Haven’t done (IT) in a while.

My bookshelf of curiosity.

The IT in question is sculpting stuff by hand. Several months ago I began a Ninja Turtle bust on a walnut base plate, but it has sat untouched since there was snow on the ground, and I have gone to Florida twice since that point. I was taking some time to teach my oldest daughter a few things about making an appropriate armature, and building up the rough forms before you get too far into your sculpt. And by too far into the sculpt I mean working in details when the bulk of the forms (read muscle groups, fatty tissue deposits, bones, and general thickness) hadn’t been placed upon the armature yet. It can be pretty seductive, those fun details. But best to get the whole thing in order before you put hours into skin texture, clothes, or artful extras. But I digress.

I have five full blocks of clay left untouched. As a general rule, mainly because I am cheap/not rich, I limit myself to only one block of clay per sculpture. That way I can do more! I don’t always adhere to that rule, and I have been known to try to knock out two smaller items off of one 2lbs block of clay. Living on the edge here people! Watch out.

I also have a stock pile of Super Sculpey which I intend to use on a new fair entry. Not all at once. But I have enough I could do four 6-8″ tall busts along the lines of what I usually do. Ogres and beastmen of all types, goblins and gnomes, evil elves, and sailors alike. I have a minotaur that I sight copied from a fantastic sculptor from Greece. Whose name now escapes me. Fantastic sculptor though.

I could try a faircrow bust, of our event mascot, for this fall’s fair. That might garner some attention. Feels like pandering if you ask me. But whatever, at this point. Sculpting, much like any art form outside of the use of AI, is a use it or lose it scenario. Because I tend to go on a hot streak, and then move on for months st a time, I constantly have to relearn how things feel in my hands, and how the Clay’s react go my touch. If you don’t do it 24/7/365 you lose your sensitivity to it. I’m not paid to do it, so that’s ok with me. I can take a few days or a week or two to get back into the groove.

I do the same thing with wood working, playing guitar, writing short stories, and model building/painting with an air brush. My focus pulls from one to the other, on and on, all year through. I’m ok at a bunch of stuff, but not exactly a killer at any one thing. Duh!

On another note, I encountered a smell/sensation that reminded me of when I was really sick in 2015, and it has me a little spooked today. That was when I had EBV. Really unpleasant 6-8 weeks. Plus a nasty lung infection/pneumonia to go along with it. So… yeah. That’s not cool.

Latest on the bench, been left untouched for months now.

Are you an over the knees or around the ankles kind of a person…

Well now, that’s a deeply circumstantial – and awfully personal question. And the answer is, it depends. Am I home, away, early in the am, very late at night, inebriated, hung over, under gastrointestinal distress? Everything factors in to the answer. No way would I let fabric touch a public men’s room floor. Nu-uh! No way. Never. But if fighting for my life on the seat, may strip down entirely (when at home). Who needs clothes on when it feels as though your entire life is draining into the porcelain. Unwanted firehose spray back is a powerful deterrent. Like I said, that is deeply personal, and I thank you for respecting my privacy at this time.

Tuesday – forgot it was recycling day today. Saw the neighbours gear out front and twigged to it, luckily before the green trucks came through. I didn’t even register it was going to be Tuesday while prepping for gymnastics last night. Usually I pull the bins out of the guard box on Sunday or Monday to load them up, and be ready to spring into action anytime after 7:00am should I hear the grumble of the green trucks on our street. But I completely blanked on it. How odd. I have been fairly busy straight through since January 2nd this year, which is – really, really rare for me. No major breaks as of yet. Oh I know they’re coming. Highly unlikely I’ll be this busy all year long.

I had to put the Urn build on hold due to the cold, and volume of work I had on tap. Glue doesn’t set properly in deeply cold weather. And as mentioned before, no major heat source out there right now. I have it partially insulated, but I have a long way to go before the temperature would stabilize enough to work comfortably between December and Mid March. The base is done, the exterior chamber is done. I have the pieces for the interior cut and ready to glue in place. I have the top of the cover ready, and can build the tray and cover fairly quickly. Then it’ll just be a matter of scraping, sanding and then a highly polished finish to make it shine! I’m ok if they decide to not want it. I’ll put it in my office closet up out of the way, and can hold on to it for myself.

