Back in December 2009, I was fortunate enough to procure an Iwata 0.2mm airbrush, lots of supplies, a medium sized air compressor, and pretty much every Createx acrylic paint currently available (thanks Jessica). The point of getting the airbrush was because I had been talking about making my own custom Transformers. I had made the one at Botcon, picked up a couple of duplicate figures intended as customs, and I eventually wanted to make an orange Aveo Transformer to match my real car. So I now have an airbrush in my possession and toys to customize.

I originally played with the airbrush shortly after getting the set, but ended up just being frustrated. Using some random small Venom action figure from Goodwill, I tried repainting it red to redeco him as Carnage. The paint didn’t flow smoothly, it globbed up, the paint flaked when touched, and the pinpoint detail the 0.2mm was supposed to have just wasn’t there. It was not a great first impression.

Discouraged, I put it away for several months.

Then last month, I felt like trying it again. I hadn’t been creative in a while and it felt like a good time to give it another whack.

So at the same time I received the airbrush, I had received some extra Revenge of the Fallen Transformers meant for customizing tests. Using three of those figures, I had it in my mind to re-purpose them as movie-themed Insecticons:  Shrapnel, Kickback, and Bombshell. All deluxe class vehicles with similar color schemes.

I started by digibashing the figures. Using some macro photographs I took of the toys, I loaded up Photoshop and recolored the original plastics. Using photos of the original G1 toys, photos of the Robot Heroes, cartoon screenshots, and other images I tried to match characteristic details of each character in their redeco. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time getting the details exactly perfect; as I just wanted a base from which to work on with the actual paint. I tried to use colors that matched paints I already had so I wouldn’t have to mix unique colors. I thought this digibashing process would take quite a while, but I cranked all three rough redecos out in about 2 hours.

The next step was choosing which one to start with, and then taking it apart. Jolt, the basis for Shrapnel, seemed like a good starting point with a larger number of screws versus pins. Pins can be a pain to remove and put back, so I saved the other two figures for later. Piece by piece I disassembled Jolt into as many parts as I could, all along keeping track of each screw and where they went by taping them to sticky notes. Screw lengths and widths are not uniform across the figure as I found out at Botcon. I had to make sure each screw went back where in came. Each part was then separated into separate bowls that were grouped by color.

I decided to start with the pearlescent yellow that was for the windows to mimic the yellow/gold plastic on the original. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep the translucency of the blue windows, but I figured the paint would look good against the other colors. The initial bits of yellow would also not need to be masked off making it a good starting point. I also tried my hand at the pearlescent silver bits with his pincers on his back.

Unfortunately as I came to find out, the non-opaque paints I have do not cover well nor spread well. I had not figured out the correct mixture of paint to illustration base at this point and so I slathered each piece just trying to get it to coat. The paint was thick and much of it was wasted. I did not start with an opaque base and so most of the paint just didn’t stick. I also had not sanded each piece prior.

I also was finding that the airbrush was clogging a lot. Constant cleaning and disassembling of the airbrush were common occurrences. In addition, I was quickly running out of the small bottle of the airbrush cleaner I had. Halfway through the painting process while trying to clean the brush, I ended up stripping the threads off the 0.2mm nozzle. That put a delay in the customizing, after which Jessica headed to Phoenix and nicely picked up both a replacement 0.2mm nozzle and a 0.3mm nozzle (which works via some slight jerry-rigging). That was an additional $80 I had not planned on…

I fumbled through the rest of the colors over the span of 2 weeks, finding better paint mix ratios and seeing that the opaque colors like white, black, and dark colors don’t need much spraying before seeing results. I tested my hand at masking, unfortunately finding that some pieces need to be perfect and ended up with some bleeding such as black streaks in the yellow. Also, the Createx paints don’t cure unless they are heated with a air dryer or heat gun. Even after that they still show fingerprints and smudges. Next time I will try actually using the clear coats intended for finished pieces.

So I had all the pieces mostly painted, they had been heat cured, and I felt anxious to get the figure together. Seeing it all in parts strewn across the table kept irking me.

Starting with his arms, I quickly found out that because I had painted so thick and/or the paint wasn’t fully cured, parts which rubbed or twisted against others rubbed the paint off in spots. Ball and swivel joints rubbed down to their base plastics which was a bright electric blue. Furthermore I found that if pegs had been painted, the pieces wouldn’t fit together cleanly or smoothly. I ended up breaking the base peg on his left knee trying to dry fit the part. At least the screw and other parts that followed still keep him together. On later pieces I ended up scraping away unnecessary paint on these pegs with a exacto knife so the pieces fit better.

Once fully together, I started to paint the small details. Red eyes, detail highlights, headlights, bumper trim, and the like.

Transforming Shrapnel, or even moving some joints, is not as smooth as I would have hoped. His parts are very tight due to the paint, and he is quite hard to actually get transformed between modes. In addition, the colors that I had don’t quite match up to what I had planned. The yellow is not quite orange enough, the purple is a bit dark, and the silver is just a bit too white (even though I can’t quite get the chromed look with just paint).

