Spade-Skulls, Totem Art & More

Reactor-88 Blog Has Officially Moved

2009-05-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

With the close of my 3-inch Custom Dunny sale (note the Cavemen are still available), I'm officially moving my blog over to my actual domain/webserver here. Note, I am in the process of moving all the posts from this blog over to my new one (yes, it is possible) as well as giving my new blog a new look, so please excuse the mess for a while. I think once everything is all set up, I'll have a Grand Opening post and give away a little button/sticker pack or something fun. So please update your bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc. to my new blog address: http://blog.reactor88.com. See you there!

Custom 3-inch Dunny Purchase Info

2009-05-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

It's simple- send me an email to ryan@reactor88.com with the name of the piece you want- you can purchase more than one if you'd like to. Note, I will update this post when certain ones are sold, but there is the possibility that before that happens I'll get multiple emails from multiple people who want the same piece- I hate when that happens but it unfortunately does. In that case it's the email that hits my inbox first (makes sense right?) I will reply via email if you're the first to call dibs or not.

So here's the pic of them again:

Update: Only the Cavemen Dunnys are still available- buy them as a set and save $15.

Prices:
SOLD - Totem Gold/GID - $55 plus shipping
SOLD - Totem Blue/White - $50 plus shipping
SOLD - Totem Red/Black - $50 plus shipping
SOLD - Spade-Skull Orange/Brown/Black - $45 plus shipping
SOLD - Yokai - $50 plus shipping

Caveman Tog (with Bone accessory) - $40 plus shipping
Caveman Bonk (with Club accessory) - $40 plus shipping
Cavemen (as a set) - $65 plus shipping

Shipping is $5 in the US, $10 international

Time for a Change

2009-05-28T22:58:00.000-07:00

So if anyone has been following my blog since my first post (not likely) you'll know I've been meaning to re-vamp my website for a few years now. It was cool back in '06 when I made it, but it's now 2009 and in web time three years is an eternity. I think since early 2007 is when I decided I really needed to start thinking about a refresh, but at that time I was really getting busy with my artwork and custom toys. Needless to say that's been consuming all my time, so even though the website was always on my mind, it was buried far in the back.

Fast forward to late 2008. I started to think I should ditch my Flash site and Blogger blog, and go back to HTML and install Wordpress on my server. Since I'm a web designer and was a Web Developer/E-Commerce Technical Manager at my old job for a handful of years, I also figured there's no excuse for me using a canned blog sitting on someone else's server. Needless to say, the lack of time once again trumped me getting my act together and getting a real Reactor-88 blog, and in turn updating my website.

Now fast forward to two months ago. Seems everyone is opening an Etsy or Big Cartel store. I usually don't have much stuff to sell (most of my work sells through galleries or are direct commissions for clients), but I do like to make custom minis and throw them up for grabs once in a while. I also have a handful of older customs that didn't sell, and I'd like to do some other fun stuff like t-shirts, small prints, and maybe even some original resin figs and other goodies. So I thought it was time for me to look into setting up an e-store. After a little research, it seemed Big Cartel would be the best option for me, though far from perfect. The basic version of their store is free, but it's really limited and didn't have enough functionality for my needs. The pay versions were better, but since I would only put things in my store a few times a year I determined it would actually be a waste of money- and I don't have a lot of money to waste these days...

With that, I figured now was definitely the time to get Wordpress and a nice shopping cart system running on my server. I just finished a big freelance Flash/Web project (and promised myself not to do any more serious freelance web work for a while) and I've already cut way back on the number of art shows I'm doing this year. So 2009 is mainly about commissions and getting this web overhaul completed. I was conerned configuring this stuff and getting it up and running would be a pain, but Media Temple made it super easy with their "1-click" installs of Wordpress and Zen Cart. Thank you Media Temple. Hopefully the local setup will be almost as easy- I'm putting a lot of my faith in MAMP...
So I will officially be moving my blog to my own domain/server soon, as well as setting up a real webstore which I'm guessing will take a bit longer. Following will be a new website- possibly Flash again, or maybe a mix of DHTML/AJAX/Flash- I've yet to figure that out.

So to make a long story short, this will be one of the final posts on this blog. I will make a final announcement here when the switch over happens. But some of you might be wondering, "Hey, when/where are you going to sell that last batch of custom Dunnys you made?" "This was the only reason I read your dumb blog!" Don't worry, I will be posting information on how to purchase the Dunnys on this blog soon. Thanks for your patience.

Totem Monkey Buttons/Badges

2009-05-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

So after digging how my little Spade-Skull buttons came out, I decided to get some other buttons made. When fellow artist Jon Knox got Badgetown back online, I decided to give his operation a shot. I knew this time I wanted to make some totem buttons, and it seemed like my Totem Monkey paintings I made for the New Moon show would be perfect to be turned into a button set. I didn't want them to be exactly the same as the paintings, so I made the eyes on the monkeys all look straight ahead (unlike the orignal paintings which are looking in all different directions.) Anyway, my buttons just came in and I'm very happy with the results. I think now that I have some Spade-Skull and Totem buttons, I can make a little button pack for my Big Cartel store (coming soon...)

New Custom Minis for My Big Cartel Store

2009-05-26T02:26:00.000-07:00

So last year I started to check out basic webstores. Since most of the customs I paint are commissions and I don't really have any merchandise, there has never really been a reason for me to have a real webstore. I have a store section on my website, but it has no store-like functionality, which is kind of lame. I figure another reason to have a store is just to get the added SEO brownie points, since my regular website is all Flash-based. I do have some old customs laying around that it would be nice to get them up somewhere where people might actually see them. Finally, some of these webstores are FREE (for a basic setup), so there's really no reason not to have one- right? So with my research I decided on Big Cartel- mainly because everybody else I know has one. Maybe there's some other good options, but I don't know about them.
Now that I've decided which webstore I would use, it's now a matter of setting it all up and the most important thing- having something to sell. So since the beginning of the year I've been trying to sneak in a little time to paint some custom minis (while I work commissions and shows.) The above picture is what I've been working on for the webstore. All 3-inch Dunny customs (my mini platform of choice)- there's Mini-Totem Dunnys, Caveman Dunnys (Tog & Bonk), a Spade-Skull Dunny, Yokai Dunny, and a Pug Dunny. Note the Pug Dunny won't be for sale- he is a tribute to my oldest Pug Pancho that recently passed away, so that custom will be kept in the family.
If all goes well, my webstore should be up and running by the end of the week. I'll make an announcement here and on Twitter when it's up.

Spring Cleaning

2009-05-26T02:09:00.001-07:00

So while most folks were enjoying the long weekend, somehow I got into a spring cleaning mode. Granted I did partake in a pool party/BBQ at my folk's house on Sat, but beyond that I was getting cleaned up and organized. It started with the desire to clean up the mountain of toy boxes that had taken over the space under my work/painting table. It had gotten so bad that I could not even sit in front of the table because there were so many boxes under there. Since about 50% of the toys I buy are for painting over, I ended up throwing out a lot of the boxes, but the rest I took down to the storage space (along with a bunch of other random things.) Once the bottom of the work table was cleared out, it was time to tackle the top. I can't remember the last time I was able to actually do any work on my work table- the mound of junk that had accumulated on top was a good foot high and completely covered it. While in the process of doing this, I got sidetracked a bit by cataloging some of my art and toy collection, but that's a whole other huge project that I'll have to tackle some other day(s). Once the top of my work table was finally clean, I jumped to the cupboard under my bookshelves (opposite of my work table) and the storage area under my bedroom TV- mainly because I need space in those areas to throw some of the junk that came off my work table. If you notice in the picture you can barely see my printer (on the left) sitting on top of a box on the floor- that has been that way since the X-mas '08. I plan to get either a small dresser or a printer/storage stand so I can get it up off the floor and get a little more storage space- that might be the task for the coming weekend. Anyway, now everything is nice and clean, uncluttered, organized and ready to go. Although I've gotten to really enjoy painting and doing my work out in my living room- hmm...

Reactor-88 Rubber Stamp

2009-04-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

So I recently had a custom art stamp made with my spade-skull logo. This had been on my "to-do" list for I don't know how long, but after talking to Drilone about them and seeing his sig stamp, it got me motivated to finally just do it. I didn't want some modern, plastic encased thing though- I wanted something that was a bit more warm and natural. So after a Google search I came across a site that made custom art/crafter stamps mounted on a nice little maple block. Usually they don't have handles, but I opted to get one for a little bit extra. It turned out the handle was totally unnecessary and if I had known my stamp artwork was going to be engraved into the top of the block, I wouldn't have covered it up with the handle- oh well. Anyway, I really dig my little wood stamp- now I just need something to stamp and I'll be happy.