Started a Richard Morgan book I’ve had in my possession since 2007. I remember how much I loved the Altered Carbon book series. This is in that universe, but not directly related. I have a fantasy novel he wrote from 2008 in my to read pile too. I usually tend to buy more books than I can read in a year, so I’m happy to oblige historical me, by actually getting around to reading books that have sat on a shelf for ten-fifteen years or so. I know I have a Mo Hayder book I haven’t read yet too. I’m usually not into horror / murder books, but she writes great, creepy, gripping stuff. The current Richard Morgan book I’m reading is “Black Man”. Longest book I’ve read in quite some years. Over sized paper back with tiny type. So I feel like it would be a much longer trade paperback than the page count it currently has. I’m two fifths of the way in. Lots of action, lots of science fictiony hand waving tech jabber, and lots of mystery/suspense. For some reason I thought I had read this when I kept seeing it on the shelf, but it’s not ringing any bells no matter how far I get into it. Which is great. I hate when I forget I’ve read something before. Invest all that time to read it, and then PING! oh! I know how this ends, oh I’ve read this before! Damn it! On to the next book.

I haven’t put any time into sculpting yet this year. I know I will at some point. Just not right this minute. I haven’t put much thought into finishing up the illustrations for my childrens book either, come to think of it. I really should get that stuff squared away. Not that my writing career will ever go much beyond this space, and self publishing. Sometimes I just gotta get a story out of my head. Doesn’t have to mean anything more than that. I share it, if anyone besides me reads it, or enjoys it, all the better. Hope I made you smile, or wince, or chuckle, or cringe. Better than straight up apathy. You know what I think? I think that many of you out there have a story you want to tell. I think you should put pen to paper and get it out. Just let it fall out of you. Don’t worry about style, voice, the hook, or any of that. That’s for the editing stage. Right now, go jot down some points, and just plop it out on the page. The good, the bad & and the ugly. You’ll feel better when you do. Way easier to tweak and refine what you have in your hands than wish you wrote the perfect thing in one go. But what do I know. I’m just some dude talking on the internet to the three folks that read me off and on. Hey guys! Hope you are well. Ciao Bella!

The progression of my VF-1 Valkyrie model build.

The last two weeks, whilst busy with work, have included some leaps and bounds forwards with my model kit build up. I finally have all of the individual components cut off their sprues, cleaned off the nub marks, sanded where required, and built into the appropriate sub section piece, (ie.) Elbow, knee, ankle, hip, hands, cockpit etc etc… Below is a picture of all the parts laid out ready for priming soon.

All parts laid out, with thruster cones separated onto painter’s tape for ease of painting, and keeping track of the smaller bells.

I am going to use the yellow & black version of the water slide decals, image below. To change up from the red/black version I already have.

Going for yellow accents this time around.

As far as a paint scheme is concerned, I’m going to use USAF colours to make this model look a little more custom. My airbrush nozzle is too large to accurately achieve individual panel coverage, so I’ll need to tape off sections to get colour variations from the paint set I have in hand. A mixture of light greys on top side & legs, and the dark greys & black for the laser canons, major weapons attachments (darker grey plastic elements shown above) feet, vents, and other odds and sods. Plus oil washes, panel lines, decals and rust effects. I ordered the Tamiya 10mm low tack tape to help me with masking after all the priming and base coating is done. My hope is, that by leaving everything in smaller parts I can do a far better job of masking, and eliminating overspray where I desperately don’t want it. Fingers crossed! Then a high gloss coat to round out the sprayed portion of the build up.

I will need to paint the cockpit & pilot separately, as there are lots of edges and bits to pick out & high light. I’m really trying to make this one look legit, so no real time limit, but I’d like to not still be doing it in March. If you catch my drift.

Vallejo USAF colour range. Variations on grey.

I’ll finish it off with prominent decals, and the clear plastic stand. I’d like to be done by the end of February, but that will depend on workload, my kids staying healthy, and all the PA Days, & Holidays, and weekends not interfering too much on my schedule. We’ll see how that pans out.

Paint & decal instructions.

