Sawdust Bear Makes Things

Mr. Grumpypants! Someone on Tumblr asked me a question about how I came up with my characters, and I’ve long since accidentally deleted that question – but I was waiting for a time where I could actually show that process, rather than tell!

Anyway, here’s the evolution of Mr. Grumpypants(so far).

Mr. Grumpypants started in that stop motion experiment I posted a couple weeks ago, when he was a hastily sculpted lump of clay. That particular shape’s one I’ve been making for a long time, and largely based on starfish.

Here’s Grumpypants from 2 weeks ago.

Here’s one of the starfish critters I used to sculpt(this one’s from 2009 or 2010, I think).

After making that video, I experimented with making a puppet type critter for more stop motion stuff. It went sort of terribly.

Yeah, I haven’t sewn anything for a couple years, and it shows. Then I sketched a version of Grumpypants I thought I’d make(about a week ago).

Anyway, the Grumpypants-in-a-dorky-outfit image stuck with me, and this weekend, I sculpted him for an art show I’m participating in(more on that soon).

I got distracted, before adding “sleeves” to him, but decided I liked the tentacley arms. So I drew him that way again.

Current state of Mr. Grumpypants McGee(he got a prefix and a last name in the process).

And he’s probably not done yet. I think I want him a bit pudgier. Anyway, I guess what I was trying to say is that my “process” is really all over the place! Haha.

2011 was a pretty good year, and I’m kind of super excited for 2012.

It’s going to be a ton of work to get everything done, but that’s okay.

(progress picture of a sculpture for an “exhibit” called The Secret Life of Anemone Jones)

Work accomplishments:
- I built a giant boat on wheels, and hauled that jerk to Burning Man.
- Published Marlowe the Monster Volume 1, and a minicomic, The Macbeth Signal.
- Made a bunch of monsters.
- Met a sort of ridiculous number of AMAZING artists, who coincidentally, were all amazing people too.
- Got some pretty awesome press on Marlowe, like on io9 and Autostraddle, and also from two of my favourite people to see at cons, Jeremy and Hana.
- Traveled to Seattle for Geek Girl Con with Dianne, ate delicious crab. I felt that the convention was a game changer, and I’m proud to have been there for the first one!

Life accomplishments:
- Devoted a lot of time to petting General Guster Mc. Wheezypants.
- Was pretty happy all year.

(the quarter of my studio that I’ve been working on setting up)

Things I’m going to do in 2012
- Finish moving into my “new” studio space! With atomic tangerine walls!
- Get married!
- Publish an anthology on Early Internet Fandom experiences with some amazing artists and writers.
- Publish the first issue of a story about Joan of Arc(sort of) with James, a very, very old friend.
- Be an exhibitor at SDCC for the first time!
- Release my first resin figure, Inkyface.
- Work really hard on more Specimen 7/Center for Otherworld Science stuff.

Resolutions:
- Less talking, more doing.
- Eat less meat.
- Go to the dentist.

I’ve been updating my tumblr pretty regularly, and sort of neglecting this blog…so let’s play some catchup!

1. I did a guest comic for Jamie Smart’s fantastic comic Corporate Skull. It’s here. Read all of Corporate Skull too, it’s terribly addictive. Probably NSFW, depending where you work, although in the funny, sweary, bloody way, and not the naked people way.

2. I donated art to the FEESA auction – a pinkish specimen here, and a set of Marlowe figures from last halloween’s comic here. You can search ebay for “feesa” to see everything in the auction, which has seriously amazing stuff from mindblowingly good artists.

3. I said I’d never do it, but my first resin figure is getting casted right now. It’s an octopus.

4. I’m also currently obsessed with toys-as–actual-playthings, so my brain is currently filled with dollhouses and marionettes and tops and Mr. Potato Head, which I think means that there’ll be a lot more weird wooden things emerging from my workshop soon.

A rough, scaled down, draft of an octopus marionette I wanted to build. Not actually a successful rough draft, but it’s kinda cute. I just bought a book on marionette making, so experiment #2 will happen once I read it!

Yes, I know my backdrop is looking awfully linty.

Here’s a .gif version of this little dude!

Tiny little Suckerfeet specimens. I started calling these five limbed octopus guys Suckerfeet because…they have suckers on their feet. I’m brilliant, I tell you.

They’re up for sale in my store.

A painting of a grinning koala, cover art for a friend’s recent dj set. He’s really good – I’ll link to it when it’s up.

I’m sort of teaching myself how to paint? I mean, I guess I know how to paint, but there’s a common problem I see a lot with other theatre tech people, where we spend so many years learning and practicing “technique,” but most of what we learn is how to imitate something else. Duplicate this prop, build this set according to what the drafting says, paint these flats exactly like what it looks like on the paint elevations…

And then, whatever “technique” we learn is all totally wrong from what they’d teach you in art school(from what I can tell from my art school friends when they watch me work). It’s about painting faster, meeting deadlines, not falling in love with anything because you’ll probably be repainting after director’s notes are given.

I just didn’t do an awful lot of art, really. I just painted things.

I don’t particularly miss theatre. I feel a little bad saying so, because it was my life and passion for so many years.

So – now I’m not a scenic painter. I make weird things, I’ve got a day job, and I’m learning how to paint all over again.

I should probably start by apologizing if I was a giant asshole somewhere between 2pm-5pm of Designercon. I was quite literally in a bit of a haze, but I had a pretty amazingly fantastic time and still have the biggest smile on my face(no really, it’s starting to alarm my day job coworkers).

I’m still too exhausted to really say much about it, but to everyone I met and have met before or have talked to in the past, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. Thank you for believing in me, liking my art – and for the most part, not saying anything if you didn’t.

I actually have a bit of time to not do anything(seriously, my next real deadline is in March! holy crap!), so there probably won’t be an awful lot of work coming out of me as I experiment with a ton of things I’ve been wanting to do for a while!

Marlowe the Monster will be back in a week. Pinky promise.

I try not to pick my favourites with the cons I go to…but I really, really, really love DesignerCon!

I’ll be there this Saturday, Nov 5th at the Pasadena Convention Center. I’m table 415, which is pretty close to the entrance!

A halloweeney coloured monster I sculpted last night.

Sculpting makes me feel crazy and stressed sometimes, but in times where I’m feeling helpless and confused about things like – “why can’t bad things just happen to shitty people and not the really wonderful ones?” – it’s a pretty good anchor. One of my friends, an incredibly bright, brazenly competent, remarkably hilarious shining star of a girl, is in the ICU in a coma, with no real news about her condition(stable, but the doctors just won’t know the extent of her head injuries for a few days). I spent my day with a few other friends pretty much sitting around, glancing at our phones for updates and being useless at each other.

But I came home, and avoided trick o’ treaters and made something, and I feel – well, not better – but more zen, maybe. Less lost. Anyway.

Thanks, little monsters, for actually being balls of clay that I have mostly absolute control over. It helps.

Most of my makingthings time has been devoted to finishing this Junk Boat, but I do have a pile of unpainted monsters sitting in my studio. For now, here are some boaty pictures!

This here is more or less the general boat aesthetic. Lots of burlap, crates, and that awesome stencil that i loooove.

This is the boat, with most of the pointy bit in place. It’s a headache, but it’s finally looking pretty good!

And these are some patches I designed! I love them too.

That’s all folks! Once I’m done working on 20 foot long projects, I’ll be back to working on two inch tall monsters, promise.