Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

I don’t much care if it’s writing a short blog post, reading a few pages from a book, doodling, noodling on a guitar or starting a new full fledged sculpture. I’m doing a little bit of something everyday, instead of watching others do it on line or through social media.

I dug up my initial notes for my short story and I also found some character designs I had worked on previously. I’ll dust that stuff off and give it a bit of love this year. If I feel more ambitious I’ll even illustrate the pages and post the story here later on.

We just had a major clear out of old clothes for the girls, and sorted about eighty pairs of shoes, boots, slippers and crocs. It was exhausting, but we are all the better for it. Plus the bulk of it got shared out among the extended family.

Chopped up god knows how many card board boxes, and recycled about two tonnes of wrapping paper. I even dug out all of the left over pieces of model kits I’ve put together over the last decade and cut them out of the sprues. Took me about three hours, but it’s a job now done, never to be seen again.

Small incremental steps towards something greater. Plus a cleaner, and neater home.

2020 is off to a good start, four days in.

M

Went for a dig about in my trunk of old things and papers and failed to turn up any of my previous writing pieces. That’s a fair bit of a disappointment to me, not because my old writing was any good as it was, though I was looking forward to editing and possibly improving what I had written nearly twenty years ago as an OAC creative writing student. I got the best grade I ever achieved in high school in that class. It was a 94%. The only other class I ever passed with a grade in the nineties was Kinesiology, with a 92%. Then they chopped the OAC year, and no one cares. Neither of those marks got me into college or university later on. So more of a personal highlight than anything else really.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is, I need to decide if I can try and remember some of the longer stories and outline them and tackle a new rough draft, or consider them dead and buried and lost to the ages.

I’m actually really annoyed, because I can see the purple duotang in my mind, and I still have a few drawings I did to complement my writing hanging up in my office. But no writing excerpts. Damn. Double damn. On the bright side I did start an outline of a children’s book I was writing for my little girls, so now I can just focus on that.

Or sculpt more, find new clients for my graphic design day job, complete some wood working projects or finally paint our stair well and get this summers chore list started early.

I think my children’s book would greatly benefit for artwork in the style of Skottie Young. Pow! So beautiful.

Ciao -M

This year I will endeavour to create a few more articles of both written and sculpted entertainment. I loathe to say “content”, as that is cold, impersonal, and some what corporate in nature. I aim to produce a few items of merit, that warrant even a fleeting moment of attention. It’s not much, but that’s what I have on offer for 2020. Maybe I’ll dig up my old short stories and edit them and post them on here. I’m no writer, but that was a thing I used to enjoy doing. Maybe I’ll paint a few things this year as well. Who knows, the year is my oyster at this point.

Mayhaps I’ll see you along the way.

M

Here are the last four items I have put together, all in the same creature universe. Going to bake and paint them over the coming months. Whichever turns out the best will get entered into the 2019 Markham Fair

painted ceramics, adult division. Looking forward to getting these done and displayed.

Have been fortunate enough to have had the time between some early design projects to sculpt a few items this year. Although I did not finish my Hulk until early January I will consider it a part of my 2018 slate. So far this year I have done a head study, a swamp witch and I just completed the sculpting portion of my 2019 Markham Fair painted ceramics entry. You don’t get any extra points for sculpting it, just the paint job. I have enough time that if I find an alternative idea to pursue that I can put my orc warrior 2.0 on the shelf and leave it be.

A quick snap shot of this years Bust Sculptures. Trying to decide if I’m going to get back into doing full figures, or keeping with the busts, but adding in one or both arms to help tell the story. So far I only have plans for a Wolverine® and a Koko the gorilla tribute bust. Will have to plan out something for the Markham Fair this year, not certain if I’ll use the Goblin Warrior from January or not. Faces are getting better, but I do need to clean up the ears, and make the eyes more consistent. Bilateral symmetry is also eluding me thus far. May have to bust out the calipers instead of trying to eye-ball it.

This stuff was for some pretty big names : Coca-Cola®, Starbucks®, Desani®, Sprite®, President’s Choice®, and at this time I don’t recall who the Salsa Bowl was for. This is part of my regular day job as a graphic designer. I am sometimes tasked with Illustration, 3D rendering flat box packaging that I have mocked up, photo retouching, page layout, and branding.

All of this stuff was from 2017, so it has gone to market and they have moved on to new promotions and this isn’t spilling any trade secrets by showing it off here. The agency’s may have made some other tweaks to these items after I hand them off, I have no control over that. I’m not certain if these items made it to market “exactly” as I left them, but I put my fingers in that pie, and felt like showing some of it off. It seemed as though all I was posting was my personal sculpture work, and not any real paying “Day Job” type stuff.

In no particular order:

The first nine items I’ve sculpted this year. Have started to see a plateau, and even a regression in some elements, so I’ll have to work diligently to correct those mistakes, and find some new perspective to tackle these pieces from. No point working harder and doing the same thing, time to take in some new technical lessons and work smarter. I have the shelf space for around 35 more on the two remaining shelves I have open in my office. Best be making the most of it!