Totem Monkey Paintings & Site Update

2009-04-12T16:17:00.000-07:00

So here are the Totem Monkey paintings I made for the New Moon show at Myplasticheart that opened this past Friday. They are 6x6 acrylic on canvas. One thing that might not be immediately noticeable is that their eyes are all pointing in different directions- just a fun little detail I threw in. They sold in the preview before the show opened- thank you for your support! There are still a lot of awesome pieces left to purchase, so if you're in the NYC area you should stop by MPH and check out the show.

I also did a small Reactor-88 website update. I'm really lagging on doing updates on my actual website. It's so much easier to just post photos on Flickr, update my blog, etc, that the actual website is starting to feel like a burden. I've also been considering setting up an Etsy store- once that happens... Until then, I've posted all my latest custom toys and artwork up, and also updated my store section. I have various Spade-Skull and Totem-inspired custom toys still available and the Dr. Mario Virus Dunny set. Of course I'll also throw in some cool little Spade-Skull buttons and stickers with your purchase- yeah!

New Reactor-88 Stickers

2009-04-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

I finally got my new Spade-Skull stickers in over the weekend. These are a bit more fancy than my original batch. They are about 2.5 x 3 inch, die-cut, two-color on clear vinyl, with back printing. The good people over at Sticky Rick's did these up for me and they came out really nice. Rick has been printing stickers for sticker-fiends all over for many years. If you need any stickers made, you should drop them a line and get a quote. Anyway, like my little buttons/pins, I'll be dropping a few stickers into each of the packages I ship out- fun stuff...

Dr. Mario Virus Dunny Set

2009-04-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

Coming off the big Totem Mega Munny commission I wanted to work on a fun little side project before I started my next client piece. I'd been playing Dr. Mario on my old SNES (yes, I have a Super Nintendo) over the holidays last year and noticed that the three little viruses were pretty cool little characters. Following the along the same lines as the Dig Dug trio I completed earlier this year, I figured creating this virus set was a no brainer. I have a few more ideas for some custom mini sets, but I will be picking up my next commission this week so the fun side projects will have to be put on the back-burner once again.

Totem Mega Munny

2009-04-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

It's FINALLY done!! I started on this commission back in June of last year and it finally landed in it's new home today. This one was a long time coming and I'm really happy to be done with it. With this guy done, I can finally move onto the next few people on my commission list- whew!

Totem Squirms

2009-04-01T20:49:00.000-07:00

Here are the custom Squirms I painted for the It Came From Skullbrain show at Super 7. I'm honestly not a big Kaiju fan, so when I was asked to participate in this show I was a little hesitant. I have wanted to try my hand at some custom Kaiju pieces- the problem was finding a figure that would work well with my style. Anyway I agreed, and eventually decided to paint some Squirms. First up is the Robo Lucha Totem Squirm. I went a little wild with the color scheme on this one. At first I wasn't too sure how I felt about it, but he's grown on me. Second is the GID Totem Squirm. I kept the color palette really simple on this one so the focus would be on the glow- granted when the lights are on you don't see that part, but whatever. As usual, if you're up in San Francisco on the 18th, be sure to check out this show.

Spade-Skull Buttons/Badges

2009-03-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

I got some little 1-inch Spade-Skull buttons made. Another thing I've wanted to do for ages that I finally got around to doing. I'll throw one of these into each package that I send out along with a few stickers. Speaking of which, my new stickers should be ready next week or so- these are much nicer than my old batch. Hopefully they came out right. I still want to make a Spade-Skull rubber stamp, and some Totem buttons. Those are next on my list.

Totem Bear

2009-03-17T21:14:00.001-07:00

Here's my custom IWG Bear for the Humans Beware - I.W.G. Custom Art Show. For more show info, click here.

Humans Beware

2009-03-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

Also coming up on April 10th is Humans Beware - I.W.G. Custom Art Show. The show is curated by Drilone and being held at Rocketworld, creators of the Insurgents Wilderness Gruppo Toys. This is Dril's first foray into curating, and he's doing a top notch job. There's an impressive 80+ artist lineup that will not disappoint. Some sneak peaks have been showing up online, such as Cris Rose's Vespbear. My custom I.W.G Bear is almost done- there might be some sneak peaks in a bit so stay tuned.

New Moon - Myplasticheart

2009-03-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

Here's the flyer for the New Moon show at Myplasticheart. Curator John Wong hand-picked 25 artists to interpret the signs of the Chinese Zodiac. I chose monkey- really for no special reason other than I think they're kind of cool. Also I opted to not paint a custom toy for this show. Instead went the 2D route and painted a canvas or two. So if you're in NYC on April 10th, be sure to check it out.

Totem ILLAZILLA

2009-03-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

Here's my custom ILLAZILLA for the Attack of the ILLAZILLA Mini Tour. This ended up completely different than how I initially started it. I wish I had more time to fine tune it, but the show opens this Friday at APW Gallery in NY, so I had to call it quits and get this puppy in the mail. There's a nice line-up of artists participating in this show, so if you're in the area you should definitely check it out. After the New York stop, the tour continues to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and then Hawaii- nice!

Update: My ILLAZILLA got some nice coverage over on Vinyl Pulse- check it.

2009 Show Listing

2009-01-31T10:35:00.000-08:00

Here's what I have lined up for 2009 so far:

Attack of the ILLAZILLA
March 2009
Mini Tour (Various Locations)

Humans Beware
April 2009
Rocketworld (San Francisco, CA)

It Came from SkullBrain
April 2009
Super7 (San Francisco, CA)

New Moon
April 2009
MyPlasticHeart (New York, NY)

Vinyl Show
August 2009
Black Maria Gallery (Atwater Village, CA)

The Disney Stitch Experiment 626 Project Tour is also still traveling throughout this year. I believe they've added a few more stops- when I get more info I'll post it.

Lastly, I'll probably have a couple of customs at SDCC again this year. I just need to confirm (this was discussed before last year's con) and make sure I have enough time since the show at Black Maria might need a lot of time to prepare for.

iPhone Background #4

2009-01-25T18:53:00.000-08:00

I found some cool carbon fiber desktop patterns the other day. The one I liked was still a little too plain, so I embossed a Spade-Skull into them and cropped it down to iPhone size. For a widescreen desktop wallpaper size (1680x1050), click here.

Twitter

2009-01-23T19:32:00.001-08:00

So I jumped on the bandwagon and created a Twitter account. I heard about Twitter a while back, but didn't really get what the point was. I'm not sure if I get the point now either, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Anyway, since I'm not a fan of phone texting I won't be 'twittering' that much, but if you'd like to follow me anyway, click here.

Dig Dug Dunnys

2009-01-19T00:14:00.000-08:00

So once all my 2008 show commitments were complete around November last year, I started working on commissions again. To keep from burning out, I like to work on some 3-inch customs just for fun while I'm working on projects for clients. Since everyone always wants Totems or Spade-Skulls, it's nice when I can turn out some small customs that are different once in a while. I have a list of custom ideas that I'm hoping to get to one day, but since I'll probably be painting commissions for another couple years, if I ever expect them to see the light of day they'll have to be in mini form. This newest set of minis is from that list. Dig Dug was one of my favorite video games when I was growing up. I remember spending hours at the arcade on just a couple of quarters, constantly glued to this game. With all the incredible video game consoles these days, the simplicity of games like Dig Dug probably wouldn't hold many folk's attention now. But I have very fond memories of this game (as well as many other 8-bit games) and still play it once in a while. So I decided to pay tribute to it by creating this little set of 3-inch custom Dunnys.

Update- These little guys got a quick feature on Toysrevil- thanks Andy!

Updated Reactor-88 Homepage

2009-01-03T12:06:00.000-08:00

I figured since it was the start of a new year, I should start off with something fresh for 2009. Note- I've been talking about redesigning my four year-old site now for the last few years, but it's always taken a back seat to other commitments. I figured since it still might be some time before I get around to a full redesign, I should at least try to update my background image. When I first put up the site, I thought my techie/satellite/robot art image was cool and worked well with how I wanted my site to be portrayed. I initially created that image in 2002 as part of my Chaos Module series of digital art works. Well, it's now 2009 and while it still may be cool in some way, it's not really the look and feel I want my site to have. So I've drawn out a more organic vine pattern incorporating my Spade-Skull logo, but still kept it in the distorted, layered and slightly digital style that the satellite robot image had. Hopefully I'll get some time before 2010 to do a full redesign of the site, but until then I think this is a good start. Happy 2009!

