Wednesday, March 26, 2014

One Month!

The countdown clock begins.  30 days until Chiller.  For a full 30 days after October's Chiller, I bought all of the things I realized I needed when I didn't actually have them.  I also bought a lot of things I thought I would need.  Thank you, Past Tori.  Future Tori thanks you immensely.

I finally finished the painting the chibi Godzilla 6-pack!

Mothra!
Phew.  That yellow to red fade took a very long time, but I am very happy with the way it turned out.

Godzilla.  The MAN.  Who da man?  You da man.

After finishing that project, I moved onto this beauty.  This little guy is a variation of an O'Bot I painted nearly a year ago.  I'd say it came out nicely.  Here's your custom toy tip of the day: If you want to stick with a base color (in this case, pink) but still have a variety of colors, alter its shade by adding small amounts of black or white.  That's how I did the tree bark (black plus brown), and that's how I did the flowers (pink plus white). 
 




It just occurred to me that this Android piece doesn't have a title.  Ha, I consider myself a somewhat knowledgeable person...and yet I frequently find myself hung up on whether I should name all of my pieces.  Lol, "Custom Cherry Blossom Android" is so cut and dry.  But I'm definitely not the type of person to give a name like "Cherry Blossom Tree on Droid, Spring." 

Early on, when I was conscientious about my style, color theory, and ideas, Benny Kline over at Tenacious Toys told me that my art is awesome and I shouldn't be ashamed of it.  Because it is a projection, a personification, and translation of who I am, and if anyone should ever try to convince me that it wasn't art, they could go to hell.  Those were really meaningful words, and even though I do stick to what I like and what I'm comfortable creating, I am less fearful to try new things as a result of Benny's words.  Thanks, Benny!

Which brings us to an unconventional picture: toilet seat cover art.

1's & 2's: A Toilet Seat Art Show!  SubUrban Vinyl is having their toilet seat art show this Friday 3/28/14 from 6-9 PM.  Since toilet seat painting isn't my forte, I entitled this creepy piece "Branching Out" because...I'm branching out.  Self explanatory. :P

Funny thing about this piece is that it was originally going to be a cherry blossom tree.  Since it's officially spring, I figure I could do a few pieces using the same theme.  But after I finished doing just the branches, I enjoyed the mood of the piece.  (I mean -- you can only brighten the mood of a toilet seat so much.)  Adding even one flower or one bud changes the mood completely, and I wasn't prepared to undo everything I had worked on for so many hours.  That one splash of color will be the focus of the piece and will promote feelings of happiness and hope.  No one should ever look at a toilet seat and feel hope. ^.^   

Branching Out
Ok, kiddies.  It's time for me to shut down my computer and go to bed.  I remember a time when I considered midnight to be early, but alas.  I am prone to bouts of sleepiness fairly easily, and if it's after 10:30 PM, I'll just fall asleep for the night.

I gave you secrets and tips, so you don't get a reminder.  Oh, fine.  I cave.  Here's your damn reminder: Even though you're confident that the anti-diarrhea pills were fully effective, bring an extra pair of underwear just in case. 

Oh, jokes.  Haha, I crack me up.  Tip your waiter, folks.  I'm here virtually every week.  And I'm also on Instagram with frequent updates (except in this case where I haven't done anything in almost three days!  Ooooo slacker.).  Most, if not all, pictures here were originally posted on Instagram.  I know, I know.  I'm a lazy, corner-cutting, fraud.  Whatevs, I'm going to bed.

SoKo Cat!  OUT!

kthxbai

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Crunch Time V. 2.0

I'm starting to feel the pressure of another approaching crunch time.  April is going to be a very busy month, and I should have started on virtually everything already. 

Here's the list of events I will either be attending or painting one or more things for:

ToyConUK - needs to be mailed out by March 31st 
Vinyl Thoughts New York - needs to be mailed out by April 8th 
Chiller Theatre - April 25th -- Ideally, it'd be great to have everything done by the previous weekend (April 19th) since this is a huge event that will require a lot more than just painting and mailing (I'm a vendor)

Plus two commissions.  Oh boy, I have one full plate!

Lots of my recent work has been either commissioned or otherwise casual, personal painting.  Recently, I started on a chibi Godzilla 6-pack.  Even though I've decided to paint them according to their original colorscheme, I managed to have it stand out from the store-bought painted figures. 

Chibi Gigan!
Chibi Destoroyah!

I've also been working on this adorable corn on the cob Micro Greasebat.  For some reason, the idea of painting this dude to look like an ear of corn really excited me.  Below, I painted a butter & sugar scheme, but I also have plans to paint the 2nd Micro Greasebat in an Indian corn colorscheme. 

Butter & Sugar Micro Greasebat
As I paint the things I have, at least twice the volume of blank/unpainted/what-I-plan-to-paint-at-a-later-date-and-will-most-certainly-not-forget-about...toys arrive.

Paul Shih aka Hollow Threat recently sent an awesome package filled with goodies.  I hope to have this stuff painted for one of the events I listed above, but I simply refuse to make any guarantees.  Mostly it's because I'm afraid of breaking promises.  These awesome resin pieces are absolutely wonderful, and I really hope to have these painted by the end of the month.

Pandara, Lil Death, and Bevil
 Mark Nagata is uber amazing.  This is not new news, but every time I receive a package from him, I find myself more wowed by him and the business he has built for himself.  The Kaiju Zanga is one of my two giant projects, presumably for Chiller in late April.  If I put my mind to it, I could finish this in a week, but I'm still hemming and hawing about the color scheme. 

You will be painted, Zanga.  Oh, yes.  You will be painted.  I will not be defeated by you. ^.^

Kaiju Zanga 


Ok, kiddies.  Time to go.  I'll update again this week with more pictures of the chibi godzilla pieces.  Until then, enjoy the 50-60°F weather and completely forget the fact that we're supposed to have more snow this coming Thursday.  Better yet, you should spend some time outside today.  Maybe you should grill some burgers!  Mmmm burgers.  Now I want burgers.

kthxbai