K'Ray Noobslappa Part 2: The Baggage I Left Behind Allowed Me To Go Back To What I Do

Okay, after a few hiccups, heartbreaks and disappointments with the reception of other works that I have done, a move across the country, and several hours/days/months lamenting on the LACK of progress....

I have actually (re)(re)restarted the actual statue itself.  Look at previous posts for the base that K'Ray will be standing on!

This is K'Ray's head.  At this point I had about an hour vested (and I went to bed shortly thereafter.  For some reason I get creative impulses LATE at night).  You can see the stack of clay bricks that will eventually be her body.

I decided that K'Ray needed a body this morning.  This is the point that I stopped at to research how many fingers a friggin' Ewok has...

...which is three.  This is K'Ray as she currently exists, and she will hopefully have legs tomorrow!  Remember that the point of this (like my last foray into Star Wars inspired sculpture) is to first and foremost make one of my favorite people on the planet smile, and secondly make a Ewok that doesn't suck/I hate.


So this is K'Ray Noobslappa, Slapper of N00bs.  Soon she will be perched triumphantly atop a pile of Stormtrooper helmets, screaming in victory towards the heavens; or something like that.

行ってきます！

アダム

My Brother's Dream: Part 3

Nervous?

My Brother's Dream: Part 2

Okay LoViz plays a little here, but he is HYPED up... (he reeeally isn't that cocky, but he IS that funny...)

My Brother's Dream: Part 1

I am really pumped, because my brother is going to go up on stage for the first time in his life!

My Brother's Dream: At the Barking Kudu, and the second comic is up!

So far, better...

My Brother's Dream: At the Barking Kudu, and the first comic is up!

LoViz is W A Y funnier!

GK-0611 The GhettoJedi: お金をもてます (o-ka-ney-o-mo-te-mas)

Still have to make the leaf into water, but I added my name, replaced one of the 愛(love) kanji with the one for 'ocean' 海(Umi), cleaned up the kanji for "son" and "niece" as well their names, and added the motto at the bottom, 夏が来ている "summer is coming".

GK-0611 The GhettoJedi

 SO I have been learning Japanese as of late, and that kind of stymied my art/blog/etc...  :)

I have picked up Japanese caligraphy (Shodo) and so I have worked on finishing a piece that I started when I was 16 years old.

GK-0611 The GhettoJedi: my piece that I am doing FOR ME. For any of ya'll that have seen my tattoo on my left shoulder... THAT is what will be in the frame. My name will be above the image in "dollar bill font" and my favorite motto will be below. :)

The  kanji are for "forever" on the top two corners, "love" on the bottom corners; Musuko (Son) with Reese on the left, Mei (niece) on the right

 

..Ow.

More pics soon!

Ghetto アダム

Excuses From theGhettoJedi >or< "What had HAPpened was...."

I have been sick as hell, and I honestly haven't felt like doing much but sleeping when I get home...

I HAVE been learning Japanese though (no shit) so don't be surprised when I start spouting off in weird squiggly characters...

KRay is coming along great, though I have run into some issues with the clay I am using, the DETAIL i can get is amazing.  I will post a slew of progression-type pics here in a bit.

こんいちは！！  (konnichi wa, or good day!)

－－－げとじぇぢーーー

The Weird Questions Random People Ask You When You Have A Headless Ewok In Your Hand:

 Q: What, if anything, inspires your art/what the fuck is that, a headless Teddy Ruxpin???

A:

 'Love', above all else.

It is no secret to anyone, save the people enthralled in its grip, that love is the one thing above all else that inspires the Creative to be themselves.

I think that Shakespeare wrote an entire library (or close to it) of plays on the subject of unrequited love, so there is worse company that one could keep.

Mind you, I am not saying that 'romance' inspires me to create, and I am not saying that being ‘in love’ necessarily has EVER the subject of my works. Not hardly; unrequited love is not very romantic, and I am not the sort to create ‘mushy-mushy, frou-frou’ works of art. I lean more along the lines of 'R2-D2 vs Godzilla.'

Love is the basis of all of my art. And, no, it is a headless Ewok, you idiot.

K'Ray Noobslappa Part 1: Progess HAS Been Made

I have been super busy, and I also just took a well-needed vacation to New Jersey - so I have been out of the loop.

That is NOT to say that K'Ray Noobslappa has gone by the wayside!  This time I am doing the EXACT opposite and sculpting the base first.