Final Custom Toys of 2008

2008-12-21T20:58:00.000-08:00

Here are my last custom toys for 2008. I'm neck deep right now in a very large commission and I'm also starting to think over ideas for some upcoming shows in 2009, so I've been taking little breaks here and there by working on these two little guys. The one on the left has a pearl white base color, with red and gold. The one on the right is plain white, with Black and orange. I still enjoy working on 3-inch Dunnys and have some cool ideas for some non-totem and non-Spade-Skull designs that hopefully will see the light of day early next year. If all goes well I'll be starting on some more over the holidays while I continue on the commissions and show pieces. Most likely this will be my last post of 2008, so Happy Holidays to all and I'll see you in 2009. Cheers!

Design This Design That Issue 3

2008-12-04T00:40:00.000-08:00

Issue #3 of Design This Design That is out and focuses completely on toys. This is really nicely put together e-zine. There's a lot of cool pictures of customs, hand-made plush, production pieces, and some interviews with the various artists featured in the zine- one of those being with yours truly. To check it out click on the link above.

Through this project I became familiar with Issuu, which is basically a online publishing site that anyone can use- cool stuff. Below are some small pics of my interview. Once I get a pdf of it I'll set it up as a download.

Totem Stitch

2008-11-25T21:26:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of my custom painted Totem Stitch for Disney’s Stitch Experiment 626 Project Custom Art Tour. This toy was a blast to paint- Mindstyle has been really hitting it out of the park lately. I was quite honored to be asked to participate in this event. There's an incredible line-up of artists both local and international that are participating, and from what I've seen of the work so far everyone is bringing their A-game. Even better, all the pieces are up for sale with some of the proceeds going to charity. The tour starts this Friday in Hong Kong and ends in Hawaii. I don't have a full tour schedule yet but I'm pretty sure there's an LA stop- I won't miss that. For more info about the show, check out Vinyl Pulse.

New Spade-Skull Mini Dunnys

2008-11-24T23:10:00.000-08:00

Here are some new 3-inch Dunny customs I just finished up. I like to paint minis once in a while. I use them as a way to relax while I'm working on other projects. I try to have at least one mini in progress while I'm working on various commissions and show pieces. They're so small I can turn them around a lot faster, which is nice when I'm consistently working on the same large piece for weeks on end. These four little guys have been in a various stages of completion since the beginning of summer. After I finished my custom Stitch, I decided to take a little break and finish these guys up. I was in a flocking mood for a while, so most of my recent minis have been flocked, and I followed suit with three of these four. The little black and white one was supposed to be a Halloween skeleton guy, but the 31st came and went really fast. Anyway, I'm already back plugging away at my commission list, but I'm hoping to turn out a couple more minis before the end of the year. Stay tuned.

Stitch Experiment 626 Project Tour

2008-11-18T22:49:00.000-08:00

No spolier pics yet, but I was invited to customize one of the new Mindstyle Stitch toys for this tour. I'm sure most folks can pretty much guess what my Stitch is going to look like :) For a bit more info about the tour, check out the post on Vinyl Pulse.

Totem-Po

2008-11-16T22:47:00.000-08:00

Friday I finished a hush-hush project that is my last major commitment of 2008, so now it's back to commissions for the rest of the year. I got back into it by finishing up this custom 6-inch Unipo this weekend. This little guy was essentially done early this year, but he got put on the back burner as my schedule of shows and things really got a bit overloaded. Thankfully the owner of this piece is one of the nicest folks I know, so she was cool with the wait. If all goes well I'll turn out a few more commissions before the end of the year along with some random minis that will be up for grabs- until then...

Ougon Neko

2008-11-12T00:31:00.000-08:00

Since the Miao custom show preview went up a few days ago, I figure it's okay for me to post a full shot of my custom Miao (and Mousubi). You check all the customs out at Subtext's blog by downloading the pdf preview. And don't forget to check out the show this Friday if you're in the San Diego area.

Miao Show

2008-10-26T11:45:00.000-07:00

I just finished my piece for the custom Miao show at Subtext. Once again the line-up for this show is very impressive and from what I've seen so far the customs are going to be top notch. This show has been a little under the radar, but with all the artists involved I'd say this is another must-see show if you're anywhere near San Diego. At first I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with this figure, but then an idea hit me and I really like how it turned out. I've attached a little sneak peak here (sorry for the photo quality, it's pretty bad.) Once we get close to the show date I'll probably reveal the full Miao and Mousubi. Stay tuned.

SDCC 2008 Customs

2008-10-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

So I just got back a couple of my customs from this year's SDCC. I know a few folks were interested in these and I was telling everyone these had sold (which I thought they had), but it turned out there was some miscommunication on that and pricing discrepancies which caused these to end up back in the Reactor-88 display case for now. I've also got a couple of the SDCC minis (had those for a while.) Anyway, if any of you that contacted me about SDCC customs are still interested, send me and email and we'll talk.

Totem Mad-L for Mad-L Citizens Show

2008-10-16T23:36:00.000-07:00

Here's my custom 10-inch Mad-L for Lift's Mad-L Citizens show. This is being touted as "the" show of 2008, so I thought I'd go with one of my signature Totem designs. If you're in the Detroit area on the 25th, this is a must-see show. The artist line-up is basically a who's who in the custom toy world. I'm quite honored to be participating with all this talent. The show flyer/postcard is below:

Spade-Skull Poker Chips

2008-10-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

This was kind of an odd project when I got the request, but I think it turned out pretty cool. I was approached about using my Spade-Skull logo on some poker chips a few months back. The client found it by googling "spade" and "skull" thinking some cool card/gambling related artwork would pop up, and low and behold my logo caught their eye. At first I wasn't sure about it, but this was a small personal project that wasn't going to be used commercially or anything, so I figured it would be cool. It could have been really easy for this person to just grab a pic of my Spade-Skull logo off the net and use it without my permission and I'd probably never know, so I thought it was pretty stand-up that they contacted me and asked my permission, etc. Anyway, I got the samples in last week as you can see by the pic. Now if only I was a poker player I'd be making my own set now :)

Custom Kanser

2008-09-25T23:49:00.001-07:00

It's been a really long time since my last entry- more than a month now. I promised myself I'd have at least one entry a month, but seeing as how I only blog about my artwork (for the most part), that means I need to have something to write about every month. That can be a tall order at times. Anyway, looks like I'll hold true with the unveiling of my latest finished commission- a custom ToyQube Kanser. I had this guy started at the beginning of the year, but I had some serious show commitments so all of my commissions had to be put on the back burner. Once I got through the bulk of my shows for the year and went on a much needed vacation, I started thinking about commissions again and figured I should just spend a little time and finish this little guy up. Now that it's done, it's back to finish up my pieces for the final two shows of the year- the much anticipated Mad-L Citizens Show at Lift Footwear in Detroit, and the Miao Custom Show at Subtext in San Diego. Once they're out of the way, I'll be back on the commissions- with the goal to knock down my waiting list a bit and get out one big job before the end of the year. Wish me luck...

Spade-Skull Skate Deck

2008-08-12T01:23:00.000-07:00

I finished up this skate deck over the weekend for the "All-A-Board" show over at Monkeyhouse Toys on Saturday, August 23rd. It was really a last minute decision. I've really wanted to paint a deck like this for a long time, so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity. Anyway, if you're in the Silverlake area on Sat, I highly recommend swinging by Monkeyhouse and checking out the show.

8x8 Show

2008-08-08T03:05:00.000-07:00

I was invited to participate in the 8x8 Show at Pinkghost, curated by Janice and Nathan Lumm. The show gets it's name based on the the premise that all the art was to be created on 8x8 canvases. I kept with the totem theme and painted two canvases for the show- a Totem Dog and Totem Cat (seen below). I think the neatest part about the paintings are the backgrounds- I tried to simulate a really varied wood pattern with a lot of contrast. It's hard to see in the photos, but there's a lot of metallic gold in the wood texture that definitely ads to the paintings. There's a pretty nice write up over on Vinyl Pulse about the show and a few samples of some of the other paintings. And a bonus- there will also be free pie! Yes I said free pie- the Purple Pie Company will be providing delicious samples for the show. So if you're in the Ft. Lauderdale area on August 16th, make sure you stop by to check out the cool art and eat some yummy pie!

ToyQube 4th Anniversary Show

2008-08-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

ToyQube is celebrating their 4th anniversary with a party and custom Sharky show at the Sullivan Room in NY on August 18th. I was invited to customize a Sharky for the event, which can be seen below. There is an incredible lineup of artists for this event, so it's a must see if you're in the area.

