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Tag: air brush

This ear infection brings back a memory from my youth.

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Not of the intense inner ear pain, but a memory I had following a surgery to have tubes placed in my ears to shore up the collapsing inner walls of my ear canal. It was late in the evening, I was getting over the anesthesia from the surgery, in my own bed at home and I was crying because there were noises keeping me awake. And much to my surprise my mum told me I could hear the birds outside my window, and the rain on the glass. Two, usually too soft sounds I didn’t really take much notice of before, and were so new I couldn’t place them. Mind you I was drugged to the tits for a six year old or so, but it was still pretty startling. How can you live like this, hearing all this weird shit. How do you know what to pay attention to? If I can hear a fan, cars, mumbled talking, phone notifications, birds, and what not, odds are I can not hear you talking to me from several feet away. It’s all one jumbled mass of noise to me. Write that shit down. Text me!

Weird memory to have late last night as I was putting antibiotic drops in my ear. But a vivid one at that. Never can tell what you will remember about life. Happy Tuesday all.

Ps. Yes I did lose the airbrush compressor. It has died a death. I’m now on the lookout for a higher quality replacement that offers slightly more versatility. But which does not break the bank. I know the top of the line Iawata guns and compressors will cost over 1K. Too rich for my blood. I need a mid to lower mid tier set that will last five to ten years of intermitten, sparse use. Any recommendations from out there in internet land?

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

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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…

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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.

Love what you’re doing, but I have a few notes…

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In regards to your performance recently… in that it sucks. When you work, it’s all great, but then you break down, clog, jam, hell we even lost an integral part of you recently in the u bend of a drain (more on that later). So yes, as a no name air brush, you do what it says on the tin, in brief spurts, and do fine work, but ultimately you are a major failing and we don’t want to work with you after you finish all seven parts of this major project. Oh ok? Hmm. Yes, no you can not leave early. We’re under staffed, and you’re the only equipment we have on hand. Budget constraints and all that jazz. Please and thank you. I’ll dock this meeting from your time sheet today. Bye-bye. But don’t leave. You’re not fired – yet. You are fired, but not until all seven items are finished ok? We clear? Great. Uh-huh. Toodles.

So yeah, the no name cheap air brush is solid when it works, but needs to be torn down and cleaned to the Nth degree after every single solitary brief use. The air brush cleaner, and hot water treatment don’t seem to cut it. And all I’m working on right now is priming stuff black. Haven’t done a zenithal high light on anything yet, nor have I laid on any actual colour. So maybe in the new year I will break down and purchase a higher quality air brush.

On the other hand, the caddy works great. The Vallejo ready out the bottle paint primer is fantastic. The iawata air brush cleaner feels like it should work. Smells nice. And my make shift card board box over spray protection booth, while lacklustre is perfectly fine. Can be set up in seconds, and torn down to store under my drafting table just as quickly. I do want to build a better one, but I need to know what I really, desperately need out of it first. Do I need extraction, filters, lights, a turn table or flat static bottom. Do I want to be able to tear it down, or is it a new permanent fixture in my office/studio from here on out. Do I need to build it to fit inside a closet? Or store it under a work table. I don’t know. I do know that eventually a box of more than 100 miniatures will come my way in mid 2023, and I want to hit the ground running when those finally arrive from a kickstarter I backed a while ago. I should have done the Reaper Bones kickstarter, but I opted for a less expensive one, and it might take me for the $100 bucks. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now.

In other news, the U bend I busted yesterday has been fixed. I went to Schell Lumber and bought a suitable replacement. I put that back in place, and tested the taps. No leaks – as of yet. It threaded properly, and fit the current existing piping. So a win! Yeah. Also I stopped off for groceries and bought a present for the birthday party this weekend, so that’s taken care of too. Came in and worked on some sample labels, and sent them off too. Had a request for some French Language items and got that put together, and am waiting on any additional instructions. So Bully for me. Ciao Bella!

Dream a little dream of – Paint? Damn it!

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Spent a little time yesterday tweaking my air brush paint caddy to properly house my mini air brush compressor and air gun unit & hose. Added some dowels to one side so that it can hang comfortably off the side, or wrap around the handle for transport. Nothing major. I also added a tiny tray which screws to the side where the compressor will sit, and the strapped cord can be stored side by side with the unit too. All neat and tidy like. It’s no grand masterpiece, but it is functional, and with one last element to arrive it’ll be complete. A small bottle of Vallejo airbrush paint thinner medium. Don’t leave home without it. I am toying with the idea of added another tray go the back side to house the massive bottle of jet black airbrush paint I have had, and been using for years, as a nice wet, spreadable black on any canvas I’ve painted on in the last decade or more. I think the bottle is still half to one third full. It’s a big god damned bottle, believe you me. We’ll see. It’s lived up on a shelf for ten or more years, so I don’t much see the need to move it now. Except to keep my newly acquired supplies as a self contained unit. I feel the need to do this. Not sure why. An obsessive compulsion if you will. A fixation of the moment. Bah.

Slightly updated caddy.

I even spent much of the night dreaming about the paints, their order in the caddy, and how I’ve set up the compressor and air gun accessories. It just wormed its way deep into my brain, and I got to spend nine or so hours dreaming the same forty seconds over and over, and over again. Oh joy. Such fun.

In other news the project I was waiting on will likely come next week. Which is fine by me. I figure I will now have booked work right up until nearly Christmas, which is amazing. I love when I know I have work coming, and roughly what that will pay. Makes budgeting for Christmas, and the dreaded lull of winter that much easier to deal with.

Today is Saturday, and the town will have a Halloween trick or treating event on down on Main Street, so I best get to eating, and finding warm clothes & comfortable shoes! Going to be a hell of a lot of walking later on today. Plus one more inflatable to erect on the front lawn! Let’s get spooky! Ciao Bella

The eye searingly high cost of an LTC…

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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!