Recolllections of the past week.

Well, I go back to work today. But my productivity spurt with my art projects will not die down. I refuse! I follow a few artists, particularly doll makers, who practice this passion as a living and I would like nothing more than to do the same. Is it possible? Yes. How much will I need to put into it? A lot. My worst enemy is myself. I get distracted easily and lose interest in things easily. But saying that carves out my own destiny, right? I'm so excited. I got to do this!

Good thing I work in an arts store! Today I need to pick up some glaze for the eyes and mouth, more paint brushes and darker pencils. I am afraid to use such a dark tone on blond skin but I am going to go a deeper shade of grey pencil then seal with fixative and matte sealer. Only because in the photos the grey lines around the eyes and lips were barely visible. Let's bring it out with darker lines. Also need to research stronger wire the S-hooks and how to suede the joints. Not sure if I like the way suede looks on the joints and if I am hot gluing the joints yet to hold poses. And if hot glue, will it look messy inside? Experience will tell. Just typing out loud.

Bye!

P.S. - Future projects include smaller sculpts. Pendants/magnets/bangle in sketch book.

Vacation Pictures

So I had 8 days off from my full time job. Most of which I intended to devote to this BJD project. Admittedly, the first half of my time off I spent playing video games, watching shows and hanging out with friends. I did a bit of mold and casting work but the bulk of the work I did in these last few days. The good news is (not that this all not good news) is that I finished my molds and had successful resin casting. I wanted to update this blog and my journey (because it's been a hell of a learning trip) but never made time to until now.

Here are pictures of where I'm at.

Face-Up with gesso and Tombow markers and sponges.

I have mostly been an illustrator with an alignment to comic books growing up so I think my BJD is naturally looking like my drawings. :D While I'm glad for this I'm not sure how popular it will be for a potential buyer? Hopefully good! Sell-able even. Either way I'm having fun. 

Here is the first casting next to the master sculpt. The texture of the brush on gesso skin is rough compared to traditional Asian BJD's with their pre-resin skin. I will look into doing my own pre-colored resin skin when time and money permit but other wise I wil continue to experiment with the materials I am comfortable with. 

 

Here is the "graveyard pile". :D Well, for every failed test casting comes an opportunity to test mediums on resin. I learned the hard way that Testor's Lacquer Primer for model cars etc. is a bad idea.

 Pictures of mold making along with completed molds. I have read many artists call their molds their babies and now I can finally the same. MY BABIES!!! 

Some important key notes I learned the hard way:

- Pour very slowly in a very thin flow for perfect casts. If not enough resin for the entire mold just pour another small batch. Better not enough resin than too much wasted resin. After 2-3 minutes, Smooth-On 300 starts to harden and thicken right away which thickens the pour and clogs the hole for a perfect cast.

- If excess resin pour into blank cavity molds for a future casting.

- I was casting in 50-60 degree weather with the windows open where perhaps at night it went down to 40 degrees. The resin and the mold became cold and ruined the chemical reaction creating a transparent rubbery casting.

- ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS read safety precautions of resin and silicone. They are CHEMICALS. I ignored the warning labels and through out my experience got a terrible skin rash that spread all over my body. The rash flared with stress and I thought it was simply caused by stress. Where in fact I failed to wear proper gloves and long sleeves at first. Now my rashes are healing. I also don't forget to wear face masks now when drilling resin etc.

 And finally, here are some quotes I kept near me during this 5 month journey to encourage me. :D Although it's not over and I have even more project ideas coming to mind, it's been fun (is fun) all the while.

Muah! ♥ 

~ Mike

Molding and Casting has begun!

I've been up to a lot. I can hardly keep up with myself. I started this molding work two weeks later than I had anticipated. There were imperfections with the master sculpt (and still are) but I've been working on this project so long I have to move on; take it as a learning experience more than anything else. It is my first BJD project anyway. 