Haida Hair Girl

2008-07-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

I just finished up my drawing for the Get The Lead Out show over at Black Maria Gallery that opens next Saturday, August 2nd. I decided to stick with my usual "totem" art theme, but I wanted to mix it up a bit. So I came up with the idea of rendering a girl's face and having a totem pattern layered on her hair. Since I'm not very good at reproducing a realistic human face/form without reference, I based my piece on a photo of a friend of mine. I did take a few stylistic liberties though, really minimizing the facial detail and stylizing the hair a little bit to work with my design. Anyway, I'm very happy with the way the piece turned out. And as usual, picking up this medium again after so many years has got me excited to keep it up and do some more drawings. But alas there are too many other priorities I need to attend to right now...

Reactor-88 x StrangeKiss @ SDCC

2008-07-13T23:01:00.000-07:00

Well now that it's almost here, I get to show all the customs I've been working on for the Simple Pleasures show at the Strangekiss booth- happening during the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) this year. Now, I'm not really sure if you'd consider this a typical "show" show- I think it will be more of a general display of customs and art from a handful of artists within the confines of the Strangekiss booth, but it's still pretty cool. I'll have a total of ten customs, six being brand new for SDCC (8-inch Dunny, Mad-L, Munny, Mini Munny, 2x 3-inch Dunnys), two from a few smaller shows in the years past (10-inch Icebot, 5-inch Labbit), and one (3-inch Dunny) from earlier this year that I decided to hold onto just for this occasion. You may have noticed that didn't add up to ten, as I forgot to take pics of my custom Spade-Skull Buffmonster toy- oops... Anyway, hopefully everyone that makes it down SDCC this year will swing by the Strangekiss booth and check out all the cool customs and art by all the great artists they have on display. If you can't make it down, at least you can see my stuff here in this post- well, everything except the Buffmonster toy...

iPhone Background #3

2008-07-03T00:49:00.001-07:00

I've been in a grungy mood lately, so I decided to carry that over to my third iPhone background wallpaper. I dug up an ancient photo I took back in the day when I was into 3D- I used to take pictures of all kinds of interesting textures with the idea of building up my own nice library of textures to apply to my 3D models. Anyway, take one rusty metal pic, some cool Photoshop "grunge" brushes, apply some layer modes and voila- iPhone Spade-Skull Background #3.

Totem Tunes

2008-07-03T00:03:00.000-07:00

So I painted up this LP a good month ago, and I guess I neglected to post about it here. So anyway, here it is- aptly titled "Totem Tunes"- how original... I enjoy branching out and painting on things other than toys sometimes- I'd been wanting to paint a record for a while, so when this project came along I jumped on it. This will probably be the last unusual item I paint for a while though- the rest of my commission list is pretty much filled with toys and a canvas here or there. Speaking of which, I just finished up a HUGE show commitment, so I'll be getting back to commissions for a bit- yay for all you folks that are still so patiently waiting...

Mega

2008-06-09T23:56:00.000-07:00

I've been kind of busy with shows and a pretty big special event coming up soon, so commissions have been on the back burner for a bit. Needless to say I'm finishing up some stuff right now, so I should be back on commissions very shortly. To get back into the groove, I went and picked up the piece I'll be working on next- a Mega Munny. I haven't painted a Mega yet, so I was excited when the client mentioned he might want one. After some discussion we both agreed it was the way to go. I know this thing is going to take forever and ever, but I really think it will be sweet when it's done. Seeing it is giving me some extra incentive to finish up a lot of loose ends right now so I can get to it. Until then, it will stand guard next to my work area.

Totem Lucha Qee

2008-06-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

Here is the 16-inch Totem Lucha Qee- nemesis of the Dragon Lucha Qee I made a little while back. This bad boy is headed off to New York for a Qee show at APW Gallery at the end of this month. I don't have many details on the show yet, but from what I heard the line-up should be pretty solid. So if you're in the area you should definitely check out the show. More pics of the Totem Lucha Qee can be found on my flickr page.

New Toy Site Coming?

2008-05-22T23:51:00.000-07:00

So my Reactor-88 site is almost two and a half years old. In internet years that's like dinosaur old. Granted it's gotten a few updates, but for the most part the design and code have stayed pretty much the same. There was the migration to XML to dynamically generate my gallery sections, but that was probably more than a year ago. So it's been in the back of my mind since last year to start thinking about updating "the reactor." I started working on some comps a while back, but got more interested in general cleanup and code optimization. Since I've been in a "code mood", I'm thinking about the structure and code requirements I'll need for the new site, but I'm still far off as far as the design and direction I want to go. In the meantime, I've decided to take on a smaller project to get myself in the proper mindset. This smaller project happens to be a subdomain "site" for just my toys. The pic above is a comp that will most likely be what the final homepage of the site will look like. Like it's older, bigger sibling- it will be all Flash/Actionscript. I thought about doing a full CSS/XHTML site sprinkled with some Flash, but now because of some of the feature ideas I had, I think it will have to be all Flash. But as usual, I have about a zillion other priorities right now (shows, commissions, freelance work, and that pesky day job), so it will be a while before this sees the light of day.

iPhone Background #2

2008-05-22T21:56:00.001-07:00

These are just too much fun...

iPhone Background #1

2008-05-15T00:54:00.000-07:00

Everybody else is making them, so why can't I? So here's a nice, simple Spade-Skull wallpaper background for your iPhone. I created this at 320x480/72 dpi. I've heard this is the standard size, but I've seen all kinds of sizes floating around out there so who knows. If I actually had an iPhone I could test it and see (one of these days I'll get one.) Keep an eye out for more wallpaper backgrounds...

Totem Teeter

2008-05-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest commission for another very patient client. My first custom Teeter. I'm slowly working my way through my list. I think if I can get it down to under ten people by the end of the year I'll open it up again- we'll see...

Derailed Show Follow-up

2008-05-04T22:03:00.000-07:00

The Derailed Show at Cardboard Spaceship opened this past Friday night. Catch all the great trains over on Cardboard Spaceship's blog here. Great stuff. Here's a better shot of my Totem Train.
Update- there's a nice local write up of the show at metrosantacruz.com.

Zombie Dunny Stripped

2008-04-29T01:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, this really isn't that exciting of a picture, but for me it's pretty important as it has great significance. What might be significant about this pic you ask- well I can't get into specifics, but basically it means that a personal custom that I've wanted to make ever since I got into custom painting toys is finally starting to come to light (literally and figuratively.) Okay, so with that little clue you probably figured out that I'll be putting a light inside this Dunny, but hopefully you haven't figured out what the design will be- that's the coolest part. Without giving away more, I had initially started this project way back in 2006- originally I was just going to use a GID Munny for the idea. Then the DER Robo Dunny came out, and I realized with some illumination and some very custom paint, it would work much, much better than the GID Munny. So I purchased and stripped it down to be completely clear, but I had to put it on the back burner for a while as I got too busy with other projects. Then as I was just starting to think about this custom project again, the Zombie Dunny was announced and the translucent light blue vinyl was even more perfect. Anyway, I hate to say it but I'm going to be the busiest I've ever been for the next few months, so once again this guy will need to be "shelfed" for a bit. So far all the delays have actually worked to my advantage, so we'll see what happens when I can start thinking about this again in another couple months. Oh yeah, that's a stripped Hard Days Knight in the pic too- oops...

Derailed

2008-04-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

The Derailed show at Cardboard Spaceship is coming up this Friday, May 2nd. Anyone in the area should come check it out- there's some serious talent in that artist list. I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with. You can catch a full pic of my Totem Train (also below), Scribe's graf train, and Jim Koch's sweet Death train over on Vinyl Pulse.

Dragon Lucha Qee

2008-04-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

The 16-inch Dragon Lucha Qee custom is finally done! I've been working on/off on this big boy for a long time. He's gone through a couple of slight design changes along the way and I'm very pleased how he's turned out. He'll be heading off to his new home soon, and though I'll miss having him around, it will be nice to regain some space around my work area again :)

Very Old Renderings

2008-04-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

A quick conversation with my buddy Lou this morning made me think about the good ol' days when I was in college and was doing a little oil painting. I remember I took an illustration class, and the whole point of the class was to explore different mediums for creating illustrations. We would essentially pick a photograph and render it in the "Medium of the Week." If I remember correctly we had nine projects that semester, each project we tried out a new medium. I remember how much I enjoyed painting with oils. The Alien rendering above was my first oil painting. The girl image was a graphite (pencil) rendering, and the T-Rex was done with goache. The TF-18 painting was my second and last oil painting- that was from an open project (do whatever you want) illustration class I took in my final semester at school. Even though I loved the blends and being able to rework the oils for days on end, I don't think I'll be picking them up again until I get into a different workspace- having all those fumes build up in my little work area would knock me over. Guess I'll stick with acrylics for a while...

The Dragon is Loose

2008-04-07T23:17:00.001-07:00

More pics coming soon...