Work has been steady throughout January, so I haven’t even had the chance to crack open my illustrated children’s book. To be totally honest I haven’t even given much thought to how I will depict my two main characters, Lemon or Smush. Which is kind of important. The story is written. I have done five or six drafts, and I’m happy with where it is. But, I do need to get those pesky illustrations done. I know I focused a great deal of my free time into reading half of this years book list up front, and meticulously picking through my VF-1 model kit build up, so I didn’t leave much time for the book. Nor did I feel as though I needed to. I haven’t sculpted yet so far this year, nor painted, nor done any wood working, so… gotta pace myself. Too many hobbies, and too little free time. Have managed to play my guitar a few times, which is really nice for a change. That is very relaxing. Loud, but relaxing. Let us not forget that both my kids do four extra curricular activities per week – each. So my evenings are spent playing chauffeur/ assistant coach/cheerleader and water boy. So evenings aren’t exactly free time for me either.

Hell, here I was thinking I’d start Book Three of collected short stories this winter, like immediately after Christmas break, but that hasn’t hit me yet either. Do I go a whole different route? Or stick with what I have developed and just find a new angle to explore? Not sure. Really need to think about it, and write up some outlines. Maybe later. I’m pooped.

What to build next…

I know I have a model kit on my work bench at the moment but I’m starting to think about building a small self contained terrain piece. Like a specific set of ruins for a church or temple. I have a couple of good chunks of foam board left, and a whole bunch of air dry clay that I recently recieved. I guess if I can find a brick pattern stamp I could do the flooring aswell inside the terrain piece. Then using industrial adhesive, super glue, and a hot glue gun, I could put it all together pretty quickly. Give me the chance to try properly ruined architecture.

I don’t have any more trees on hand, but I do have grasses, scrub brush, and a few shrubs and flowers. So it’s not like it’ll end up barren looking. I have sand, stone and grout too. I could do something from a desert climate. This is when I wish I had a closet full of rock moulds, plaster, trees, and static grasses & an applicator. Damn!

Half full bags of materials.

I don’t have a whole lot of room left to store stuff, so it’ll need to be shoe box size or smaller. My shelves aren’t that tall, so I can’t make the whole temple or church ruin. I guess it would be more of a diorama piece. Damn. Now I’m excited about it. It’s going to stay on my mind for ages now. But I already bought a new paint series of eight colours for my VF-1 Valkyrie model. I should really complete that first. I should… but.

Box of parts that need to be cut off sprues, and partially assembled before I can prime & paint them.
Shoe box sized self contained dungeon.

The other day I had an idea for a new sculpted bust too. So I’m going to need to make a bunch of new bases on the lathe. That takes a day or two as I have to glue up a bunch of Walnut pieces, or find a suitable maple log portion to be turned into fancy rounds. That’s a good way to get my wood working fix in without having to touch a hundred icy cold hand tools. If I use a long enough chunk of wood I can get at least four or five bases out of it. Plus sanding and slicing it up, more sanding and finish. That will satiate a bunch of create pangs I’ve been having.

I think I am slightly more interested in painting my model kit, than the initial (and very important) build up. I need to be more slow and methodical, so that it looks better generally than the last one I constructed a few years ago, and only recently painted. I can see several rough spot where I didn’t cut all of the tabs away. And my build was sloppy. Forgotten pieces, and glued on elements that shifted or fell over entirely. My decal application left much to be desired as well. Yikes.

Previous build up, with recent amateur paint job.

Plus a new larger paid project came in so I can’t jump on any of this stuff right away until the majority of my day job projects are well under way. Glad for the work though. So now I just have more time to day dream about my hobbies before I actually start any side projects. Not to worry. Once I’m in a comfortable spot with my open design jobs, I can pick up a brush, nippers, or a file and chip away at all of this stuff. Plus somewhere in the middle I will find the time to play guitar/bass and the keyboard songs I know. Sometimes I think I have too many hobbies, but they really do add a dash of something extra to my daily life. So not all bad then eh? Right.

Did I Manage to Salvage the Ogre Rogue… You Tell Me. The Painting Episode: Take Two.

So in our last painting episode I attempted something which I had not done before, a realistic human skin tone. I had the appropriate paints, I was following along step by step, and I even added flecks of mahogany, green, blue and red for that authentic splotchy skin we all have. And then I got real heavy handed with the last two layers of high lights, and washed it all away. But not before I added the blue glaze to add some of that Ogre ‘otherness‘ to his look, and it all went to dog shit.

