Positively Glowing

It's been awhile since I completed He's Got a Knife. And, by awhile, I mean about a year. That's unfortunate. Where did the year go?

While it certainly didn't require a full year, I did recently complete another sculpture. I call the little guy Textron. Really, he's not that little...probably 10 inches tall total. He's a mixed media kind of thing...a combination of Sculpey, plaster of Paris, recycled food containers, coax, and a handful of random parts scavenged from the garage. These may or may not have fallen off a bicycle, a moped, or a TR6. The finish is several layers of primer, sealer, silver paint, and sealer. Amidst that was a lot of sanding.

And, yes, the brain, the brain-juice, and the eye all glow-in-the-dark. It's a shame glow-in-the-dark doesn't photograph well. I tried but just couldn't capture the awesome.

Anyway, here are the results. I'm happy with how it turned out.




As a side note, I would recommend being very careful about buying second hand toaster ovens. The one I bought to bake sculpey in the garage (rather than stinking up the house) burns about 150 °F hotter than the setting. It's true. After baking some Cajun-style robot parts, I checked it with the oven thermometer.

Sketchy Schemes

For those of you that may not be keeping track on your own (well...first...shame on you), I did post my most recent drawing to my Shady Dealin's Etsy shop. Still no sales on the shop but I'm encouraged by the fact that there are actually a couple Etsy users that marked my shop as a favorite.

I do have plans for some additional monster drawings but I think I'm going to take a couple weeks off from that project. I'm not taking the time off from drawing so much as a break from that specific set of drawings. I've rekindled my love of comics over the last few weeks mostly through reading some Bone by Jeff Smith and various works by Mike Mignola. That reading prompted me to revisit some of the comic book ideas I shelved a long time ago. I began putting some character drawings together. That went...ok. I couldn't put a finger on it but something was missing. So, I went through some published comics and it didn't take long for it to be clear. My drawings were lacking life. They seemed stiff and awkward. Oh, technically, they were decent drawings. They had nice proportion, the shading was good, and even the hands were well drawn. The problem was they felt like you were looking at a drawing. Reading Jeff Smith and Mike Mignola feels like you're looking at action, motion, and life (yes, even with drawings of the zombies feel alive). I needed to capture that life...the fluidity that the eye wants to see.

I'm not exactly sure how to fix that but I do have a couple ideas to get me started:

1. Relax. Ease up on the technical side and work from the imagination. As previously proven, correct isn't always right when it comes to drawing.
2. Practice. I can't expect perfection right off the bat. Ok, I can (and do)...but I need to realize that's not realistic. I also can't expect change without effort.

These are a lot easier said than done. How do I put it into action. I just started a new Sketchy Scheme. Instead of trying to put together a whole, I'm spending my time putting together parts. I'm working on a lot of quick drawings that may or may not go together. So far, I've filled several pages with these drawings and each sketch has more life in it than a lot of the other stuff I've done. Really, it reminds me of a lot of the sketches I did during various lectures in school. Much easier and fluid.

As a side benefit, the sketches are a lot of fun...both to work on and to look at. This was also missing in those first drawings.

Anyway, I plan to follow this for a week or so. I've got a few days off of work at Christmas which should offer some good opportunity for either this assignment or whatever this assignment leads to.

Witch Way Next?

Well...I'm still waiting to have the first sale on Shady Dealin's Etsy shop. It's a little disappointing that there hasn't been a flood of orders but that's not entirely unexpected. I probably need to invest more effort into promoting the shop. Really, all I've done is mention it in this blog. So, you know, that means I've reached about five readers.

Anyway, that hasn't kept me from working. I actually just wrapped up another colored pencil drawing and it will soon be posted on the shop. I actually finished previous drawing a couple weeks back but that looked a lot better in my head than on on paper. I think I'll redo that one at some point.

So, here's the latest. I'm still working on a name...

Shady Dealin's (Part 2)

Breaking news!

The Shady Dealin's Etsy Shop is officially open for business! I posted not one, not two, but three prints just today. I'm actively working on a fourth and hope to have it done in time to order more prints of them all. Guess that depends if/when these three sell.

Anyway, check em' out.




By the way, if you're a) a regular reader of RetroBrett, b) you happen to have my personal email address, and c) you're interested some prints for yourself, let me know. We can work out some kind of deal. Maybe a codeword sale for friends and family.

