Going to Indy soon!

Whoo boy! Almost a year has gone by since I last updated this blog. So what’s gone on?



I’ve finally started work on a game that was going to be a graphical adventure game. But due to technical restrictions (I am restricted by my technical not-know!), that wasn’t possible. So I’ve decided to do it as a Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA). The reasons for this were more practical, sort of.



Since I don’t know programming, but I DO know some workable HTML, I’m writitng the whole thing as an HTML linking game. The true test is how complicated I can make it, in terms of story depth. It’s going to be complicated no matter what, but hopefully the story will hold up and keep you wanting more!



But the biggest thing holding it back (aside from the actual drawing and coloring aspect) is writing the HTML. It’s going to be quite complicated to ensure things like the following:

Hero sasses a teacher once, and is given the option to apologize. If he does, the story goes on as usual, but if he remains flippant, is sent to the principal’s office. If he survives, comes back to class. If he is rude again, and remains a sassy ass, gets sent home.

HOWEVER if the first time he’s rude and apologizes, or isn’t rude, and is rude or not apologetic the second time, he’s sent to the principal and not sent home!

Does that make sense?



The spring and summer has been punctuated by odd little freelance jobs like the above. I can’t go into details, but I’ve been given the A-Ok to show the pic!

(pic of saints board)

I did this spring. The final product is about 3 by 5 feet +/-, and is shown twice on the walls at Midway Field, where the St. Paul Saints minor league baseball plays. The blank spots were later filled with QR scans.



This week I’m going to Gen Con. The pic above is one of 36 of characters designed for a LARP I’m helping run. It takes place in the Falkenstein world, which is Steampunkish, but more fantasy-based. The steam tech is downplayed by the presence of the Faerie, draconian and dwarvish races, as well as magic, etc.



It should be quite a fun evening, and I’ll be sure to post pictures from the convention.



Moved again. That was stressful, but great for my wallet in the end- I can actually walk to work, even if it was snowy!

I’ve set up a nice office area. There’s plenty of space, and I’ve been enjoying making things here.



I’m coming up to two years at Wet Paint, but I’ve been counting Christmases there, which means I’m almost up to my third Christmas. It’s early to think about this, but I’ve been plotting what to do for my yearly Christmas card. We got some neat printing inks from Akua and Daniel Smith.



Oh! I'm taking this to Gen Con too. I'm pleased with it- it's a scene from "The Flying Sorcerers," by David Gerrold and Larry Niven. It's a great book! Look for it!

Well, it's late, and I've got a plane to catch.
TTYL!

Monstrous Update! (Pun, cause it's Halloweenish!)

HELLO!

Many apologizes, none of which could possibly be the salve that sates the aching of your hearts that I've not posted in almost two months. For that, I metaphorically offer my own heart as a symbolic act of emotional sacrifice, and urge your forgiveness. I'll try once more to be more... frequent!)

Whew! It's been awhile since I last updated this blog. So what's been going on? Look up, and see! This was my Halloween costume this year, and here's how I made it! (sort of) For those not familiar with the subject, this is Jack Skellington, the protagonist of Disney's Tim Burton Presents The Nightmare Before Christmas, a beautifully animated, bizarre and catchy musical about the leader of the Land of Halloween (literally the personification of the holiday) stealing the role of Santa Claus from Santa himself to execute Christmas his way, to fill the emotional emptiness he felt with the warmth of Christmas. It's cute, and you should see it. I like it...


This is the frame of the costume, huddled up against itself. At ends of the the shoulders and pelvis braces were loop-screws, that were connected to dowels that had similar loop-screws by carabiners that had screw locks. Repeat at the elbows, knees, and so forth.


The first real test. I quite literally have thought of this costume since senior year of high school, but not in the practical sense until about a year ago.



These are part of a sketchbook musing from about a year ago, maybe beginning of the year. I hope they kind of convey what I was trying to get across.


The real inspiration was Julie Tamor's amazing production design and direction of the Broadway version of Disney's Lion King, specifically Timon, the critter on the right. His face is expressionless (or rather, expression fixed), so a lot of his performance comes from the actor/puppeteer's OWN face. Magically, the audience sees one and the other as the same. Having seen it myself, it's truly a neat experience.


My choice to make him a puppet was partially because I'm not nearly gangly enough, and he's so elegant and thin. He's attached with webbing cloth with hooks and clips. His coccyx rests about 2 inches above my navel. The boots and gloves were grommet-ed, and connected to the forearm dowels with carabiners. The gloves then had a skeleton hand glove slipped over it- the only big-store purchase. The glove fabric was too thin, but stretchy to go over a more durable glove.


My other reason for making him a puppet was this looks silly. Available at many fine retailers. I know it's popular but... c'mon!


I covered the chest with armature wire-mesh, and then covered the mesh with papier mache, for durability.


Then the chest and some dowels were spray painted.


I used Montana Gold spray paint. It's wonderful, and available at Wet Paint, where I work. I'm genuinely impressed with it.


As for the head, I covered a balloon in papier mache. But I then strengthened it with rigid-wrap, plaster of paris, and a gel medium to seal the absorbency of the plaster.


Painted it white, painted the nostrils and smile, and then covered it in a lacquer spray covering. His next was reinforced with a PVC pipe, also painted the same white.


He's life size. Here he is, almost completed, in a desk chair.


With me dressed in black, with a matching balaklava, the effect is complete, and he/I/we hit some parties!


Life of the party indeed! As the night progressed at each once we went to, it became clear that keeping my hands and head covered was a little difficult to pull off. WAY TOO HOT indoors!