I had some thoughts regarding going right back to primer, and trying again from the start. I was all ready nearly three hours deep on the paint job at this point, so I instead opted for a quicker fix. It wouldn’t help with my over sprayed shading issue, being that I had mostly erased all of my layered shadows. But I pressed on. Adding a new round of flecked speckles. At this point I was happy enough (I guess?), and dug in to painting the rest of him. Chainmail, cowl, hair, teeth, eyes, belt, furs and trinkets. I tried to get a rusty feel to the pauldron, but as I started with a Copper look, a blue/green patina would have worked better, in retrospect. No matter. I put his crows beak/war hammer back on, and painted that a little. In all honesty the weapon requires a lot more work at this point, but I’m over it for now.

I had some EU labels come in, and the spectre of another report or three looming, and I don’t want to invest more time on the weapon right now, as the paid work can come in at any second. Gotta stay nimble as a freelancer. Hurry up & wait is real common round these parts.

Anyway, here he is, and here is how it’ll stay for a while longer. Perhaps come January, in my down period I’ll pick him back up and polish some edges. Behold, the thing I have made.

95% complete Ogre Rogue bust I sculpted this year (2022).

It looks like a thing, so I have that going for me, which is nice. Otherwise all I have left is the no name brand Ninja Turtle character I have left to paint. Could just leave it as plain Apoxie sculpt though. That’s a thing that people do these days, just leave it in it’s original colour. I can get behind that I think.

The Rogues Gallery of 2022 sculpted items, and their paint jobs.

Beaten by the elusive Skin Tones…

Started the Ogre Rogue paint up today. It was supposed to look mostly human, with a hint of a blue wash over top. But I washed out all of the skin tone variation flecking of Mahogany, Red, Green & Blue by spraying too heavy on the high lights. And then the very thin blue paint washed away much of what was beneath it, into one flat drab monotone. So there is 2.5 hours wasted. Now I need to have a think on whether to prime it all black again, and try once more from the start. Or. Here’s a big, ‘or’, add more flecks of colour over top ever so slightly, and just continue on. As I do have a ticking clock counting down with more reports coming on my heels. You know what. I think I can salvage it with some slight flecking of different colours. I won’t have the highlights I was hoping for, but it will at least look less flat.

See if you can spot where I bungled the whole thing.

Rose red brown base coat.
50/50 Red and the next colour
100% second colour. Then, flecks of mahogany, red, blue and green.
1st high light. A tad bold.
Second high light – can still see flecks- kind of.
Too far. Got heavy handed with the paint.
Blue washed out all details.
Pooling starts to get really noticeable.
Pulled colour off the face – tried “something”, it did not work.

Yeah – so… not impressed with myself right now. I was a bit heavy handed on applying the high lights, and I washed away all of the depth. And my thinned down blue ran, and puddled, and looks pretty bad. Oh well. Still lots to learn. I should have used a clear coat at some point, most likely just before the heavily thinned blues. Live and learn.

Experience is gained through stupid mistakes. So I’m pulling in XP like nobody’s business right now. I really should have stopped once my high lights had totally covered the flecks. I’m always rushing. Rush, rush, rush. For some reason a sense of urgency permeates through nearly everything I do as a hobby. I managed to quell it in my wood working, namely because table saws, and blades are waiting for a moment of inattention to take my fingers. And I know how to be calm when I work my day job. But man, do I ever get impatient when painting. Chill out my man. It’s not a paid commission. Take your time my dude.

Somehow it’s only Tuesday. American Thanksgiving is coming up on Thursday, so there must be football, and parades and such coming up soon. I need to eat some breakfast, and think about this painting mistake. Airbrush compressor is now making a different sound than usual. Not sure what to do about this. Excuse to buy a better one should it crap out entirely? Or is it finally breaking itself in. I have no idea whatsoever.

The SlapDash Painting Episode, No° 108.

I have recently been revisiting my old no name air brush. I picked up a wide variety of Vallejo paints, primers, thinners, and washes so that I could paint my latest round of bust sculpts. It has been a trying time, to say the least. But as I progress through my eight recent builds I am finding a stable, and repeatable method to getting half way decent results.

