9th Circle Robotics Last All April Long

This friday, the supply carrier lands at the 9th Circle Robotics "Division" of Mephisto Designs. The factory is all prepped for heavy production.

Probably as good a time as any to throw some specs out...
The roster for this first set will consist of these units:

9CR_WAVE~1>
01\> Gibson: 2.50" tall
>>[burly worker model with quite the arm span]
02\> Aldiss-327_: 4.25" tall
>>[tall & thin, incredible learning algorithm]
03\> Underhill_: 2.75" tall
>>[scrapper model, canon length equal to unit height]
04\> RAY_: 2.75" tall
>>[probable height increase pending final approval, quadruped]


I'm considering dabbling with some automotive paint for a few color ways since I'm still deciding between ALL used looking or some used/some clean. As usual, I'll probably just decide as I go. I wouldn't mind doing some high gloss enamel schemes and then roughing them up for a little C-3P0 circa '77 action.

Soon...

HERE, WHERE ITS AT

With black & white prints & originals up in the shop, I'm onto digital coloring/painting. Why "coloring/painting"? Why not just 'painting'? When I'm filling in inked work, its a totally different thought process. As similar as it is to painting, it has far more in common with coloring.

Here's a recent result, a color version of my piece "OFF":



I'm building up technique by "coloring" a few before I move into full on digital painting.

I'm a person that thrives on variety. I've spent my life reading, listening to & watching everything I can; all the while, figuring out why & how all of it came to be. I've also been drawing since I was a wee thing & moved from the typical 'wtf is that' stuff of small children to comic art to graphic design to blah blah blah... now I'm "HERE".

HERE may only be one point on a long road, but its a HERE I'm glad to have finally stumbled on. All those influences I've absorbed can take a hell of a time to process, filter & distill. Until HERE, my work lacked focus. I could tell I hadn't really found MY voice. Obviously one's voice is the answer to a never ending story (I'm still waiting for my own Falkor), but I'm no longer looking at it with a furrowed brow muttering, 'what the hell IS this even?' I may never look upon my work with total satisfaction, nor do I think I should. However, I'm at a point where I'm starting to find the work interesting, both in process & outcome.

Years ago, I'd decided that I wouldn't show my work until I'd reached HERE. Since everything I'd created leading up to HERE wasn't terribly inspiring to me in any way (other than the hopes that it was another step forward, even if I couldn't tell), it certainly wouldn't be to anyone else. So... here's to HERE. Now I'm off to THERE.

I'm not one to stay in one place for long.

A lot of the digital painting I'll be doing will be conceptual work primarily focused on pre-visualizing two novels I've been toiling with for a minute now. They're both set in very complex worlds that I'd like to spend some time designing, engineering & exploring. It can only help, surely. I've already started a few rough sketches & I'm excited to bring them to a more actualized state.

Of course, I'll throw them up here as soon as they're worth looking at...

FIRST BATCH OF PRINTS

Today I added a few prints and original pieces to the SHOP. Yes, only black and white for now, color takes time dammit! BUT I am working on some color pieces right now. This is very much just the start of what's to come. I have a lot of pieces in progress at the moment, some are straight forward "character" type work, though I'm working on some conceptual stuff as well. Hopefully I'll have a batch of those up by the end of next week.

Feel free to show your friends... you know... or whatever... just sayin...

The 9th Circle Robotics first wave is ready for molding and I'll be securing needed materials by the end of the month for a late April debut. I can't wait to show em around, I really love them so hopefully others will too. I have some interesting promotional ideas for them as well assuming a few of my more out there ideas come to fruition.

The Exploding Resin Inevitable

Finishing up the final Thank You Mephisto, which will be going out with its partner to their intended parties in the next couple days. I'll post pics after I'm sure they've been received. I'll also have to throw up pics of the two I painted up for Tess.

3 of the 4 bots for my new line, 9th Circle Robotics, are finalized. One more little issue to work out and they'll be ready to mold. These will be up in the shop either the last week of April/first week of May, depending on how fast painting goes.

A third resin piece, more sculpture in nature, is also currently in an early design stage. I'm mapping out the parts it needs, which I'll be getting together while waiting for some molding supplies to arrive for the bots.

Prints will be up in the shop hopefully by the end of this week so keep a look out for those as well. I'll post links on Twitter and Facebook once they're up.

MEPHISTO SERIES 1 PACKAGING

A week ago I debuted Mephisto Series 1 figures at the Mephisto Designs store. I could just ship these buggers naked in a little box, but what fun would that be? So I grabbed some poly bags and designed these little header cards (below) to staple to the tops.

MEPHISTO 1138 sealed:






And here are the cards alone:



Whatta ya think?

I'm currently working on a couple of exclusives as 'thank you's' to some important inspirations behind these, as well as designs and packaging for my next project: 9th Circle Robotics.

Mephisto Designs Store Launch

The Mephisto Designs store is launched, suprisingly, on schedule. Mephisto Series 1 has been uploaded and ready to sell.

Logo Mephisto 1


Fall Mephisto


Ectoplasm Mephisto


Mutant Alien Mephisto


Great Odin's Raven Mephisto


Dr Mephistofurter


Black Abyss Mephisto


Mephisto 1138


Mephisto Meds


Night of the Living Mephisto


All of them are available here with quick back story descriptions. Each is completely hand painted and features a decal on its base with the figure's name and series number. Just a reminder, each is a 1 of 1 addition. Now that they're up, I'll be moving onto prints, Mephisto Series 2, Mini Mephisto 3 packs and a line of robots.

To follow these and other developments, become a Facebook fan and follow the Mephisto Designs Twitter.