PRIME!

The first 10 resin Mephistos, that will soon make up wave 1, are cleaned and sanded. Tomorrow the priming and painting begins, I should have them up in the shop in a couple weeks tops!

FUN BREAK? Oh... all right...

So every once in a while (okay, all the damn time) a side project comes along that delays important stuff, but is such a fun idea, you just have to get it out of your head.

So I give you World War Robot Fighter 2 Turbo "screens". Photos of robots (and a few Boiler Zomb appearances) from 3A Toys were given the Photoshop treatment before taking the trip to Illustrator for their 15 minutes.

In actual business news: This weekend I'll be sanding and paint prepping the first two batches of Mephisto toys. I've also taken to passing along the messages of the great and wrathful Mephisto himself all over Facebook and Twitter, check em out and by all means become a fan/follow. The great Mephisto often demands that I demand minions for him as I sand his little relic idols to celebrate his... um... dark glory? You really want to use dark glo- oh all right. Apparently he likes dark glory. Whatever. I debated about showing promo pics of the figures themselves, but why not wait until the first painted product to show him at his absolute best? Plus Mephisto decrees that he'd rather appear unpainted and naked AFTER he's famous and managed to pick up a coke habit.

End of next week shouldn't be too hard to promise, so I guess that's me promising to have AT LEAST one done by the end of next week!

That's right kids! 2010 kicks off with new Mephisto toys and some as yet to be named adjacent line of robotic scrap awesome! (maybe that'll just be the name?)

Until then, enjoy the ridiculous exploits of WWR Fighter 2 Turbo!













PS: I almost forgot! Also kicking off VERY VERY SOON (next two weeks or so) will be a line of T Shirts by Mephisto Designs for NYTR Clothing! The first batch features logo and slogan art by Mephisto Designs as well as one featuring a colored sketch of MYTR founder/owner/design Tess Smith! I'll be sure to bust some links accordingly! And you know I've already got a few more waves of 'em in the pipeline!

DIY BAMBABOSSES GRADIVUS AND DEIMOS

After a long and unpainted wait on the pending projects table, the two DIY Bambabosses in my care are finally complete.



For those new to Ashley Wood's World War Robot (WWR) books, a war rages between the religious zealot forces of the Earth Coalition and the atheist forces of the Mars colonies. The Rothchild corporation supplies robotic units to both sides. Its implied here and there that Rothchild himself doesn't appreciate anyone tampering with his work, especially in the case of a unit of Bertie's known as the Dirty Deeds. A human contingent attempted to reprogram the unit only to be slaughtered themselves, after which the Dirty Deeds went on a murdering rampage across the Mars Colonies.

Far less is known of the Bambabosses themselves, who seem to merely survey with an eerie stillness.

To read my back story for Gradivus and Deimos click HERE or scroll down to the preceding entry. It's written in a structure modeled after the various entries of the WWR books themselves.

FULL GALLERY of completed pieces click HERE.

Here are a few previews:

FROM: P Arnold Lane 1st Class [deceased], Unit Mechanic 2nd Level, Ares Vallis Hangers TO: Penny Lane, Eridania Military Housing

Sorry I ain’t wrote in a bit darlin. Its been crazier than a shit house rat round here.

We recently received two visitors come from who knows where. They won’t explain and Jerry Geronimo won’t even ask. Says we’re better off just not knowin the business of such characters. I honestly couldn’t say if they come straight from Command or that odd ball Rothchild himself. They’re a pair of Boss units I can only think to describe as ‘unholy’. Not that I’d say word one of that to the boys, even Jerry, might think I sound like some superstitious, blue planet stooge. Probably does sound a bit dramatic. But I swear on the red sands its about the only thing makes sense to call em. They look beat up and battered and some of the stains on em don’t look like no bot fluid.

First one barely moves save to turn and communicate with his partner. I say communicate cuz I ain’t heard word one out of either of them. They just look at each other for a spell and go on bout their business. But that first one, he got this tv eye right in the middle of his flat face, like one of them Bertie units I told you about, cept this one has a smeared outline of a skull round his eye. Looks the spittin image of them Dirty Deeds units what come down here a few seasons ago to raise all sorts of murdering hell on us. Why anybody in their right mind would use that emblem on any bot since that hub bub is beyond me. Downright sick and disrespectful.

The second Boss has this face plate with blood red lenses for his “eyes” and what looks like some sort of breathing apparatus. Last I checked, robots ain’t the breathin kind. Once again, ain’t something me or Jerry is about to ask. The C.O. said he spoke with it briefly upon arrival and all that exchange consisted of was some official report being handed to him by this red eyed Boss. Never thought Boss units could get any creepier than them frozen child like grins the standard models have, but these two done it.

They spend all their time in me and Jerry’s shop with all them bots and we ain’t been allowed in since. We’ve been given all sorts of busy work and guard duty shifts to pass the time. So far it’s the longest three and a third weeks I been at this site. Don’t know what they been doing with my units in there, but I know I don’t like nobody but me and Jerry working on our boys.

Even Gortie’s been actin strange since the Bosses come. Every time those two walk by him, he turns his flat head and watches em pass by. He don’t go back to looking forward again until the shop door close behind them. Maybe they give old Gortie the willies too, though I don’t figure a Bramble capable of the willies. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if Gortie’s just waiting for them to say something to him.

Well I done prattled on more than enough about this and I don’t mean to cause you alarm darlin. It’s only a couple more weeks until I’m home again anyway and I’m sure those things will be gone fore I’m back.

Wow, I have not touched this in far too long. I haven't had anything to report, massive renovations mainly.