I am working off of the following methodology. A flat black primer over the whole bust, followed by a grey primer that I spray top down for stark contrast high lights. Then I use a mid tone, straight from the bottle to cover the whole sculpture. I use a darker colour to then paint from the underside only. Then I use a 50/50 mix of mid tone to first highlight, spraying top down all over. Then the high light colour at 100%, top down only. Focus primarily on head shoulders, and ear tips, and maybe belly if my character is fat/barrel chested.

At this point I pick up a tooth brush and then fleck a deep red, blue and green paint all over the bust, avoiding armor if at all possible. Once dried, I go to my last 100% colour and knock those flecks back a tad. And then use my final highlight colour to brighten up the face and very tops of the shoulders only.

After this point it’s all brush painting for metallics, leather straps, skulls, and anything else that wasn’t skin tones.

1.) Flat black primer.
2.) Grey primer, top down only spraying
3.) Mid tone all over.
4.) Darker under colour that is sprayed bottom up. 5.) First highlight sprayed top down and all over.
6.) Second highlight colour top down. More focus on head, neck & shoulders.
7.) Flecked red, blue & green paints for skin variations.
8.) Knock down flecks, and add next highlights for face, and shoulders only. 9.) Begin brush work for metallics and all other elements.

I’m not actually finished with my Ogre royal guard yet, so I’ll have to cut it here. I should note I’m using craft paints that I have thinned with a Vallejo acrylic thinner. I wanted something a bit different to my regular green, brown, red or blue palettes. Looks nifty. I think. Still has a long way to go. Catch you around.

The eye searingly high cost of an LTC…

Due to a recent COVID-19 infection that has debilitated an elderly member of our family we are faced with having to place said family member in an LTC that has round the clock emergency care capabilities. And let me too you that shit don’t come cheap. What’s worse is it feels as though they are only too happy to nickel and dime you for every available humanizing perk you might wish your elderly family member to have & enjoy. For the base rate of $9000.00 / month, your family member gets one shower/bath per week, but daily sponge baths in their hospital bed. A bed you pay them $4000.00 for up front, which includes a wheel chair, due to Covid stealing our family members mobility. It’s fucking horrendous. There is more to it, but as it stands we’re looking at around $9900.00 per month for her care, unless she needs any other additional perks or resources which they are only too happy to provide at additional cost. Ludicrous. Fucking vultures, the lot of them. No wonder Dougie, Harper and Harris are so in love with protecting these private corporations. They’re so gods be damned lucrative. Fuck me. I really had no clue. Oh, if you wanna go into one of those cheap ones you have to sign over all of your assets. House, car, vacation properties, stocks bonds and the like. Robbery. It’s a cluster fuck of heinous highway robbery. I’m so mad I could spit fire. Jesus h crimony.

On a lighter note I just built myself an airbrush paint/primer/mini compressor caddy that I can reach from a sitting position from my desk, or can have on the table top surface with me. If you watch Tested, you’ll see where I got my general idea from.

Next up is the spray booth, cowl I want to trap over spray so that I don’t ruin my walls, or other items in my office/studio space. I’m not totally sold on it needing a vacuum port, but an open cell foam backing seems like a useful thing to have in it. Just has to be wide enough to fit my Lazy Susan inside it, and give me 13 inches of clearance above the stand itself. Big but small. I have to keep it in the closet, but I want it to work for 95% of my bust sculptures to be painted, and an occasional full figure when I pluck up the courage to do more full bodied subjects. It’s a fine balancing act. As I’m sure you are all aware.

I need to eat. Also I have a botched gorilla bust in the oven baking. I was using materials I did not like, so I bunged it in the oven to be done with it. No fun fighting with it, so at least it will be finished soonish. I can always add more to fix the eyes & face and rebake it if I absolutely had too. Ciao Bella!

Was it something I wrote?

Not gonna lie, big shock to see the amount of traffic that came by here yesterday. Nice to see, but just goes to show I have no idea what anybody likes, or enjoys about my blog posts. Though: I will say this, anything to do with wood working will get at least a handful of views. Maybe not the day of, but eventually it will. That much I know. So, there is that.