As promised, the helmets are differing colors:

and  looking at the base from the "front":

I have little doubt at this point that I will NOT stick with wax (as it is not permanent) as the final medium, but I can beat the HELL out of the helmets to make them look weather.  You know, like a Noobslapping Ewok just regulated up on a battalion of Stormtroopers.

Ha.

As I said, I also plan to cast this structure BEFORE the rabid Ewok is mounted to it (that just LOOKS funny even as I type it!!!) because I think it will make a dope ass candle!

-Ghetto

EK-0205 Part 10: Paranoia No Stigma

I received notification that EK-0205 made it to Korea today (which is actually tomorrow, if you know any thing about time zones...  my brain hurts.)!!

I was about wretched with worry about the thought her sinking to the bottom of the ocean or some bastard asian mail handler kicking her around like Ace Ventura...  I am not normally like that about inanimate objects, but I suppose that I have an obvious emotional attachment to something that I worked on for so long.

Sad to say, but I will more than likely never see EK again  :( , but my sister is a photographer, and she took a LOT of pictures.  Thanks to SoyLatte (i call her Baf) for that...  Since she has been delivered to her new home, I feel as though I can post the finalized pics.

I present to you EK-0205 (fin)...

 the finished "garbage" base

EK-0205's emblem

Epic Action Shot!!!!!

I had a lot of fun with this, and I assure you that I will revisit EK-0205 again (when I think of an appropriately hilarious situation for her) in the future.

I came to the conclusion that I was put on this earth to make people smile, and so I must assume that my art is meant to do the same.  This little pink stormtrooper was conceptualized, and fabricated to elicit one of my favorite smiles - and I think I might have nailed it.

So.  mues vitalamen vobis, muse numerous unus is done and delievered.  Now I have an Ewok (of all things) that I haven't paid any attention to...  muse numerous duos, now on to...

you...ohs?  (God that was horrible!)

Ghetto

EK-0205 Part 9: EK,Where Are You??

After so being a brat for so long, and no mailing EK...  NOW IT HAS BEEN A WEEK since I mailed her, and still no word of her arrival.  It is affecting my ability to move forward on my current project.  More on that later.

/START RANT

Oh.  Sure.  I am SURE that it just "takes a while" and "Korea is f****ing FAR away" and i get that.

I have mailed things there before, and I realize that it may take longer that the 6-10 day estimate, and YES I know that it hasn't been 10 days yet....it's just...

I miss that little pink harbinger of The Galactic Empire, and her unnatural obsession with Hello Kitty and cephalopods...  and i hope like hell that she makes it to her new home okay.  I kinda did invest two months of my life in that 'little' project....

...sigh.

/END RANT

 

K'Ray Noobslappa Part 1: Changing Gears Before I Am N 2 Deep

I have been exceptionally busy at work, to the point that i STILL have not found a moment to go by the Post Office and ship EK to Korea.

Bad.  Ghetto.

Sigh.  So on to my next project:

As previously stated, K'Ray Noobslappa is an Ewok (yes....  I KNOW, Ewoks suck) standing triumphantly atop a mound of stormtrooper helmets.

I have been casting helmet after helmet in wax because I thought that it would be an really cool candle.  I also was casting each helmet in a different color because the recipient  of the piece lives... an alternative lifestyle... and I though that a "rainbow" pile of stormtrooper helmets would make a hellava statement.

I think that I am going to stick with the multi colors, but maybe not the medium.  Wax is great to make the helmet look marred and beat up, BUT if you leave the candle in your CAR i tends to start to melt.

This is no good.  :)

However - A SIDE PROJECT OF THIS has become a pile of Stormtrooper helmets cast as a candle, because it EERILY looks like a pile of human skulls, and that, my friends...

is Metal as fuck.

Ghetto

Ghetto and LoViz have created our intros for our animation projects!

Look to http://LoVizProductions.blogspot.com in the next 24, and here at The Dive for Ghetto's in the next 48

--Ghetto

Project Number 1: I Miss You Already

I have been experiencing back issues again, so sculpting is kind of paused in between projects.

I will post the sketches of K'Ray Noobslapa of Endor in the near future...

EK-0205 Part 8: The End Complete

She is done.

No more resin to watch cure.

No more paint to watch dry.