Flickr

2008-04-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why it took me so long to get photos of all my customs and artwork up on Flickr, but I finally did it yesterday. Note, I've had a Flickr account since early 2006, and always enjoy checking out peoples photos and stuff, but it never really crossed my mind to post my stuff up on there- duh. Anyway, I've finally moved into the 21st century and from now on I'll start posting photos of my work and other random fun stuff there. Oh yeah, here's the address: Reactor-88's Flickr- and feel free to add me as a contact :)

GID Spade-Skull Munny/Multiple Personalities Show

2008-04-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

The Multiple Personalities show over at Lift Footwear in Detroit opened up this past weekend to much fanfare. There was a pretty good turnout, and the new Lift digs looked really nice. One of my favorite artists, Mr. Glenn Barr was there for the opening as well. With that, I figure now I'll fully reveal the piece I created for the show- the GID Spade-Skull Munny. He's the brother to the original Spade-Skull Munny I made for last year's Detroit Munny show at Lift. Interestingly enough, the same person that bought last years Munny bought this one as well- thanks Tommy!

Easter Spade-Skulls (Kinda...)

2008-03-23T21:58:00.000-07:00

After completing the green flocked Spade-Skull mini for St. Patrick's Day, I've been wanting to test out a slightly different flocking technique. So along came these guys. What I decided to try different with these guys was to compact the flocking onto the figure while the glue was still slightly tacky. It definitely gives it a slightly less furry look and has a more velvety appearance. But I don't know if it's just that the black flocking shows a more imperfections or what, but I can see a lot more spots on these where the flocking looks thin as opposed to other flocked customs I've made. I did one touch-up session earlier this evening on them, I might have to hit them again this week. With that, it's back to big stuff. I've got one really big project almost wrapped up, and them I'm going full-force on creating a few more pieces for SDCC and getting back to commissions. No rest for me...

St. Patrick's Day Mini Customs

2008-03-18T00:09:00.000-07:00

I'd been wanting to work on some green customs for a while now, so I figured why not try to get a few done for the St. Patty's Day? Here's what I just finished right on time from left to right: The Green/White Totem Dunny, The White Pearl/Green Lucky Spade-Skull Dunny, and the Green Fuzzy Spade-Skull Dunny- all 3-inchers. I was also trying to revive an old NADE custom I was working on last year for the now defunct Rocketpop show, but I was having some issues getting it back together tonight, so back into it's box it went. Too bad, since it's all white/green and has a few shamrocks here and there just like the mini Lucky Dunny. Oh well, maybe I can revive it again and have it ready for next year. Anyway, I've also got a few minis coming for Easter (stay tuned), but once that's done I'm all about commissions (and some special SDCC projects- shhh...)

Sticker Sighting

2008-03-17T23:55:00.001-07:00

No, I wasn't driving down the street and saw this- this was sent to me by Kidrobot Discussion Board member yesterday. His girlfriend really liked the stickers I sent them, so she put it on her car- cool! I figure most of the stickers I send out with my packages usually end up in places they aren't supposed to, so this was a nice change to see :)

Mono Monkey Totem Mad*L

2008-03-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a new Mad*L commission I just finished up this weekend. Since the client wanted a "mono" color scheme, the Sharpie poster paint markers were given a rest and out came the liquid acrylics and brushes. This one took longer than usual since I don't have as much practice with brushes when it comes to my precision totem work. Anyway, once I got into it I was really enjoying it. While my next big totem probably will just have an acrylic base coat with Sharpie paint marker detail, I think I'm going to slowly make a transition away from the paint markers for large customs.

Golden Spade-Skull Dunny

2008-03-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

Here's a little 3-inch Dunny custom I whipped up the other day. This little guy was keeping me sane while I'm working on a few commissions and finishing up some show pieces. Lately I've been infatuated with black/gold color schemes- more proof of this soon...

Another Sneak Peak for the Derailed Show

2008-02-29T12:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a little peek at a piece I've been working on for the Derailed show at Cardboard Spaceship in May.

Jumpin' James

2008-02-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

I'm guessing most of the folks reading my blog (all two of you) have visited my website and realize I'm not just about toys, totems and spade-skulls. Now for a little history lesson for those that didn't know this. Before I got into the custom toy scene, I was a pretty serious (at least in my mind) digital artist. I was into it all- 3D, animation, 2D motion, illustration, design, and every other thing that you could think of that would fall into that category. One of my favorite things to work on was collages. I loved taking photographs and 3D elements and mix those with some Photoshop and Illustrator work. If you poke around on my website you'll see many examples of this- Flower Power, Sinner, and of course my SS Design Modules. With that said, lately I've been spending a bit more time in the digital realm (don't worry, I'm still painting toys) and decided to resurrect a little collage I started a good year ago (I think?) If I remember correctly, I really wanted to go crazy with it- bring in a lot of "grunge" and layers and make it really dense and loud. But for some reason this morning when I started looking at it, I really started to like the simplicity of it. So I moved a few things a bit, cropped it down a little, and voila- it is finished. Since the blog pic is so tiny, you find a larger version on my website, or just click this link here. Note, the photos are courtesy of Potato Grande.

Spade-Skull Ghost Sqwert

2008-02-19T01:05:00.000-08:00

So I finished this custom Sqwert late last year, but at the time I thought I wanted to do a bit more to it. Because of that, I deemed it not complete. I threw around the idea of putting a very faint light inside, and possibly adding a coat of pearl over the whole thing. As it's been sitting here next to my computer for the last two months, I've realized that it's a cool little custom just how it is. The monochromatic Spade-Skull/vine design laid over the frosted clear vinyl has a very interesting look. I guess another thing that made me think I should just leave this little guy alone was the fact that it (along with my Spade-Skull Ice Bot) was one of the two pieces in my 2007 retrospective that got the most individual standout comments. Interesting seeing as how they are both still in my personal collection (ie- not sold yet...) Since other folks seemed to dig it in what I thought was an unfinished form, that was the icing on the cake. So it is officially done and posted on my site.

Sneak Peak

2008-02-18T22:27:00.000-08:00

Here's a little sneak peak of the piece I just finished for the Multiple Personalities Show on March 29th, at Lift Footwear in Detroit. If you can't tell from the pic- it's GID and I'm sure you can also tell it's a Munny. That's it, I'm not saying anything else... For once I finished my piece with plenty of time to spare- amazing. I've decided I need to plan out my work a little better this year. I want to make sure I have ample time to finish show pieces, so I'm trying to get a jump on them as soon as I know. I do have some other shows and a few other big things that I already know of this year, so I'm taking up a lot of time here in the first part of the year to plan stuff out properly. Hopefully it pays off. Once again I'll probably be making apologies to all those folks waiting on my commission list, but I promise I will get to everyone's pieces eventually...

The Clean Workspace is Back!

2008-02-11T23:49:00.001-08:00

So it's that time of year again (happens about 3 times a year) when my work table just gets so cluttered and covered with stuff that I have to do a serious cleanup job on it. Note, the picture I posted is the after pic- if I had posted the before all you would've seen is a big pile of stuff with a table somewhere underneath it. I had basically resorted to doing all my painting out in my living room, which probably isn't a good idea since I have a very nice antique coffee table and a decent couch. Anyway, things are clean and I can once again "work" at my table. If you look closely you can see some goodies for some upcoming shows, and a few commission pieces in the works. I think there will be a phase 2 of the cleanup soon- I want to get my paint stored away on a rack or something so I have even more room to work (ie- clutter up in a few months...)

And on a side note, you may have noticed (or maybe not) that I'm center justifying my pics now- no more left-justified/wrap around text. I must admit I liked the way that looked way better, but for some reason IE on the PC just didn't like it. Now usually I don't really care about those kinds of things, but since I have to sit in front of PC all day at work and I guess the majority of the world does too, I should- hence the change. Bleh.

Nin-Totem 64

2008-02-01T00:15:00.000-08:00

So the Totem Nintendo got another shout out recently. This time it happens to be in the pages of Nintendo Power. Funny thing is, I had no idea until I was told by a friend that some pictures had surfaced on one of the toy forums I frequent. Needless to say, I eventually tracked down the mag (thanks Eric) and scanned the page in. It's just a tiny blurb on the last page of the mag in the community section, but I'm not complaining. I wish they would've contacted me, as I could've supplied them with a slightly better/higher resolution pic, but what can you do. And speaking of better pics, I need to get a better scan of the page so you can actually read the little blurb- duh. Anyway, I think this is pretty cool as I've always been a Nintendo fan- it makes me want to break out my old SNES and play some Mario Kart or something...

