ETERNAL DESCENT B-SIDE CUSTOM

creator of Eternal Descent, Llexi Leon contacted me about doin a B-Side/ED collaboration a really long time ago. i can't remember how long and i don't want to search through my emails. anyway, here's the reference i had and a rough idea mockup that Llexi did.

here are the base components i used. i don't usually kit bash, but i didn't have the time or desire to sculpt any wings. i found this action figure at Big Lou's in Los Angeles. the wings were pretty perfect. i'm usually well aware of action figures and pop culture, but i really don't know where this guy is from. 

this guy sat around for months with a light pencil sketch on him. i finally sat down and carved in the title. i used a file at first, but an X-acto ended up working much better. in the lower picture is shows the Magic Sculpt for the project.

Nips likes to try and help out every once in a while. she's currently pretending to be an X-acto lid. safety 1st.

here he is with a lot more cracks carved in. i added horns, spiked wristbands, and modified the wings as well.

Llexi didn't have a high res ED logo that was in this horizontal format. so, i live traced it in Illustrator and the finished it off in Photoshop. i think the imperfections actually added to the look.

i wanted it to look like the labels we're being burned off, so i really burned them. the effect was decent, but i ended up using a Sharpie to blacken all of the edges.

there was no way i was gonna be able to sculpt this symbol by hand. i had to simplify it in illustrator and the modeled in in Rhino. Mana Studios did the output for me.

this the final sculpt. i wanted the symbol to look like it was embedded or busting out so i had to add some material for that.

the original concept image gave me the general direction for the paint scheme. i primed it black, then primed certain areas white. after that i sprayed a transparent orange over the white.

the orange wasn't all that transparent, which ended up being a good thing. i needed the base coat to be light so the yellow would look yellow. i painted most of the cracks yellow and started dry brushed black over the whole thing.

it was a tough paint job. painting is not fun for me. it's my least favorite part of the process, but it obviously needs to be done. i spent as much time as i could stand on it. 

and here's the final. it didn't quite turn out the way i thought it would, but i'm happy with it.  

check out http://www.eternaldescent.com for more angels, demons, and heavy metal.

DESIGNER CON 2012 LIMITED EDITION MINI 10-DOH!

so, if you haven't been paying attention. this bad boy is gonna be available at the Squid Kids Ink booth #600 on Nov 3rd at Designer Con in the Pasadena Convention Center. below are some images and words about how this came into existence.

the image above is a mockup i sent to Ayleen to see if she was cool with me doin it, seein how i didn't do the artwork. special thanks to Scott Tolleson for designing such a great mascot.

the mockup had a couple of issues and i had a couple of choices to make. mainly which Vincent to use, and how to tie it to the back cover illustration as much as possible. i wanted to use the new 2012 Vincent, but the paint roller didn't work great with the vertical format of the front label. i also didn't want to use the pink dripping logo, because i wasn't gonna use that on the program guide illustration.

so, i went with "classic" Vincent and added in some ink spots to tie it in with the logo i was using on the program guide.

here's how the front and back stickers get printed. then i have to cut each and everyone out and apply them. that's 8 cuts per figure and i'm planning on doin 50 total. yikes. i need to start cutting soooon.

here are some of the progress shots that i posted on Instagram. 

here's the 2nd AP. the first was given to George and Ayleen to show on Toy Break next week, so make sure to watch it. 

 and here he is with his fancy Limited Edition packaging. lots of folding in my future too. 

so, if you can't remember Dcon 2011, don't relive that horror and buy one of these guys as a reminder of how awesome Dcon is. if your unable to make out for Dcon, i'll put any left over figure up on my web store. that way some people can pretend like that had an amazing time at Designer Con 2012.

Scott Tolleson and i will both be at Dcon in separate booths, but we may do a short co-signing of these guys. i'm sure that will be posted on Facebook and Twitter.

DESIGNER CON 2012 PROGRAM BACK COVER... WOOHOO!!

so, a couple of weeks back i got an email from Ayleen Gaspar askin if i would be interested in doin artwork for the back cover of the program guide for Dcon 2012. personally i think it was a huge honor to be asked, so of course i said "yes". it was a pretty tight deadline, so i had to get busy right away. this is the 1st decent mock up i did. it was kinda difficult for me to come up with something that wasn't a blatant advertisement and encompassed what Dcon is all about.

 i'm not a typographer, so it actually took me a long time to come up with something this boring. ha. not sure why i didn't just use an existing font. my brain doesn't always choose the easiest path.

here are a couple progress shots. i used mostly used Illustrator and finished off some stuff in Photoshop. it was a challenge to fit all the Squibs in there and communicate the process of customizing a DIY figure. 

the upper left are some logo ideas that i wasn't happy with. below that is how the final logo came together. on the right is the sketched i used for where the blue Squib is drawing on the final.

aaaaannnd, here's the final all trimmed as it should appear once printed. during the process i wanted to tie it into Dcon as much as possible. i asked Ayleen if it would be cool if i used the Dcon mascot on the label and  that led to the idea of doin a Limited Edition Mini 10-Doh! for Dcon. i hope to post about that today or tomorrow, so keep check back. 

i only had about a week to get this done, so overall, i'm very happy with how this turned out. so, if your in Pasadena on Nov 3rd 2012, stop by Dcon, pick up a program guide and swing by booth #600 to get a Dcon Mini 10-Doh! as a souvenir.