I think I must have pestered the expert at the sculpture store with my constant bombs of questions. I've done a lot (A LOT) of reading and research on casting and molding materials and decided with silicone molds and resin casts. Silicone is flexible (but expensive) and resin is very strong and if treated properly I think has the potential to be beautiful (comparing to porcelain).

Anyway, here's my first mold and test cast. Silicone is EXPENSIVE! I'm not sure if I wasted silicone in this kind of mold? I might do research on brush on molds. Cheaper and as effective?

I love the way the resin feels and how responsive it is to the drill and sandpaper. Though my next step is to experiment with using magic sculpt to fill in bubbled gaps or how to prevent them all together? I made the mistake of stuffing the silicone mold with magic sculpt epoxy right away hoping to make a quick cast. Bad idea. Boy, did it get sticky on the surface and was hard to scrape off.

Working on hands in Dunkin' Donuts with a rasp and X-acto knife.

We shall call him Lynx! ^_^

His name is Lynx.  And, like his creator, he questions the meaning of his existence.

(His creator is sculpting a folded right hand for holding weapons , updating feet and hands, working on details and then more details and then PROBABLY priming. Mold work set to start next Thursday! Or sooner if I'm ambitious/tardy.)

6th time's a charm.

bjd talk

Still working on legs. Finally happy with the hip and knee joints. Will post better pictures eventually. Also noticing as I post this the lower leg is a tad short. Yay blog photos! I'm planning on using blogspot as mostly WIP pics then using Tumblr for better looking photo session shots. Lost my groove for a few days but it just came back.

Now working on:
- other leg
- leg details
- updating the elbows
- widening the hips
- everything else / all other details

5th time's a charm

bjd talk

Re-doing my BJD project's knees for the 5th time. Yes, the fifth time. First I did a single joint as instructed by the my Ryo Yoshida book then decided to do a rough sketch of what I call the "armor cap" knee as Marina Bychkova of enchanted doll popularly uses. The aesthetics of the armor cap knee bothered me at first so I experimented other knee methods. All failed. Scrapped. But a great learning process. Because of these growing pains I'll never re-wonder if there is a better way. Ironically enough, the miniature Spider-Man action figure I keep around uses the armor cap knee system and so did all the double jointed knees of all the action figures I found in toy stores and comic book store shelves. So in resolute frustration, it is the armor knee cap I will make. Fifth time's a charm.

Edit/Add:

Or 6th time. The armor knee cap look bothers me. Finding a way to hide the knee altogether again. Using the golden rule of ball shapes for jointing.

Ball Jointed Dude WIP Update

bjd talk

So let me reiterate how this is my first true BJD project. I take him with me mostly everywhere. In my back pack. I'm surprised he has not broken yet. But I'm eager to always work on him anywhere or pull him out for inspiration. I'm still learning everything along the way. The most complicated and sometimes enjoyable bumps are joints and always joints. I must have done and redone his elbow and knee joints at least three or four times. And as I take these pictures there's still plenty of work to be done on them. Mostly because it is me struggling to design my own but also using the jointing mechanisms already out there. I settled with a pull out knee for now but might change it into what I call an "armor cap" knee. I'm happy, at the very least, that my sculpture looks like my illustrations, doodles and drawings in a physical 3D form. Awesome feeling.

It's been almost three months me working on this project. I started the end of November. It's rewarding every step of the way and when I get frustrated and take two days off from looking at him I pick him up again and am pleased with my progress.

life ramblings

Part of the reason I love my job is finding these awesome miniatures (bottom right picture) and getting first dibs on them. And every day I am engaged with many other creatives. Sometimes it's mentally exhausting. People exhaust me. I feel like a Reiki Healer, absorbing everyone's energies and always trying to send it out to the universe. Yet, myself, desperate for relief. Kindness seems more and more like a muscle. Like doing push-ups and building biceps. The more kindness push-ups you do the stronger your kindness bicep will be. Meat-head Philosophy? Go figure.