An Oldie But a Goodie and the Hierogrip

2008-01-25T15:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, so the Spade-Skull Thundermutt custom isn't really that old (I finished it back in November of last year), but the owner wanted to hold off a bit on revealing it to the world. Now that I've gotten the okay to display it in all it's 4-inches of vinyl glory, here it is. It's probably hard to tell in the pic, but once again I used a pearlescent enamel spray over the white base color to give it that iridescent look. One of these days I'll go crazy and use that finish on a large custom- watch out.

Also, don't forget the Get a Grip! Custom Moneygrip show is tonight at myplasticheart in NYC. For those of you that won't make it to the show, here's a pic of my piece- the Hierogrip. I figure since the show has officially started (it's past 6 in NYC) it's okay to post a pic of my custom :) I just hope Vince at MPH remembers to display it backwards (as I have it in my pic.)

Happy New Year!

2008-01-09T15:09:00.001-08:00

So it's now 2008 and already it's shaping up to be a very busy year. I stopped taking on commissions late last year in hopes I could slowly catch up on my list, but with 2008 shows and possible SDCC commitments, it's still going to be a long wait for all the folks waiting very patiently for a custom piece. On top of that, I really hoped 2008 would be the year I could work on some personal pieces that have been on my mind for the last couple years now- we'll just have to see how it all pans out.

I had also intended to redesign my website over the holidays- if you happened to check it out recently you'll notice it still looks the same. While I toyed around with some redesign ideas in my head, the actual focus over the holidays was updating my Actionscript so that all my galleries would be generated from external XML files. My site galleries were already pretty Actionscript heavy, and each time I added new content meant me having to add info to data arrays in the Actionscript and republish the site- not fun. It really started getting big and ugly, so I figured it was about time to clean things up a bit and get on the XML bandwagon. Anyway, the code is all set, and I just need to convert one more gallery to XML, and then I switch gears and think about the redesign again.

On the art front, I took a little time and posted a 2007 retrospective of all my custom toy and artwork on the Kidrobot Discussion Board. You can see the thread here. It's always fun seeing them all in one spot- makes me feel like I actually accomplished something last year :) I also have a show coming up on the 25th- the "Get A Grip!" Custom Moneygrip show at myplasticheart in New York. If you happen to be in the area you should check it out. No sneak peaks of my piece here either- you'll all have to wait for the show. And last but not least, I have a new interview up on the ToyToons website here. Enjoy!

Royal Guard Teddy Troop

2007-12-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

So while I work on commission art, I try to work on a small, personal piece at the same time just to break things up a bit. Figuring I've got commissions lined up easily until the end of 2008, if I don't work on a few things for myself once in a while I'd go crazy. With that said, here's my latest "me" piece- a 4-inch custom Teddy Troop based on those famous English Royal Guards. This was one of those projects I'd had on my list for a while, I'd just never gotten around to working on it. I had kind of forgotten about this, and then I saw a photo of a royal guardsmen and the idea popped back into my head. I was hoping I'd be able to get the flocking on the helmet a little bit "shaggier", but I was happy with the way it turned out. This little guy will be going up in my web store pretty soon- he'd make a great late holiday gift :)

Totem Nintendo 64

2007-12-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

Here's some more totem goodness that I finished up this weekend. Yup, that's a Nintendo 64. When I was asked by the client if I would paint on a game console, I thought it was a pretty cool idea. So over came the shell of the machine (he removed all the electronics beforehand) and I got to it. It took a little while to figure out a good design for it, as I wanted to incorporate a mouth where you insert the game cartridge. Once that was set it was business as usual. The design changed a bit from my initial comp, but I'm definitely happy with the way this came out. I had a fun time working on this project, but now it's back to toys for a bit...

UPDATE: The Totem Nintendo 64 got a little press over on joystiq and on Digg- nice!

Sadly Beautiful Totem Skate Deck

2007-12-01T15:57:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since my last post and I'm kind of bummed about that. I wanted to keep this going with at least two posts a month, but alas November was a bit too hectic for me to even sneak in a little time to post anything. My 9 to 5 has been more like a 9 to 9 (actually much worse) and I've been pulling 70-80 hour work weeks. Needless to say that really limited my time to pursue any artwork. Enough whining- the work storm cloud has passed and things seem to be back to normal, so I've been really trying to finish up some projects that have been in progress for way too long. First up is my Totem Skate Deck for the Sadly Beautiful show at Black Maria Gallery. This is the first time I've painted on a deck, and I must say it was quite fun. I have a few more blanks, so hopefully one of these days I can work on a few more. Anyway, everyone that's in LA next Saturday (Dec. 8th) should come check out this show. There will be a wide range of art at various price ranges- the goal being that there will be something for everyone. I'll be there- if you see me say hi.

New Interview Up

2007-11-13T00:51:00.001-08:00

I did an interview for the Custom Toy World website. Custom Toy World is a toy website created by Wonderworks, a design firm located in the Netherlands. The founder, Daan is an avid toy collector and owns a few of my customs. With that said, you can read my interview here.

The Artist Formerly Known As...

2007-10-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

So I finally got around to changing my username on the Kidrobot Discussion Board. Okay, so you didn't even know I wanted to change my name huh? Well, here's the story.
Back when I first joined the KR board in early 2006, I wanted to stick with a username I could easily remember. Well, since I used "ryanc44" for my Yahoo IM name/email (yes, now all you stalkers will be able to find me on IM now), I figured I'd use a modified version of that- hence rc44 was born.
Fast forward to about a year ago- as I started getting some recognition for my art and custom work through the board, I realized that my username is what people remembered me by, not necessarily by my real name. Then one day I just decided to Google "rc44" to see what popped up. Low and behold I had a few entries on the search results, but the majority were all about a racing sailboat. Huh? Yeah, that's what I was saying to myself. Anyway, I didn't give it much thought beyond that, and it faded away.
So fast forward to about two months ago. I started to notice that a few old people on the Kidrobot discussion board seemed to have new names. Now it didn't appear that they had created brand new accounts all over again, but in turn their old accounts had been updated with new names. This got me thinking. Why not see if I could get my current "sailboat" username updated to something actually meaningful- like my website name? Now that's an idea... So as of today, rc44 will only be known as a sailboat, and reactor88 is now the guy on the Kidrobot Discussion Board that makes all the Spade-Skull and Totem custom toys. Yeah, I figure it will confuse some people for a little bit, but that small setback will be worth it in the long run. Heaven forbid I decide to change the name of my website on day...

Miscellaneous Updates

2007-10-26T01:26:00.000-07:00

With the sheer ease of adding new material and pics to this blog, I find that my website updates are fewer and farther between these days. With that said, I just updated my site will all my newest custom toys. And as usual, while spending a few hours processing images and setting it all up on my site, I start thinking about how in dire need my site needs a re-design. It's hard to believe I've had that site up in it's current form for almost 2 years now- in internet/computer time that's an eternity... Anyway, I'm setting a goal to at least have a "signed-off" new site design by the end of the year. Sounds easy enough, but I've been saying that for a few months now. We'll see.

On a side note, the good folks over at Flying Fortress have posted my recent 4-inch Totem Teddy Trooper on their blog. Sweetness! Now if only Adfunture would take some notice, maybe we'd see a production Totem Teddy one day...

I've also got an interview up over on Vinyl Addiction Vox Blog. Big ups to Matthew (aka Sandman) for posting all my gibberish.

New Custom Minis

2007-10-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

Here's some new minis I've been working on over the past few months. Now these aren't commissions or for shows or anything like that- these were done just for fun. I like to work on minis while I'm working on bigger commissions, just to break it up a little bit. If I have someone on my commission list that wants a mini- it works out well. If not, then I just do them for myself. Since my big stuff can take months to finish, it's nice to spit out a little guy and get a little bit of instant gratification. Don't get me wrong, even my little guys can take weeks and weeks to finish- but that's usually because I'm only putting in a few minutes here and there. And usually with minis, I'm trying out ideas that I've been wanting to do for a long time. Take for instance what you have here. I've had flocking forever, and while I've flocked a few customs in the past, I really wanted to work on more. So that is how the two little flocked Spade-Skulls came to be. The totems- well, I always love working on those. But for minis I personally like the "duotone" style and have been creating a whole series of different colored ones. And of course, the regular Spade-Skull minis- these I just like making little variations, trying out new base colors and things. The red and blue ones both have a white pearlescent base coat, and the camo one is actually GID. And last but not least, there's a "mono" one- seems everybody has to have a mono colorway :) Fun stuff...