But we're flexible.


In the end, it was a great project, a fun time, some wonderful parties, and a terrific way to express oneself in an artistic endeavor. Halloween is a time to have fun, and for me, this was one very Happy Halloween!

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So that's great, Steve- so that's all you did for two months? Of course not. But some of it I can't talk about yet, since it's not live and good to go (of course, the more interesting ones!). But I can show off some stuff I've done.


I actually did this a while ago, but it's been sitting for a while. I don't speak Spanish, but it was fun to research the Latino community for this direct marketing postcard.


I did this design for my girlfriend and myself. I'm not keen on where the Vikings are heading, but I'll do what I can to show my support. Who knows? Maybe an 11th hour save?


The biggest reason I've not blogged as much? I've been working out. A lot. And it's showing. I've spent more time on cardio and weight loss than strength building (not to say I don't occasionally lift a few), and dropped some poundage. I tend to go late at night, and regularly watch Chopped and Next Iron Chef America on Food Network (yes, aware of the incongruity). My picks for the next Iron Chef? I predict Tsai against Tio, but I fear Canora being in the final 2. I don't like his attitude/strategy in non-elimination judging, and I think he gets too flustered in the kitchen.


I realized I'm loosing my hair a while ago, but finally cut it. Here's me as a kabuki.


Here's a Kabuki LEGO Man. The Kabuki LEGO Mans I did a while ago are now featured on Kabuki 21, a great site that has a lot of neat pictures and VERY detailed descriptions of Kabuki theatre. I actually used this site a lot for reference, so when Shôriya Aragorô contacted me to ask if he could display them, it was a lovely and wondrous full circle being completed.

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It is holiday time at Wet Paint, and pretty soon I'll show off some stuff I'm super excited about. So until then...

TTYL!

Minneapolis Indie Xpo! The Aftermath! (In a good way!) Exclamation marks!

Yours, truly. (the photo is the only one I had of me there, and was taken from a movie clip. Grr.)

A little disclaimer before I begin- despite having the camera in my pocket the whole time, I didn't take very many pictures at MIX. Pretty pathetic, since the event was really awesome!

In what could be the Midwest's answer to MoCCA or APE, about 100 exhibitors showed off their wares. Comics, books, prints, knick-knacks, donuts, and panel discussions, it was a glut of decisions, in the bestest of ways. The biggest exhibitor was Top Shelf Productions, which showed off some new works by Kevin Cannon and Will Dinski. It was pretty neat.

I shared space with Renny Kissling and Will Schar. They're cool dudes! Check out there websites after you go to MY website (updated just an hour ago with details of what I showed off)!

I did a demonstration with was more along the lines of my regular sales pitch at Wet Paint. This isn't the actual video, but it gets the idea across...


Now for some of the aforementioned could've-tried-harder-to-take-some-pics. Better ones can be seen here (thanks group-Flikr!).


The View from my table across the way. I was located in room three, which might not have had the best traffic, but was overall agreed upon was the least humid and hot!



We all got there super early to set up. Here's some of the preparation going on. In a few hours, this place is packed to the gills.


My tablemate and good friend Will Schar. He's a very good colourist, and had some neat prints for sale.


Someone paid with this five dollar bill. Very eerie...


This little comic ended up being a very good seller- but I think I gave away more than I had expected- it's a good ice breaker.


Despite it being on this blog, this series of minis was the most popular. Bar none.


Though this one came a very close second!


I didn't sell as many copies of Hush Fund than I had hoped. But the people who did were very enthusiastic! I'm hoping to sell some at The Source Comics and Games on Snelling and Larpentuer in Falcon Heights/Roseville, Minnesota. You can buy one if you email me, and we'll discuss shipping.


My workspace. Just thought I'd throw that out there...

Well, now that MIX is over, I need an new obsession. I think a really awesome Halloween costume is the next logical step.

TTYL!

Encaustics!

Yesterday, a handful of co-workers from Wet Paint and I met up at local artist Jeff Hirst's studio to learn how to use encaustic paint.
Encaustic paint's been around for about 3000 years, but is enjoying an upswing in popularity right about now.



We started met up at Jeff's studio in Northeast Minneapolis- he had prepared six spots, where we shared 3 griddles.



Here are two dollops (?) of cadmium yellow and alizarin crimson. The paint is melted onto the tray directly from a brick of solid wax at 180 degrees!



Very quickly, things got messy. Here's my palette. If the brushes were off the hot plate for a minute, they'd harden as fast as wax cools.



Just another shot of the workspace.



My co-worker Jill is applying oil paint to scratched off parts of the wax. When she wipes away the excess, and fuses the wax with some creme-brule torches,it'll provide a nice solid outline.


This was my first piece. I decided to emulate Fayum mummy portraits, to varying degrees of success.


I entitled this one "Yellow And Green Romantically Pursue Blue As Orange Cries Bitter Tears."


I call him "Snuggles." This one was very popular with my co-workers.


The chinese here says "It'll never end unless the world ends." A bit of dark philosophy I translated into Chinese with the help of Google Translate. The accompanying illustration is a LEGO man getting destroyed. The background plays with some textured paper trapped and burned under wax.


Last one of the workshop for me. I had 5 minutes before we had to start cleaning up.


From another angle, you can see how textured this paint is. Lots of layers built up!



In a bit of other news, I helped paint this photo-op flat for a family friend's (pictured) daughters (not pictured) grad-night lock-in. I actually painted his a month a go, but I figure that now I can reveal it, since the lock-in is long done.



The fjords of Norway with the aurora borealis...

TTYL!