augiewan.com

I’ve recently spent more time working with paint than I have in a very long time. My canvas has been varied, from plastic and vinyl toys I’ve had laying around to sculpey figures I’ve created to well… canvas! While I’ve been on edge regarding my lack of regular work over the past 6 months, I have been keeping busy with freelance work. No, not art. Website work, which can at times be “artistic” in the design phase, but nothing feels artistic to me more than creating something I can hold…

As I’ve started to aquire finished works, I’ve also been trying to find the best outlet for showcasing some of what I’ve been working on. ComicSpace, Facebook, Flickr, etc…

I think what I will do is post the stuff here. Sketches, Paintings, sculpture, custom toys, you name it. If I create, I post. I’ll still post occasional stuff on the other sites, but I’ll try to steer folks that like what they see back here to see more. Sound good? I hope so…

So yeah, I’ll start tomorrow. It’s late and I just submitted my entry to Delicious Drips and Tencious Toys upcoming “Who’s Da Bomb?” contest…

Yeah, I know… I really stink at this “blogging” thing. Thousands of ideas, no time to post them. Oh well, I guess you have to enjoy what little I do post…

So we chose not to pay the ridiculous prices for school pictures this year and opted to take our own pictures. I think Sheila did a great job with it, and those of you who normally get pictures of the kids should be getting copies in the mail in the near future. We’ll be getting them printed soon. But for now (and for those of you not worthy of printed copies) here are some digital shots to enjoy…

But really, that whole “not worthy” thing was a joke! If you want copies, let me know…

I’ve added a sculpture gallery to the art section.  The first one I’ve posted is a custom figure of Eric the Blob from the Invader Zim episode “The Frycook What Came From All That Space”.  I’ll be adding more soon, so check back!

We’re at it again, playing Yahtzee at night and Moranda has been joining us on and off.  What does that mean?  It means there are new Yahtzee Doodles, of course!  

Booyah!

Just added a couple Yahtzee Doodles and one more color sketch I did at lunch today with my Copics.  It’s another version of my character Anne.  I really want to be all witty and fun, but I’m tired, so you’ll just have to enjoy the view…

See the Yahtzee Doodles…

See the Copic Art…

Part 1 was the photos I took of some of the buildings downtown, so now you get to see the Art Institute (just a few shots) and the candid shots around town.

The evening we arrived, the Chicago Art Institute was offering free admission after 5:00, so we happily accepted. I hadn’t been inside in a long time and had forgotten how great it is. I’m only upset about the fact that I didn’t think to take any pictures until we were almost done. The furniture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the high points for me.

[View with PicLens]

Even with all the great art and architecture around us, we did take a few pictures of each other too!

[View with PicLens]

So there you have it, our trip to Chicago in pictures. Oh, but there was one more picure I took. I saw this guy with a rat stuck to him and I followed him with the intention of letting him know. But the more I followed, the more I realized that he not only knew it, but he actually seemed to like the little rodent… :p

I’ll try to write a little more about the trip later tonight or tomorrow and add some more candid shots. These are just some pictures I took that I think show off how awesome Chicago really is…

[View with PicLens]

12►

The day I found out that Palisades was picking up the Invader Zim license was a very good day in my life. (I’m very easy to please) The sun was shining… The birds were singing… At least in my head they were.

Alternately, the day I found out that Palisades was going out of business after only producing 2 waves of my prized figures was very bad day. Up to that point, I had hunted down all the variants (which were plentiful through the Hot Topic chain) and purchased the exclusives from the Walk of Doom and Germs. I even had the box set of wave 1 with variant paint jobs and/or heads. Yes, I have lots of Zims, GIRs, and Dibs!

I decided that I needed to carry on the line. I had dabbled in sculpting a few years back when I made some custom HeroClix figures of Invader Zim, The Flaming Carrot, and The Maxx. I had to try! So based on some supply advise I had heard, I picked up some Sculpey modeling clay and gave it a whirl.

My first creation was Eric the Blob. I thought he turned out pretty good and looked even better once I painted him. Here are some nice fuzzy pictures for you to squint at. Click them for larger views…

[View with PicLens]

After that, I decided (for some unknown masochistic reason) to try something a bit harder. Tak from Tak the Hideous New Girl was my choice in her human disguise. Skinny, lanky, big head, odd shapes, and all. I almost threw it at the wall a few times, but when I was done I was again very pleased and even decided to add in Mimi, her SIR unit. Again, click for larger views…

[View with PicLens]

So there you have it! I made these two a few months ago now and REALLY need to get back to it. I was dabbling with the idea of making some non-Zim figures, but I’ve decided to stick with what’s been working for me. So to all 3 of you who read this, please do either or both of the following. Tell me what you think of these two. Tell me what character(s) I should focus on next.

Bring it on!

I know this is a bit late for those who have been watching the site non-stop, but ComicSpace is back up and running!  Josh (the site owner/operator) has been struggling for a week or so to get the site back up at a new hosting facility.  Apparently the host he was using was being less than helpful with some database issues he was having.  Bad service =Bye bye customer!  Why don’t service companies understand this?

Well, this news also means that my profile page there is back up as well!  Woohoo!

One of the local comicbook creators has an ongoing book called Wicket & Imp. He’s (er, I mean the characters are) about as deranged as they come. He called out for pin-ups for the next book coming out and here’s what I came up with. He got the black & white version, but I thought I’d color this photocopy with my Copic markers. Since it was just copy paper, I couldn’t pull off much of the blending or effects that make Copics so great, but I like it anyway…