Baby Totem Teddy Trooper

2007-10-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

Here's my recent commission- a 4-inch Totem Teddy Trooper. Hopefully you aren't sick of seeing Totem customs, because everyone on my commission list sure isn't. Everybody wants a Totem- they're all the rage these days :) Anyway, this guy is tiny compared to the 10-inch one I finished a few months back. Even though he's a lot smaller, I tried to pack in as much detail as possible. The client wanted something with red, so I initially thought one of my "duotone" totems- red base with a black design. He then mentioned adding in white to the mix. Hmm- I wasn't sure how that would look, so I created a mock up of my sketch on the computer and created it with a red/white/black color scheme, and I must say I liked the results. So that sealed it, and off I went. As usual, the white paint needed about 4-5 coats to really get it to be opaque on the red, but the end result was definitely worth it. My favorite part of this little guy is the face on his backside- the little tongue sticking out makes me laugh...

Totem MadLs

2007-10-05T00:57:00.000-07:00

I completed some new custom toys a few weeks back- this time it's a group of Totem MadLs. Surprisingly, these were all commissioned pieces for one person. I was surprised when I was first asked to create three of them (about a year ago) by this person. I thought he was kidding, but he was very serious. So I put his name on my list, and finally in early summer his name was at the top and I contacted him. I once again asked him if he was sure he wanted three, and once again he said yes. So fast forward a couple months later and these three Totems are complete. I think one of the intentions was to possibly have them stand on top of each other, but unfortnately the shape of the MadL head isn't completely level/flat on top, so that's not happening. I kind of wish I would've at least tried to take a pic with them stacked up on each other. Oh well, I guess I'll leave that to their new owner. Note, these guys are traveling half-way around the world- I think this was my first international commission work. So does that mean I've "gone international"? Nice...

I'm Now A Photojournalist

2007-09-17T12:24:00.001-07:00

So Saturday night I went to Shag's Conspicious Consumption show at Billy Shire Fine Arts. The good folks over at Guillotine asked if I'd help them out and take a few pics of the show. Guillotine is a pretty cool French Art/Toy/Sneaker/Lifestyle site that has these neat photo features of artist's studios- that's how I came to be familiar with their site. Anyway, I got to the show early to make sure I could get some good "uncrowded" pics, and shot away with my trusty old point 'n shoot digital camera. You can see the photos here. Not bad if I do say so myself- maybe I have a new career starting here...

Addendum- the good folks over at Vinyl Pulse heard I went to the Shag show as well, so I shared my pics with them too. You can experience deja vu here.

Totem Lunchbox

2007-09-10T15:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, the Totem art just keeps on coming. Here's a hand-painted lunchbox currently on display at Monkeyhouse Toys for "Recess - A Custom Lunchbox Show." I had many different ideas for this project as I wanted to try a few different things. I sketched a bunch of ideas out, but ultimately came back to a native design style. I stopped by the opening this past Saturday and was impressed to see such a large turnout. I didn't hang out too long (I've got the flu bug right now) but I'm glad I stopped by to give my support. If you're in the Silverlake area you should check out the show- there's a lot of great work.

New Dunny Commission

2007-09-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

I just finished a new commission this weekend. It's an 8-inch Dunny with a traditional NW Native American design. For this custom the design actually has a theme to it. I gave it a bear face on the front, and then on the back I designed my rendition of one of the more famous traditional Native American folk tales about the bear mother and cub. So the face on the back of the head is my rendition of the mother, and on the body is the bear cub in the womb. Surrounding all of these main elements are the usual traditional shapes and designs. Interestingly enough, this is actually the first 8-inch Dunny I've customized. It definitely won't be the last though...

Totem Skate Deck and T-Shirt Design

2007-09-10T14:29:00.001-07:00

A while back I was randomly contacted by this little European skateboard company called Carrot Skateboards. They liked my art and asked me to create a deck and t-shirt design for them, so I whipped this up a while back. If all goes well I should get some samples of both. Pretty cool.

Vinyl Requiem Issue #2

2007-08-29T00:09:00.000-07:00

So the kind folks over at Vinyl Requiem asked me if I wanted to submit some photos of my customs for their magazine. A few months later issue number two of their vinyl toy magazine is out and my Aqua Blossom Qee is featured on the cover- sweet. I haven't seen the mag yet, but I'm sure it's pretty cool. It's nice to see my Aqua Blossom getting some love. He's one of my favorite customs that I've done, mainly for the fact that it's so different than what I usually do. Anyway, you can pick up issue two at Lulu Press as either a printed version or a pdf download.

Look What I Found

2007-08-14T14:06:00.001-07:00

So I happened to be digging around in my parent's attic and found this cool little metal toy buried under a pile of old tin cans. He's taken quite a beating through the years, but is still holding up. Okay seriously, this is my custom Tofu Robot for the upcoming Tofu Robot show at Robocon. I'd seen a couple of custom toys lately that had this old, worn-out, tin toy style, and it really caught my eye as I definitely enjoy vintage (real and faux) stuff. I'd taken a crack at a "griming" up a toy last year when I made my Recon-bot MadL, so this was just taking it a step further by actually giving it some real scratches, scuffs, and scrapes. I also (for the first time) used some enamel spray paints (from my old model kit days) for the finish, and used some little homemade templates for the designs on the body of the robot. So I definitely explored some new territory with this little guy.
Anyway, the show at Robocon is coming up later this month, so if you're in the area come check it out.

Spade-Skull Labbit

2007-08-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

So here's my finished 5-inch Labbit for the upcoming Uberbot Labbit show. I was literally putting a couple finishing touches on it this morning, took these photos, packed it up, and dropped it off at the post office this morning- since the deadline to get it over to them is next Monday. I've been wanting to do a Totem Labbit for ages (I've had a 10-incher primed up and sitting on my desk for ages), but with the time constraints I was under for this show, a Spade-Skull it had to be. Even still, these things take a long time. I had a few issues with the yellow, and since I used a flourescent orange, once again many, many coats of paint were necessary. In the end, I really liked how this guy turned out- hopefully everyone else will too.

A few more pics of this little guy can be found over on the Kidrobot Discussion Board here.

Totem Teddy Trooper

2007-07-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

FINALLY! I've been working (on/off) on this guy for months (and months), so with the photos I took today I am officially saying I'm done with this beast. Needless to say when I took on this commission last year (yes, it's been that long) I didn't really know what I was getting into. I knew it was a bigger toy at 10 inches tall, but I didn't really take into consideration that it would be like painting two customs- the bear and the helmet, as they both by themselves are the size of the standard vinyl toy (7-8 inches.) And because of the sheer size and workable area of this guy, I would say it's my most complex and detailed totem custom yet. Anyway, I could've probably kept working and working and working on this guy, but I felt it was time to put the paint down, and send him off to his new home. More pics can be found on the Kidrobot Message Board. It even made it's way on the Flying Fortress blog- sweet.

Sticker Shock

2007-07-25T22:58:00.000-07:00

So I finally got some stickers made. I'm not sure why it took so long- probably just blatant procrastination. I've always wanted to make some, but never really knew much about the process, where to go, etc. I guess with the sticker explosion in the last few years and prices coming down for folks like me that don't want a gagillion stickers, it was time to really investigate and get these puppies made. Plus I finally had something I could legitimately make into a sticker- my little Spade-Skull icon. After finding a fairly inexpensive, local sticker place (one of those word of mouth kind of things), I pulled the trigger. I went with some basic, one UV color rounds on white vinyl to start- kind of a trial run thing. Next time I'll probably go die-cut, clear vinyl with crack & peel backings, but since I have 500 of these, next time is gonna be a while. Anyway, these little guys will find there way into all the packages I send out to clients, and who knows where else...

Dawg with Fez & Uberbot Super Labbit Show

2007-07-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted on my blog. Well, I guess two weeks isn't that long compared to some, but for me I like to have some sort of update every week, so it's fair to say I'm slacking. Anyway, I finished this up last week, and I just shipped it off to it's new home in paradise i.e.- Hawaii. Some backstory on "Dawg with Fez." In my quest to get back into traditional painting a few years ago, I made some little "test" paintings of some characters/doodles from my sketchbook just to get the feel of it again. Anyway, someone perusing my website saw the original mini-Dawg painting and inquired about purchasing him. Well, since the masonite panel I painted the original Dawg on wasn't prepared properly, I didn't feel comfortable selling it, as the painting might "disintegrate" in a few years- hence no more Dawg. But I did agree to do a larger, commission for the client based on the original Dawg painting- and so Dawg with Fez was born. I also included a sweet little sketch of a concept for the original Dawg painting from my sketchbook, but like a moron I didn't scan it in before I sent it off- I really need to start to remember documenting my sketches and stuff...