I will have extensive final pics, courtesy of my sister (she is a photographer) but I will wait for the recipient to get it before I post them.

I have spoiled the surprise enough LoL with my compulsive need to share enough, methinks.



---gTo---

EK-0205 Part 7: Final Touches - Her Badge

Nuff Said.

Art Manifesto 2011

As I apply the finishing touches on my first project of this year, I feel inclined to try and properly convey the terms of my current series of works.

I.                   Apollo, God of the Sun, Lord of the Muses

I have always had a fascination with the Ancient Greeks, their myths, and their Gods.  Of the entire Pantheon, I hold Apollo dearest.  One of my cats is name after Apollo.  He is the Ancient Greek god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; medicine, healing, and plague; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. 

Sure, he had a mean streak (he was known for being vindictive to those that were NOT true; ie plagues); but through his Muses, Apollo was credited for inspiring creativity and dance, gazing at the heavens, and the Arts of all kinds.  This is the one reason above all else that I have always loved Apollo above all other Olympian Gods.

II.               Muses/Greek; Muses/Adam

In Hellenistic times, Apollo had nine Muses:

1.     Calliope – Epics 

2.      Clio - History 

3.       Erato - Love 

4.       Euterpe - Lyric 

5.       Melpomene - Tragedy 

6.       Polyhymnia - Sacred 

7.       Terpsichore - <edit>Choral and Song

8.       Thalia - Comedy 

9.       Urania – Astronomy

I am certainly no Greek God by any stretch of the imagination, but I do happen to have nine Muses on this Earth.  Not only do I have nine Muses, but each one coincides with the Classical representation of what that Muses was purposed to inspire.

I am thankful to each one of them.

III.            I Have Become Apollo (not really…)

I believe that you are on this planet for a finite amount of time, and to be inspired to create is such an important gift that it should be appreciated and recognized.  Because I am a generally weird and quirky person, this realization of mine has inspired me to create nine sculptures to my Muses as meager birthday offerings. 

  

So as my first offering to The Muses of the Ghetto Jedi is sent out this weekend (already 11 days late as I write this); I reflect on the nine people in this world that have, each in their own way pushed, shoved, loved, inspired, and sometimes hated me into continuing to be the writer and artist that I am.  

Now if I can just find nine people that don’t think that I am a weird freak, then I will be in business…

EK-0205 Part 6.2: The Base May As Well Be Another Sculpture

Eureka!

Finally, after tonight's clear-coat application and 24 hour curing, EK-0205 will become a World Traveler as she is an avatar of one anyway...

I am a little sad, because I have spent many an hour literally "watching the paint dry" (or resin cure, or silicone cure, or ....) and admiring my handy work.  I am quite proud of the way that she turned out, for someone that hasn't sculpted seriously since before my 12 year old son was born.

I am going to seriously miss this piece.

So, EK-0205, I will enjoy these last hours of you being a work-in-progress, but I will soon say goodbye as you journey off to your intended purpose.  You were born to elicit a smiles and I know that you are anxious to do so...

Sniff.


Daddy is so proud...

EK-0205 Part 6.1: The Base May As Well Be Another Sculpture

So, as I said, I have been going to great pains to make this sculpture look like a Kenner toy.

After much debate with myself and one of my Muses, I decided to make the astromech and surrounding debris as "Kenner bit parts" instead of making his head chrome like every astromech action figure until the animated Clone Wars figures.

I think it turned out nice:

I still need to paint the Dianoga's last tentacle and the "eye slit" then a clear coat satin finish will be applied; after that, it is on to pouring garbage water resin, and then off to Korea!

EK-0205 Part 6: The Base May As Well Be Another Sculpture

I used some bit R2 parts from a failed casting, a bunch of old credit cards, and I sculpted the critter.

You can make out where EK will be mounted towards the top of the picture.  Note the lip, which will be the guide for the resin pour.

I am continuing the theme of "1970's Kenner Action Figure" by limiting the color scheme to gray with orange (the classic "miscellaneous part color scheme") for the junk, and green for the critter (dianoga, to those that care to know).

Not quite 3263827, but I think that anyone that sees it will know where our heroine is standing!

Candles From A Galaxy Far Far Away

W007! Imperial Fragrance

Stormtrooper Soap!!!


Sent from my iPhone

EK-0205 Part 5.3: Black Detail is Done!

W007!!!!!