BOSS MONSTER 10-DOH! FIGURES

i'm sure there is a least one person out there that is wondering "Why is Squid Kids Ink doin Limited Edition Mini 10-Doh! figures for some random Kickstarter card game?" well, it's not that random. i used to work with Johnny O'Neal at Spin Master and i was able to see this game in it's earliest stages. Johnny was pursuing his dream and even doin the early art himself, and i respected that. 

months later, after i was long gone from SM, Johnny contacted me to see if i would be willing to help out with some pledge rewards for Boss Monster. i obviously said yes, and the project exploded on Day1. it was fully funded and all pledge levels with Mini 10-Doh! figures were sold out in just over 24hrs. 

i even contributed at this level. so, i get to have a THE EPIC HERO (FIGHTER) that will be half way designed by me. Woohoo! 

this guy was the last one to go, but he was 500 bucks, so that's no real surprise.

 the response and support for Boss Monster has been amazing and inspiring. i don't really know if the Mini 10-Doh! figures had anything to do with that, but we decided to make a 2nd Boss Monster Mini 10-Doh! with a different label. all you have to do is add 20 bucks to any pledge level. 

all of these Mini 10-Doh! figures are very limited and are only available during this Kickstarter campaign. order while you can. 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brotherwise/boss-monster-the-dungeon-building-card-game

SDCC 2012, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, RIGHT?

 wait, it's already October? oooops. anyway, this was our 2nd year exhibiting at SDCC and set up went ok. our stuff got loaded and taken to our booth super quick. but our booth was missing half of the back wall. gonna have to remember that for next year.

this is pretty much what the booth looked like for the 4.5 days of the show. you can play "Where's Chito?", if you want.

we had all our Squib stuff and no, those Squib Kisses are not real chocolate.

one nice thing about being an exhibitor is that you get a short period of time where the show isn't a mob scene. of course you have security guards naggin you to return to your booth. kinda lame.

Luke Chueh was sportin a free Power Rangers mask for a signing, but i'm terrible at promoting, so we just hung out for an hour. fine by me, ha. ValleyDweller was kind enough to give me a Ch'Orb of my choosing. The fellas from Lightsleepers stopped by and gave me all kinds of goodies. and my favorite SDCC freebie was the Dredd badge. a fan gave me a couple that i in turn distributed to friends. i hadn't seen the movie at that point, but i like my badge even more now. go see Dredd.

October Toys was in their same spot across from WB and Capcom, this is a rare photo of the aisle being empty. they also were giving out a free Toy Break trading card every day. these 2 had Squibs in them, so i was happy to see that.

tons of 10-Doh! figures were on display. we launched my very 1st Blind Box Series at SDCC this year. it was pretty exciting. they even arrived before the show, but barely. ha.

we had 2 SDCC Limited Edition Mini 10-Doh! figures. the one on the left is an alternate version of Luke Chueh's Emo Bear Murderworld from Series1. Hydro 74's 10-Doh! is called "Defined by Defiance" and is awesome.

there is supposedly a 6 year waiting list to get into SDCC, but that's only if your willing to wait. we got in by signing up at the show, and had a booth within 6 months. Hyperactive Monkey called every couple of weeks before the show with no luck. but there was a "no show" and Jerome put on his Big Boy pants and stepped in. neither of us were quite prepared to have separate booths, but we managed just fine.

Chito A-Word, aka Chito Arellano, aka Kwestone decided to squat at our booth for a couple of days. i called to cops, but he's above the law. 

 some random awesomeness. i was lucky enough to get a Portal gun, woohoo! and my buddy Steve James of Finesse Skateboards was preparing to make some S'mores. ha.

 so many Batmobiles in one place, both good and bad of course.

not a fan of shuttle buses that take you 1 mile just to wait in another shuttle bus line. lame Ironman reveal. the Power Rangers were next to us at the Bandai booth and i wanted to murder them every time they showed up. not a fan. i have a love hate relationship with TMNT. it was more of a hate relationship, at the time of this photo.

we have a little tradition of eatin at Pho Cali with Jerome and Daisy every year and always get Smash Burger at least once while we're in SD. 

so, the highlight of the show for me was seeing people open up the Gold Chase figures out of a random blind box. i'm sure there were more lucky people, but these are the 5 that let me take their photos. 

 4.5 days seems like forever, but it flies by super fast. that giant stack of Mini 10-Doh! case packs is what we sold through at the show. we also sold out of the Luke Chueh Exclusive and some solid case packs.  overall it was a great show for us. 

this is obviously an extremely late update on SDCC 2012, but i was wiped out by the show. then i got busy gettin ready for the next one. 

i just wanted to say thanks to everyone that stopped by and said "hi". special thanks to all the folks that actually bought something. SDCC has tons of stuff to choose from and i'm happy that people threw some of their hard earned cash my way.

we plan on being in the same spot next year, but SDCC has to go through their process and approve everyone again. i'll post something when it's confirmed. woohoo.