Shady Dealin's (Part 1)

A college friend* mentioned Etsy.com to me a few months ago. Since then, I've perused Etsy with some thoroughness. I've been impressed with both the site and most of the items I've found for sale. I also admit that I have yet to actually buy anything but I've marked several items for potential future purchase. And Christmas is coming up...

Anyway--and I know this is probably a bit premature but I'm pretty excited about it--my own Etsy store is almost up and running. I did set up a stop but I say almost because I have yet to actually post anything for sale. That part is in the works. I've been working to get some artwork complete and ready for posting. I wanted to have at least three pieces to sell and I've recently hit that goal. Just in the last week, I ordered a couple prints of each to see how they'd turn out. I liked the results.

So, I'm very close to having something posted. I plan on ordering a few more prints to ensure I have inventory beyond one. I still need to figure how I'm going to handle shipping and pick up any supplies needed for that. Finally, I should probably set prices for the artwork, too.

I'll post more information as it comes available. In the meantime, take a look at the Shady Dealin's shop. Looking won't take long...there's not much there

My one remaining question is with regards to the size of the prints. Here's where you can help. I'm taking an informal poll to gather my reader's thoughts. Take a minute to make your voice known. If you don't like any of the options, post a comment with other options. Rock the vote!

* Interesting trivia: This is the same college friend that was instrumental in getting my wife and I to go out on our first date. I am forever indebted to this friend.

Book Review: Colored Pencil Texture

Creating Textures in Colored Pencil
by Gary Greene
North Light Books
ISBN 0891346538

Ok, this book has a pretty targeted audience. Namely, artists looking to improve their skills in painting realistic images in colored pencils. I happen to fall into this demographic though I don't know how many readers of this blog also do. Still, I think it's certainly worth reviewing.

First, some background. I kind of fell in love with colored pencils in college. They're simple and straightforward. The economical side of me likes that the pencils and the drawing surfaces are reasonably priced. The practical side of my likes that they're compact, easy to transport, and clean. The nerdy, mathematical side of me likes the precision available with pencils. Finally, like many other mediums, a skilled user of colored pencils can create artwork that's absolutely amazing. I've seen incredible, stylized colored pencil drawings and I've seen amazingly realistic renderings. Despite all the aspects that I love, I feel out of practice over the last several years. It's only recently that I've gotten back into them. In doing so, I wanted a good source of information. That's where this book comes in.

Creating Textures in Colored Pencils answered many of my questions about the medium. There's information on the types of pencils, the kinds of surfaces, erasers, solvents, and many of the other tools that you may or may not need (many I wasn't even aware existed). The information on techniques was very useful. While I'd been using the layering technique for years without realizing it, I was completely unaware of burnishing. From there, the book contains dozens of examples with detailed information on how to create realistic images. The examples range from flowers to fabric to people/skin tones to man made materials like highly reflective chrome.

If you're interested in colored pencils, you may find this book helpful.

Operation: Early Bird (continued)

I've been doing a decent job of keeping up with my art endeavor. Time is rather tight but colored pencils (my modus operandi) are nice in that they don't require a lot of prep or clean up. By that, I do NOT mean colored pencils are easy. That's certainly not the case as they require just as much effort to master as any other medium. What I mean is simply that they don't require some of the extra work other material require. There's no cleaning of brushes. There's no curing of clay. You get the picture (Hah, get it...picture). I have taken and developed a few photos to serve as reference points but that's not exactly labor intensive.

I've been pleased with the results thus far. My goal is still to get an Etsy store up and running but, before I do that, I really think I need to have at least three different pieces of art to sell. So far, I have one completed and one in the works. More importantly, I think the second piece lends itself well to being the start of a kind of series and that feels promising. It at least puts off the question of "What will I work on next?" as I'm stare at a blank sheet of paper.

Prepping for Etsy leads to to this question...how does one go about getting prints made of artwork? Does anyone have experience in that? Or, do you just search the Yellow Pages and try out a printer? I'm curious if any of my regular readers have any ideas.

And don't get me started on coming up with a name for an Etsy shop. I have no idea.

Operation: Early Bird

For the most part, I enjoy getting up early in the morning. I think that started in college. I could get up, exercise, read, do any number of other things before the campus was buzzing. Even after working the residence hall desk until 2am, I'd still be out of bed by 5:30 or so. Of course, college was a prime napping time in my life, too. Strangely, as my commitments have increased and my time has grown more valuable, it's actually gotten more and more difficult to get up early. I want to change that.