EK-0205 Part 5.2: Painting the Detail

So, my buddy is a master at painting miniatures, and his recommendation was to use basic acrylic craft paint for all of the black detail work.  This would, as Jason said, keep my theme of "plastic action figure" going since the paint looks very similar to old school Kenner Star Wars figures.

I think it is turning out well.  I am going to do the helmet and face detail work on my lunch break today.

I am toying around with another color (even Bespin Luke Skywalker had more than two colors...) but I am not sure where or what to use...

I am open to suggestions.

EK-0205, with a noticeable body suit!

BONUS! When you take up mold-making, the world just looks different...

So when you have the ability to make a stormtrooper helmet out of anything that can be poured and hardened...

What do you do?

Stormtrooper Soap!!!!  That's what's up!

Next:  Stormtrooper and Astromech Candles.  I am not kidding...

EK-0205 Part 5.1: Coat 1 of paint! She's pink!!

EK-0205: Part 5 First coat of primer!

Sent from my iPhone

I am both testing my test blog via text and updating that EK-0205 is ready to be primed!

RIP Babe-A Fett :( There Are Some Things That You Don't Come Back From

It seems that the rapid changes in temperature in the back seat of my car was too intense an environment for a clay sculpture.  The piece is now "pieces" and is not salvagable at all.

I am upset, but these things happen, I suppose.  I cannot help that my back decided to give out at a time that the poor Fett needed me most LoL

I will revisit the world of Mandalorian Chicks in the future, but for now (now meaning "as soon as I can grasp a tool to sculpt with"), EK-0205 still needs to be based and painted, packaged and shipped; and my homegirl Kelley Ray has a Mighty Jedi Ewok by the name of K'Ray Noobslappa coming her way.

:(

Babe-A Fett may be no more....

I have been suffering severe back spasms, and in my numerous trips to the doctor my current project fell over and broke into more than 2 pieces.  I am more than a little broken up about it, but hey, I honestly don't KNOW if it can be repaired (my back prevents me from getting her out of the car LoL).

I DO know that I can make another one.  We shall see.

Babe-A Fett: Part 1 New Clay!!!

So while my Stormtrooper was curing, I started my next project. 

The name "Babe-A Fett" is a working title, but the point is that she is a female Mandalorian who's armor is specifically styled after the Sarlaac snack.

I started off with my normal wire sculpture and went to work.  Things progressed very quickly with this piece because I took a step in the right direction:  I got "real" stone clay to work with.  The difference is astounding.  The medium is still water-based clay, so it will "dry" with time, and the higher quality was apparent the moment that I added the first bit of detail.

Another thing that I did differently was to anchor the wire frame to a "pedestal" for easy transportation and rotation while i worked.

This is where I got to before dinner.

And this one is from later that night.  As you can see the clay holds detailing a LOT better.

In my days of "replacing" all the lost Star Wars toys from when I was a kid (they were numerous, but you could say that I was "robbed" of them) I bought everything I saw on clearance no matter what kind of as a compulsory  sickness.  Now, I have an absolutely insane collection of miscellaneous Star Wars crap that I have no emotional attachment to.  I found a 12 inch Jango Fett in one of my bins with a rocket firing backpack!!!!!

SCORE!  It isn't a hard shape to make in clay at ALL, but a rocket firing backpack was too tantalizing.  I also used Jango's knee guards, honestly, because they literally fit like a glove over the boots that I had sculpted.  I think they look nice.

Okay this picture is from the next day after work, right before I went to bed.  See how quickly the progression?  I am trying to not sound like a braggart. I realize that I am obviously regaining skills that I had let dwindle over the years, but the level of malleability is astounding.

ROCKET FIRING BACKPACK!  Oh, and you can see some detail.

The belt, with the distinctive Fett pouches.

The Mandalorian chest plate (obviously altered for gender specific reasons), padawan Jedi braids, and you can just see the cape over the left shoulder.

EK-0205: Part 4 Touch Up

Against my efforts, the shoulder armor pieces suffered from air bubbles!

I took this opportunity to sculpt in the pockets with Green Stuff modeling putty (yes, I roll dice...) and in the process add a few items of detail that weren't possible with the medium of clay that I chose.

Note the "action figure seam" that I was going for W007!!!  Also, I fixed the shoulders and altered the gun to my liking.  I am adding a badge (the green circle), and I also added the distinctive "011" design that all Stormtroopers share.

