. I have drawn Horus Hippo in a school outfit, practicing his ABC. On the top of his school desk is an apple with a bite to reference the iPad. This illustration was made in Procreate on the iPad Pro.
Horus Hippo Tote Bag
For the last challenge I had to make a design for a Tote Bag. The idea came fast. What do women like the most? Shopping! This design was inspired by tow cover of the Amrican illustrator J.C. Leyendecker. You see Harlow Hippo in a trendy outfit and in the back you see Horus Hippo with lots of bags and boxes he tries to balance. I called this piece: ” Horus Hippo in Shop ‘Till You Drop”. I have painted this in Procreate 4, using the oil paint bruhses.
You can find all the Horus Hippo products on my RedBubble page.
The 12 Days of Christmas Challenge was a great opportunity to revisit my cartoon character Horus Hippo and along the way make designs for products. It always good to make designs with a purpose. I have learned a lot about the character, but also learned to draw in some new apps. They all have their own strong and weak points. I will continue making new art with Horus Hippo.