That's where Operation: Early Bird comes in. Over the last month or so, I've managed to get myself out of bed pretty close to the 5:30 am alarm clock. Before, I was setting my alarm for 5:30 but I would hit the snooze button until 6:30. Not cool. To make the change, I started with a realistic wake up time (6:15, maybe) and used that for a week or so. Gradually, I bumped the alarm back in 15 minute increments until I was back to 5:30. As a side note, the change of seasons has probably helped...much easier to get out of bed when it's not a pitch black winter morning.

So, why am I doing this.? Well, there's a couple reasons:

1. Family Time: I'm fortunate enough to have a very flexible work schedule. The earlier I get to the office, the earlier I can leave (within reason). This translates into more family time in the afternoon.

2. Flex Time: I've been trying to go to most of our pregnancy-related appointments. If I get into the office early, I can make up this doctor time without too much hassle.

3. Art: Even with making up the time for the pregnancy appointments, I've got extra morning time. I could continue to come into the office early but I'm not sure I can get away with leaving at 3:30 in the afternoon.

My plan is to take that time and direct it towards artwork. I've broken out some of my art material. I'm starting with my Prismacolor Colored Pencils. I remember really enjoying them before and I was fairly adept at using them. I may venture into some gauche painting and/or artist markers but we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I noticed my colored pencils tout the fact that they feature a NEW Complete 90's Color Range. That tells me how long I've had these things. It also makes me wonder if I'm missing Blind Melon Green and Vanilla Ice Blue.


Today was my first art session and it went well. I did a quick sketch of this werewolf guy. It's decent. It also really looks a lot like this guy in my Bible study. Hmm.


Wish me luck.

He's Got a Knife: Exciting Conclusion

So the monster and the man have color. Let's wrap this up already.

1. The Base.

I debated whether or not to have a base for quite awhile. Eventually, I decided I needed something to a) keep the two figures physically together, b) bring the figures together in one scene, and c) help keep the figures from tipping over if they get bumped. I originally thought I'd go with a plain grass or sand covered base but that wasn't enough. I then thought about simulating a sidewalk so I could have it all cracked and dislodged under the monster's feet. I finally decided on the pier idea. It brought the figures together, raised the man enough to make it appear the monster's bulk sunk him in a bit, and it gave something for the monster to demolish.

The base is a piece of Oriented Strand Board (OSB) leftover from another project. I trimmed it to the funky shape with a jigsaw. It was covered in Original Sculpey and baked. The pier is Super Sculpey, rolled flat, and sliced with an X-Acto knift. The individual boards are just pieces sliced smaller.

2. The Sea.

Like the figures, the base was painted in artist acrylics. I had to repaint the base as the water came out looking much too crystal clear Carribean blue the first time. I did some investigation online and found that mixing complementary colors can make a good brown. I had good luck with mixing purple and yellow. This, combined with some grey-blue-green made a decent swamp.

3. The Assembly.

Putting it together. The monster's eyes and teeth are attached with cyanoacrylate glue (i.e. Krazy Glue). I really like this glue for my sculpture projects. I've had good luck in using it to fix broken pieces on other projects and it seems to hold well and it dries quickly.

The monster is attached to the base with three screws from the bottom up and into his feet. These were pre-drilled plenty large to prevent breaking the clay. I then filled the holes with wood glue and inserted the screws. Maybe not the best method but it seems pretty sturdy.

Everything else was attached with more cyanoacrylate. This includes the pier to some dummy supports, the dummy supports to the base, the pier pilings to the base and pier, the random pieces of splintered wood to monster and base, and, finally, the man to the pier.

4. The Clear.

The last thing I did was spray the whole thing with a clear acrylic sealer in a matte finish. This keeps it clean and cuts down on the acrylic paint's tendency to to shine and/or remain tacky.

Then again, the project is a bit tacky all on it's own.

He's Got a Knife: Now in Color

Ok, so I have a modeled monster and man, both sculpted and sanded to a point where they actually look like a monster and a man. Next up? Fun stuff.

1. The Bits.

I sculpted the monster's teeth and eyeballs separate from the beast. These were very basic chunks of Super Sculpey, modeled into crooked cones for the teeth and unevenly squashed spheres for the eyes. I'll add these to the whole later.

2. The Paint.

Let's bring this thing to life with some color. If I had an airbrush, I may have given that a shot. I don't have and airbrush (nor do I know how to use one) but that still left me with plenty of options.