But I can now honestly say I’m glad to have this first self-designed custom Transformer completed. He does look quite nice on my desk even with his imperfections.

The question now is when I’ll get to the other two Insections I had digibashed. I must admit I’m a bit burned out at the moment as the process wasn’t what I consider fun. Also, do I make changes to the coloring to match what I wished the scheme was or keep the other two the same to match how Shrapnel turned out?

I guess we’ll see if and when I get to Kickback and Bombshell.

It’s good to get a break from working on these projects, but I will be getting back into art into the fall when I’m tentatively enrolled for a plain drawing class: Art 111.

All the subject matter of the course is non-objective, so the end results are just shapes and forms. None of the pieces are supposed to look like real objects/things.

The first pieces were 5x6” Figure and Field cards. The positive or negative forms had to be gestalt, and these pieces were completed with black construction paper on watercolor paper.

Two of those cards were then enlarged to 10x12” and painted with black gouache on watercolor paper. The professor found my geometric patterns more interesting hence why the larger piece is a bit more simple.

The next assignment was for Pattern, and the final piece was a completed set of rotational patterns. Taking a 2″ equilateral triangle, I took a design and began to replicate it by rotating it on a center axis. This generated a hexagon which was then copied further. The final piece is black sharpie on drawing paper and is about 16x20”.

The final assignment was Rhythm. This one took the most effort to brainstorm for a set of acceptable pieces and I’m quite happy with the final result. Each subject is 6x8” and is painted with black gouache on watercolor paper. The detail work was very hard but I’m happy with how clean the piece is overall given the size of the brush I was using.

So I’m happy that I was able to finally get some organic forms and curves in the final piece to contrast the geometrically-simple earlier works.

In addition to the images above, a gallery of all my ART112 work so far is available.

I’ve been on an art kick recently, and I’ve been scouring artist galleries across all of the web. My main destination of late has been deviantart.com, and it all started with a simple image.

For whatever reason, I hit up the World of Warcraft site to look and see if anything had changed since I last played. Not much has, but I still decided to see what amazing fan art people have been submitting to Blizzard.

Then I came across this pic. The artist’s work instantly grabbed me and I looked to see what else they had done.

As it turns out, quite a lot; and definitely some amazing stuff at that.

The artist in question is Nicole Chartrand. Her main art web site can be found at kitsune.rydia.net, but she also posts images up on her deviantart page as well.

She really does some great stuff, and I recommend that you check it out if you have a bit of time to spare.

For more images of this type I’d recommend visiting Mister Toast’s Blog.

This type of work with its simple muted colors and very basic curves is a style that I wish I could replicate. Artwork like this stands out in our current world, and hopefully if I can pull pieces like this off my work too would stand out.

Well yesterday the family arrived back home from a whirlwind tour of the British Isles. I might have a recap up of what we all saw, but then again I might just let Jessica explain all the details.

More importantly, I must share with you a video starring little pillow monsters. It’s a music video on YouTube for the song “One Man Wrecking Machine” by Guster. The animation is quite good, and quirky enough to stand out.

Oh well, maybe another design later on would garner more votes.

C’mon people, vote on this thing. Let your friends know about it too!

So I’ve debated submitting my own designs for their competitions before, but I never got around to it. Their current catalog is driven by user-created submissions that are voted on by the users themselves. Popular items get a higher ranking and might possibly be turned into real live shirts.

Enter the logo for the Blobber.

The Blobber used to be the mascot for a short lived web site put together by my coworkers, which resided at oddly enough theblobber.com. The site no longer exists, and the Blobber is no more. The basis for the site were a bunch of silly eating competitions we dreamed up, and we’ve since outgrown that. Pics from its humorous history can be found in my boss’ Flickr albums if you are interested. Our motto was: “Masticating for your pleasure”.

I’m quite proud of the Illustrator work I did on this piece oh so long ago. I still feel it holds up, and so I figured I’d submit it to the latest Threadless competition just for the heck of it. The original had a much larger, softer color palette; but I was required to reduce the unique color amount to 4 because of the rules for the competition. Two different variants of the original can be found here on white and here on black (my fave).

It still has to be approved in order to be voted on, but as soon as it is (prolly when I’m travelling abroad oddly enough), I’ll be whoring for votes left and right from whomever I know.

If I can, I’ll post again when voting becomes available. At such time, I’d really appreciate a vote or two. Feel free to be honest with your opinion, but think of the possibility of wearing such a magnificant shirt for your casual Friday…

I am often amazed at what someone is able to do with Macromedia Flash. Whether it’s a great visualization, smooth animation, or just great design I’m usually impressed.

Well I’ve been following the work of Adam Phillips since his first or second Flash animation. He is truly a master at what he does, and I can only strive to have work that somewhat mimics his. His skill with effects animation is unparalleled.

Recently, his next animated short was released and it’s his best ever. The YuYu continues the story of Brackenwood and its main character Bitey. If you haven’t seen these pieces yet, you really owe yourself to sit down and watch them. This latest one is actually split into two films. So here is the first part (Littlefoot), and here is the second (The YuYu).

While you are at the site, I recommend watching the other films Bitey of Brackenwood and Prowlies at the River.