I also had a little fun and added her ID number to one of her satchels.

Next; sanding, primer and paint.

EK-0205: Part 3 The Molding

Every single thing that I have ever molded and cast was poured metal into a earth-clay mold.  You know, so I always "broke the mold." 

Ha.

This was a new experience for me, and loads of fun.

My clay choice came back to haunt me right as I started to mold the piece.  Her left satchel feel off and shattered, so I was forced to quickly sculpt one and mold her without the clay there time to properly cure.

Big mistake for me.

The Smooth On branded kit that I used coats the piece in liquid silicone coats that get progressively "harder".  As the clay that I used on her satchel didn't properly cure, the silicone in that area wasn't allowed to properly cure and the mold collapsed in these areas. 

But I prevailed.

Pictures of the process:

Note the re-sculpted satchel.

The straws are for "vents" because the shoulders are a little higher than the arms, which makes them higher than my pour point through the neck.  The short of it is that I wanted to make sure that the arms were allowed to be filled with plastic.

The "shell" is a two-part mixture that hardens to keep the mold in the right shape.

I molded the head separately, and when I made the outer shell, I shaped it such that it formed the silicone portion to the altered shape that I wanted.

EK-0205 cast in Plastic.

EK-0205: Part 2 The Carving

So on the 3rd of January I had the basic sculpture done, but I needed to carve in the fine detail.  I let the sculpture dry for a day and a half, and got to it.

And then I had to let her dry.  It was torture not touching my project for a few days, as I had grown quite attached to her :)

 Yes.  She is slew-footed. 

I added a few details later, and let the clay dry for a day for carving.  Crayola clay is about a 7 out of 10 in this respect.  Or so I thought until the mold came off.

EK-0205: Part 1 The Clay

For the last few years I have made all of my favorite people gifts as a present under the "alias" the Agent of Xmas Chaos.  This year was...  chaotic... for me so I had to wash on my planned project of Zombified Pillow Pets.

I am the sort of person that needs projects to occupy my time, so I opted make presents for BIRTHDAYS.   As an pretty adept sculptor in my younger years, and a rabid Star Wars fanboy I decided to go with statues based on Star Wars characters.

My first venture, started on January 1 2011, stems from a conversation that I had with a friend a few months before she moved to Korea.  The piece, EK-0205 is a female Stormtrooper. 

EK started off as a wire frame "gesture sculpture" made out of galvanized steel cable.  I have always drawn and sculpted from the "inside out" and this seemed natural to me.

I make chain mail when I am really, really bored, so I am fairly adept at manipulating metal wire :)  I piped out this in about 3 hours (after starting over at least once).  The next morning I started filling in the frame with clay.

I felt that after such a long hiatus, I needed to start "from the basics", so I went with Crayola Air Dry clay from my locale Wal-Mart.  This is a decision that I came to regret to a certain extent later on.  If you like to detail as you progress, as I do, THIS IS NOT A VIABLE OPTION FOR YOU.  If, however, you like to slop on clay and carve detail later on when the clay is kind of dry, then, meh...

But it really wasn't that bad.

An image of the wire frame after the "fill in" process:

And some after a few layers of detail:

Now, I feel compelled to explain the helmet.  I mentioned that I sculpted in my younger years, and that I am a rabid Star Wars fanboy, right?  Well, I have made so many Stormtrooper/Darth Vader/Rebel Pilot helmets at so many different scales in my life that I simply didn't feel like it.

So I cheated.  I used a Stormtrooper helmet off of a bobble head that I bought years ago on clearance. 

I. Have. Many. I also intend to alter it, but more on that later.

Almost immediately, I knew that the finished product was NOT going to make it to Korea in one piece.  Since I had also decided early on in the project that I wanted to make this look like an action figure, I decide that I was also going to cast EK-0205 and make her in plastic resin.  This accomplished three goals.

1. EK would be sturdier, and would NOT vibrate apart in shipping.
2. When cast, I could "shift" the mold on the mold seams and create that ridge that all action figures have along where the mold seam was in the casting process
3. I could stretch the mold to make EK's head look a little more feminine.

 SO, back to the scuplting:

A few attempts at hands were promising, but the clay kept cracking and falling off.  Back to the bobble head!  Bonus, I liked the gun in her right hand way better than the one(s) that I made, because it gave the "slighty deformed" look that I was going for.