I went with my Liquitex Artists Acrylic paints. Acrylic paints are easy to use, easy to mix, easy to clean, and can be used in a surprisingly number of various ways. It also dries really fast. This can be a mixed blessing in some cases but worked really well for the sculpture as it required frequent handling and turning.

I started by painting the guy. I kept him pretty basic and didn't do much color mixing. Actually, I painted the guy's skin using Testors model paint as I already had a flesh-toned color. everything else is in acrylic. The little man's horseshoe-bald head and goatee were painted using basic black paint and a drybrush technique to keep it loose.

Painting the monster was a lot more fun. The bulk of the body is painted in a dark green that's a mix of various colors that I really can't remember. I started with one of my greens, added Bronze Yellow (a gold-ish, rich tan), some blue, and maybe some other colors until I got something I liked. The tan-ish sections are a standard Bronze Yellow. The acrylic spread and colored easily so a thin coat was plenty to cover the beast.

I drybrushed some Bronze Yellow and some black over the creature, especially on the ends of the scales to add some detail and depth. This also kept him from looking like he was just one, flat color and not a swamp beast that just pulled himself from the muck.

The gills were touched with some red paint that had been thinned with water.

Acrylics...is there anything they can't do?

Next up...let's finish this thing already.

He's Got a Knife: Finishing Touches

By now, I had a monster that pretty closely represented what I wanted from the finished product. Not done yet, though. FYI: I'm out of pictures until the final, final product. Sorry.

1. The Dust.

Here's where I cleaned up the finished product. This involved a lot of sanding and dusting. Not exactly difficult work but definitely messy and a little tedious. Fortunately, the Super Sculpey modeled pretty smoothly so I really didn't need to do much sanding. Just a bit to clean up some of the fingerprints and the sections where I seamed pieces together (i.e. fingers to arms).

One thing to note is that sandpaper does not like Super Sculpey. You're essentially sanding plastic and the sandpaper tends to gunk up pretty quickly. I burned through a lot of sandpaper.


2. The Man.

I haven't discussed the sculpting of the guy much outside of mentioning the aluminum foil skeleton. I went right to Super Sculpey with the man...he was small enough that he didn't need bulking up and I wanted the strength of the Super Sculpey. Even though he was small, I still modeled/baked the guy in two cycles. The first cycle resulted in a body without any hands or feet. Those were added as part of the second cycle. I knew these would need extra modeling and I was afraid I'd mess of the body if it wasn't pre-baked. The hands are pretty basic...one flat and one pointed. The feet are really just oversized bases to allow the figure to stand upright. As for the face, it's pretty vague. I did rough in a nose and eye sockets but left the rest for the painting.

He's Got a Knife: Detail Construction

The last post dealt with the core construction of the monster. Now to take the previous blob of vaguely monster-shaped clay an turn it into something that you wouldn't want to see coming at you with a tiny knife.

1. The Bod.

With the the Sculpey Base, I covered the entire thing with a thin, thin (1/8 inch) layer or Super Sculpey. This was the first time I'd used Super Sculpey. My opinion? It...is...awesome. Seriously, I really like this stuff. It models well and bakes up super hard. Even with the just the thin layer, the thing was solid. I flick it with my finger and it stings a bit. It's maybe a little firmer than Original Sculpey but it feels smoother. The color is completely different, too. This is more of a skin tone color like an old G.I. Joe than Original Sculpey's stark white. I will definitely be using Super Sculpey more in the future.

I'm not sure I needed to cover the entire thing. I did it thinking it would provide a uniform Super Sculpey base as I add details later. This step also smoothed out a lot of the lump I left in the Original Sculpey. The only downside is that it caused the sculpture to be a little bulkier than it probably needed to be but it turned out well.

Anyway, after baking the initial Super Sculpey, I still had a pretty blob-ish chunk of clay with few features.



2. The Face.

Here's where I started added features to the monster. This took place through several modeling and baking cycles as I gradually built up the specifics. Over a couple evenings I added toes and claws, head shape with mouth and eye sockets, fingers and claws, finger webs, and, finally, the scales and gills.

Another thing I like about Super Sculpey is that is seems to adhere well to itself. I was able to model fingers and kind of smoosh and smooth the unbaked clay to the previously baked model easily. After baking, the transition is reasonably solid and unnoticeable.