So I have the new shared studio space with NYTR Clothing (aka, the spare room, but you've got to start somewhere). Tess will probably take pics of the place for her blogs and then I'll steal them and throw them up here.

But yeah, new desks, tables, have a pretty crazy printer on its way and most importantly, the new illustration table.

The first few drawing actually completed on the table are below. Its amazing, I've never really had one before but I can already feel the profound effect its having on my work. I'm more relaxed and sitting at the proper angles and such.

I'll be posting some preview pics of the resin art toys I'm working on. Just got the Dremel in the mail today (for easy cleaning up of flash and seam lines and such) (nevermind, the one I got blows, sending it back... will clean up sculpts old school rather then spend the huge bills to get a descent one). There's the Mephisto (both small and large sizes) which I'm happy to say looks the spitting image of his... image... as you can see up in the banner and on my avatar. The robots are going through some minor tweaks and adjustments before I make their final molds. However they do have names finally (it was getting tough calling them the tall one, the short one, etc). So very soon I'll be posting pics of Underhill, Aldiss 327, Gibson Orbit and Ray.

The next couple weeks will mostly revolve around bringing several projects to a finished state, mainly: the art toys and prints. After a few of those start selling, it will be t-shirt time. Speaking of which, the NYTR t-shirts designed by Mephisto Designs will soon be available on ETSY at the NYTR shop.

Until then, here are those sketches... soon to be inked and colored (except for the three related robot pics, those were for a card to be delivered to Ashley Wood at the Venture Art show in Hong Kong).

Panel 1


Panel 2


Panel 3


Lizzy B.


Re-Entry

new sketch

In the next couple weeks I'll be getting a new illustration table and I should be able to really start cranking then. Until that happens, here's another entry for the 3A boards sketch thread:




Baba Yaga somewhat modernized. A powerful witch doesn't have to run around all wrinkled and saggy.

WET BLENDING

Over on the 3A forums they've started a thread on painting and customizing DIY Vinyl figures since they have several on their way to us fans (all of which will end up in here as soon as I receive and paint mine). Many of the members are new to customizing and were requesting info from the more experienced modelers on the board (and there are some AMAZING customizers on there). I don't do as much chop stuff on my work, but I've done more than my share of painting miniatures and action figures. I posted a Dunny I did (whose original paint job annoyed me to no end... the only blind box from that wave I did not want, of course) as an example of wet blending.

Wet blending is a technique I've known about since my days at "The Shop" but never attempted until a freak accident last summer proved it wasn't as hard as it sounded. Wet blending is exactly what it sounds like, you're mixing your colors right on your figure/miniature/etc. It creates far more subtle tonal shifts. Last summer, while completing Tess' custom Gaz, I rushed the background and ended up painting a new layer before the previous layer had dried. What resulted was a smoother transition of color (I was working on creating a lighting effect) than I ever would have achieved through traditional tonal layering.

I attempted the effect a few more times since then, my most recent, and favorite, was the aforementioned Dunny. I recreated the Dunny as a zombie (a stretch for me, I know). I mixed a few tones of a very rotten green and as it was drying, added in patches of yellow to create the sort of horrible discoloration you get as skin rots, thins and separates. After that dried completely, I added a bit of dry brushing for some thin, semi translucent white patches. After that dried I went in with the original dark green color and painted in small holes in the skin, creating the appearance of exposed regions beneath the surface. I was very happy with the results as it gives a very organic look while still being a bit more artsy than one would achieve when shooting for full on realism. Its useful on anything from simulating distressed, rusty metal to rotting flesh (obviously) or simply to make something more interesting than flat colors permit.



Its much easier to see on the back.

WHAT'S BEEN GOIN' DOWN IN THE VALLEY

So I've been trying to solidify my web presence this last week or two. Can't get the proper exposure these days without belonging to like ten odd websites. I've redone a logo for Mephisto Designs and a general look for all of my presentations around the internets.

The new logo is in the banner at the top of this blog as well as here:


and on its own:


There is also the screaming/burning skull icon that I guess is the logo for Mephisto Designs screaming that he wants your soul? Or at least subscription ;)







I plan to put them on t-shirts for the Mephisto Designs Etsy store that is in development. And by in development, I mean I need to find a good t-shirt supplier and get the needed materials to start cranking on my tentatively titled "Junkbot" art toys. More on those after I get them produced and I'm in the painting process. That will hopefully be in September if all goes well.

Other new graphic design works (though small and easier) are the banners for NYTR's various websites:

NYTR blog:


and NYTR etsy shop:


Still working on illustrations for NYTR Clothing's Tshirts, I'll post them as I get them to a cleaner state. They're mainly non photo blue pencil right now and not much to look at to be honest.

SO feel free to follow this blog! (Link in the upper right hand corner)

and add me at any of these fine, plentiful and apparently unavoidable social networks:

myspace.com/mephistodeisgns1138

facebook fan page for mephisto designs

twitter

and to see galleries as they're updating without being on one of those sites:

photobucket.com/mephisto_designs

and

photobucket.com/mephisto_illustrates

what happened was...

I've set up this blog to report on what I've been working on and showing some of the results. I've been working all day every day on my art lately so it might be nice to actually share and get feedback etc.

I'll be setting up etsy store and deviant art accounts as soon as I've finished doing some promo/marketing materials for Tess' Not Your Typical Rockstar clothing. Her website is almost up and after that, we'll be moving on to buttons, t-shirts and a few other projects.

Somewhat simultaneously, I'm developing other designs for shirts/buttons/toys under my Mephisto Designs heading.

All this and random art will be showing up in here. For anyone not familiar with my work, you can check me out at:

www.photobucket.com/mephistodesigns.com

&

www.photobucket.com/mephistoillustrates.com