I don’t have any immediate wood shop plans, except to make myself a smallish air brush painting cowl, that I can wrap in plastic, and run a vacuum out the back to trap any overspray. I don’t think the build will be very interesting, or complicated, so I don’t,  as of yet, plan to document it. The reason for the build is that I finally broke down and ordered specific air brush paints. So instead of painting into a cardboard box, like I used to do, I’ll make a sturdier wooden box, lined in plastic, and with a plastic hose adapter embedded in it to contain the mists. It’ll be covered by an open cell foam pad to soak up particles, that can be replaced. But I don’t forsee myself suddenly becoming a painter of many things. I have my busts to do, and a few miniatures laying around to finish up, and then it’ll sit in the closet for a long while. Actually I bought Fantasy Series Two from a kickstarter that hasn’t released yet, so when those 200 models show up, the air brush & cowl will get some serious use. I call it a cowl because it’s so small, and not quite a full booth. Semantics I suppose. Cowl sounds cooler than spray booth to my ears.

On the sculpted bust front my Hellboy is coming along. Trying to take my time with this one. I had done an interesting bust of him several years ago, which I was hoping to recreate, but the armature was incorrect, so now I’m doing just a head and neck version. It’s a work in progress, and still needs a fair amount of work. Like reshaping the planes of the face, smoothing, texturing, adding hair and a pony tail. Pores and veins, and whatever else that can make this as high quality as I can manage right now.

It still seems oddly flat in the face, so I think the planes are off. Probably needs to be drawn more front to back, from nose to mandible. I need to consult my physiology reference books to see where I went wrong. But it looks like an angry guy with horn nubs on his forehead, so I have that going for me. The red Sculpey feels more like oil clay, which while icky, feels like a return to Chavant. I dig it. Now I wish I had bought more of it. It was like $10 cheaper than any kind of Super Sculpey. And that’s something that I can really get behind.

Already have some work lined up for this week, which is always good to know. That’s it for now. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

If I followed the stats…

Then yesterday was a dog shit day for viewership/readership numbers. Interesting. I still have no clear idea what “brings all the boys to the yard” as it were, but I certainly didn’t have whatever “It” is in yesterday’s post. Though I will say this, on the whole a post with at least one photo usually does ok, for me, that is. But that photo is usually placed within the post, and not a cover image (unless it’s a short story). Yeah – so I have no idea what turns people’s heads or makes them sit up and take notice. I don’t intend to try and formulate a metric of things to tick off in order to garner more readers though. That sounds like it would suck all of the fun out of the process. Chasing stats has never, ever been fun. Talk about turning something fun into an Excel Spreadsheet time vampire of dreariness. Shoot from the hip, keep it loose, and aim at the broad side of whatever barn you like.

We took a brief family car ride to the Richmond Hill Go station last evening for their Halloween light show. It was pretty good. Tuned in to a radio station for spooky music. Had a photo op station with candy for the kids. And one ticket let’s you drive through twice. Which we did. It was about 30 minutes of lights, music & fun. A great time. Also if you search Facebook you can find codes for 50% off the ticket price. So a bargain! Here’s a few images from the event.

I have the kids at an indoor play park (masked obvs) and we’ll be here for at least an hour, possibly two if I can help it. Tire the kids out, and get our money’s worth from the entrance fee. Laugh out loud to the rescue on a cool, rain soaked Saturday morning. I even have some time to myself to both read and do some writing. Also answer the kids questions when they run on by to check in. Life is good, even if the quality of my writing isn’t.

I also broke down and ordered myself some air brush paints for my baked bust sculpts. I am currently working through a bust of Hellboy. Trying to take my time with this one. I have two very svelte looking Walnut bases I am looking to display with a quality hand made item on top. Once the clear coat went on the other day the Walnut absolutely just POPPED! Bam! So, I want to display them front & centre. Also I shaped them on the lathe, so I’d like to highlight that feature as well, once they are completely finished. I was going to do a copy of this Don Lemon bronze Viking bust I love, but then the red sculpey was shouting for Hellboy instead. I can’t fault it, red is red. Do someone red with the red stuff, not rocket science.

If you are wondering what I am reading, it is “Shards of Earth” by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’m little more than 100 pages in, and it seems pretty good. Aliens, war, destruction, abject fear. It’s all there. I bought the second book too. That’ll be four of his books I’ve read this year. Next year the last book of the Portiid series comes out, so I’ll nab that one too once released.

I think that keeps us all up to date. The rains have started up again, so I’m going to go back to reading & watching my kids get dizzy on a mini tea cup ride inside the park. Ciao Bella!