There was a pretty tense moment while baking the monster. The baking sheet warped in the oven and the monster tipped over, breaking off a couple fingers and toes. It glued back together well but the lesson is that Super Sculpey is pretty soft while in the oven.

He's Got a Knife: Core Construction

Thus far, I've reviewed the design process for He's Got a Knife. Now it's time to get our hands dirty with the core construction.

1. The Skeleton. I used aluminum foil to build the inner core of both the monster and the man. There are several reasons to build the core:

• It provides an solid internal structure to which the clay can adhere.
• It's useful to rough out the main shape and get the scale right.
• It cuts costs. Foil is significantly cheaper than clay.
• It allows for thinner, more easily baked sections of clay (i.e. you're not baking a tennis ball-sized chunk of clay...you're only baking/curing the .5 inch outer layer).

I used foil because it's cheap, light, bake-able, and we already had it on hand. I created a very rough estimate of the monster's outline with some tightly wrapped and heavily crunched foil. It was close enough that the foil monster would actually stand on it's own but that's the extent of my exactness here. I made a similar structure for the guy but it ended up being little more than a skinny stick figure.

I have heard of people using wire armatures or materials like chicken wire to build the core. I haven't tried this but I think if I were making something where I might want to reposition something mid-sculpt, the wire would hold up better than foil.

2. The Bulk. Using the foil as the base, I began bulking up the creature using Original Sculpey. There are other similar products like Fimo but I have yet to try them. I've been pleased with my previous work with Original Sculpey and, well, I don't don't like change. If you're not familiar with Sculpey, it's a polymer clay that remains soft until you bake it for 15 minutes at 275 degrees for each .25 inch of thickness. It's also easy to work with and relatively inexpensive. It does tend to be a bit brittle after baking so I'm hesitant to use it for small or thin pieces. It was perfect, though for building up the monster's beefiness.

At this point, I had already decided to make the monster a swamp beast but the figure was still pretty rough. No fingers. No toes. Just a stump for a head. The details come later.

He's Got a Knife: The Design

I'm terrible with documenting my various projects. I usually start with a goal to photograph my progress but I inevitably fail to do so. On the one hand, it's unfortunate I don't have a good step-by-step history of the process. On the other hand, the fact that I didn't slow down enough to pull out the camera is pretty indicative of how into the project I was. That is, I'm passionate about it to the point that I don't want to pause for photos.

As for the He's Got a Knife (HGK) sculpture, I did take the time to snap a few photos...mostly because I had to wait for clay to harden. With this and a couple future posts I plan to document the steps I took to create the sculpture. Maybe you'll find it interesting...maybe not. I'm hoping it'll spark some fellow sculptors to take up the clay and, by all means, if you have suggestions for how something could've been done better, please share. I would love to get your ideas.

1. The Idea. HGK really started with the knife. It was leftover from a custom action figure project where a Hercules: The Legendary Journeys figure was the source (somewhere in my stash of goodies there's a tiny spear and diminutive crossbow just waiting for a project). It's a good knife. Plain. Simple. More importantly, it's sized realistically...not some huge, stylized mystic machete. The idea to build a nasty monster around a tiny knife came to me at work one day. The irony and the humor struck me. I'm a sucker for both monsters and funny so the combo was a one-two punch.

2. The Design. I sketched out a couple ideas. I didn't do a lot of this initially. The idea to make the monster more swamp-themed came later, after I decided that sculpting fur would be too difficult for a first sculpture of this magnitude. Eventually, I had a monster and a man but no base. I put more effort into the sketching of the base than the actual characters.



Those are the pre-construction steps.

Next up...construction begins.

He's Got a Knife

Here's a happy picture. As you can see, it's my very messy art desk. It's not the table or the messiness, itself, that makes me happy. What makes me smile is the fact that the messiness is proof that the table has seen from pretty extensive use recently. All too often, I've looked at the table and seen it looking spotlessly clean. That's sad. Even worse is when it's actually dusty.


What have I been working on? Well, a sculpture titled He's Got a Knife. I just wrapped it up over this past weekend. I'll post some of the detailed steps over the next week or so but, for now, here are a few simple images. I'm happy with the results. And let me tell you...I love Super Sculpey. It's some very, very cool stuff.

As for the sculpture, I hope the pictures turned out alright. The creature is holding a knife from an action figure that I can't even remember anymore. Everything was handmade.

Currently, the piece is on loan from my private collection at home to my private collection at work.