And on a side note, I've reluctantly decided to participate in the Uberbot Super Labbit show slated for late August. I know, I know- I'm so backlogged with commissions and other shows that I would be insane to get involved with another show, but I've really wanted to customize a 5" Labbit ever since they came out, and I love the name Uberbot. Yeah, I'm crazy. So all you on my commission list that have been patiently waiting months and months and months- sorry. Trust me, it'll all be worth the wait...

Love : Hate

2007-07-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

So here are my Baby Bunee Qees for the Love : Hate show presented by Subtext and Cardboard Spaceship. So by now some of you are looking at them and probably saying, "where are the skulls?" "where's the Totem-style designs?" Well, while I love creating designs based around my Spade-Skull icon and Native Northwestern Indian art, I like to mix things up a bit as well. I've been wanting to do another flocked project ever since I did my holiday custom last year, and I also wanted to do something kind of "cutesy." This little pair of Qees seemed to be the perfect candidates. I think it was very fitting for this show, just for the fact that I figure some people will love these, and some people will hate them- ha. Either way, they were a lot of fun to make (look for more flocked projects in the future.) Even if mine aren't your style, there's a big line-up of artists participating in this show, and I've seen some of the other pieces and they're top notch. So if you're down in San Diego during SDCC this month, take a breather from the convention and check this show out- you won't be disappointed.

My Workspace

2007-06-29T00:28:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I like to take a picture of my workspace. It's kind of neat to look at the past pictures and see the projects on the desk, what's on the computer screen, and the various levels of general disarray. Anyway, someone was asking a questioon on the Kidrobot message board about what type of desk/art table, supplies, storage units etc. they should purchase to start on their toy customizing career. Well, I started to type a reply, then I thought- hey, it's been a while since I took a workspace photo, so I did. I then posted the pic, told him how this was probably more of an example of how not to do, and then put in my 2 cents. Anyway, he seemed pretty grateful, so I guess it helped somebody.

Spade-Skull Munny

2007-06-17T23:38:00.000-07:00

So I just finished up my custom Spade-Skull Munny for the Lift Footwear Detroit Munny show. The show is this Sat (the 23rd) and pieces were supposed to be there by the 18th, but folks were given a little wiggle room. I think they were a little more flexible with the deadline because this event was organized at the last minute and not much of a heads-up was given to the artists. When I was first asked to participate in this show, I was very hesitant to get on board because of the short notice. But I decided to get on board and see what I could do under the gun. Anyway, my goal was to finish it this weekend (which I did), and it will be out in the mail tomorrow morning headed priority over to Michigan. I'm still quite amazed I was able to finish this in only about 3 weeks- I usually work a lot slower :) I'm also kind of hoping a few folks on my commission list take notice of this piece and pick it up from the show. Mainly because they're on my list for a Spade-Skull Munny, and if they grabbed this guy that would knock someone off my every increasing list. UPDATE- show blurb is up on Vinyl Pulse- nice, my Munny gets a preview alongside of Dok-A's piece- talk about being in good company...

So with this guy complete, it's on to finish up my pair of baby Qee customs for the Love & Hate show next month and hopefully start plugging away at that commission list before it gets unmanageable...

Reactor-88 Update

2007-06-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

Since I've been really busy painting toys and canvases for a bunch of upcoming shows and trying to plug away at my commission list, my website has been neglected. So it was about time for a bit of an update. I added my recent Cereal Killers "Cereal Totem" painting to the Artwork section. I also added a Shows and Events section and a Store section. Since I'm participating in a lot of shows this year (and hopefully that will continue) I decided to devote an entire section of my website just to listing all my past, present and future shows/events. Also, since I now have a few items sitting around that aren't sold that might be of interest to some folks, I've decided to put up a store section as well. Note, it's nothing fancy at all- just pics, a price, and who to contact if you want to buy it. Works for me...

Cereal Killers

2007-06-10T14:35:00.001-07:00

So the Cereal Killers show was last night at Monkeyhouse Toys. As expected, there were lots of great pieces (mostly paintings, only a couple of custom toys) and there was a pretty good turnout- Monkeyhouse is definitely getting more popular now that they are on the Kidrobot message board radar. A lot of the usual suspects were in attendance, so it was good talking to some of the old regulars. A few of my favorite pieces were Dave Pressler's "Monkey Vomit" painting, and Jenna Colby's "Girl on a Cornflake"- that wasn't the actual name, but whatever. Of course my buddy Lou Pimentel killed his pieces, and since I like the old fashioned-type stuff, Betso's piece definitely caught my eye. So if you're in the Silverlake area, I highly recommend you head over to Monkeyhouse and check out the show- you won't be disappointed. If you can't make it, be sure you check out the show coverage and pics on Vinyl Pulse.

Big thanks to Bil Betsovic (and a Happy Birthday shout out) for inviting me to participate in this show, and of course Mayra at Monkeyhouse Toys for hosting it.

Big Dawg

2007-06-06T23:17:00.000-07:00

So when I dropped off my Cereal Totem painting this past Saturday I picked up another 16-inch Qee. I still can't get over how big these things are. The second pic was taken next to my 8-inch Kenzo Dunny just for reference- yeah, I guess it is basically twice as big... Once again it was free, but this one was actually given to me for an upcoming commission. I can't divulge any other details about the project as I always treat my commissions like I'm under an NDA- some folks don't care, but just in case I extend the courtesy. Anyway, I'm really excited to start working on this bad boy. The client has some basic guidelines as far as what they want, but for the most part I can take as much creative freedom as I want with it (I think.) As usual, I'll sketch out some ideas on some Qee templates, and once I'm in agreement with the client the fun will begin. But as usual, this project is still a little bit off on the horizon. I need to finish a couple customs for some upcoming shows, finish a couple of current commissions, then I can begin to brainstorm about this one. I can't wait...

Art Toy Alchemists Show

2007-06-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

So last night was the Art Toy Alchemists Show down at Artifact Unmundane. I had no idea there was a place to buy vinyl down in the O.C. until PJ had contacted me and asked me to be in the show. What a hidden gem for the folks down there. It's located in a very industrial area down in Anahiem, probably not where you'd think to find a vinyl shop. Anyway, the turnout was pretty good and there were a lot of great pieces in the show. The highlight of the show was the Mr. Bunny raffle. Now, anyone into vinyl toys knows how sought after a Mr. Bunny is. Well, I don't consider myself a lucky guy so I usually don't enter raffles and such, but the raffle proceedings were going towards helping the Cipriani family (Ava's parents), so I grabbed the last $5 bill I had in my wallet and bought a few tickets. Low and behold, I won the Mr. Bunny! And to think I even questioned whether I wanted to make the drive down to Anahiem for the show- hehe... Anyway, once again there were many great pieces in the show. I think my highlights were Jason Jacenko's Circus Punk, Motorbot's Bunniguru, a Frankenstein Munny, and Daniel Damocles Wall's beautiful flocked Giraffe Dunny. I'm guessing PJ will be putting all the pieces up on his website shortly. There's still lots of pieces for sale. In the meantime, see below for a few of my favorites, and of course a shot of my new Mr. Bunny :)

Detroit Munny Show

2007-05-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

So it looks like I'll be participating in the "2nd Annual" (I just made that part up) Detroit Munny Show at Lift Footwear next month. Yeah, next month is coming up fast. I was asked to participate last week, and hesitantly agreed. I usually require a few months (if not longer) of lead time before I'll commit to any show, but at the same time I really enjoy participating when I can, and I figure I can get something together in 3 weeks (I hope.) I've already warned the curators there will be no Totem (those take me months), but there might be the first ever Spade-Skull Munny- unless I can think of something cooler that I can pull off on short notice.

The Cereal Totem

2007-05-29T21:23:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my painting for the upcoming Cereal Killers show at Monkeyhouse Toys. It's a 10x30 acrylic on canvas. This is actually the first "real" painting I've done in years. Well, I guess I did do a small series of random masonite panels last year, but this actually felt like a real painting- maybe because it took forever to finish (which probably isn't very evident at first glance.) Anyway, it was a lot of fun, but I think I'll get back to some smaller painting- it seems I just don't have the patience that I used to back in college. And to think I used to paint with oils...

Custom Dumb Dummy Totem

2007-05-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a little (and I mean little) custom commission I just completed. In case you aren't familiar with this figure, it's a Dumb Dummy created by Toby HK. This little one was a serious pain to paint. For some reason I seem to have more trouble painting on toys with flat surfaces, as opposed to the curved ones- I really don't know why. Add it the size factor on this (these are about 1"x1.5"x1") and that's a mixture for some serious hand cramp and blurry eyes. Anyway, as with most minis that I paint, this was done in small "spurts" between some my bigger projects, so it actually wasn't too bad.

Vinyl Elements Show

2007-05-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

So the Vinyl Elements show was last night, and I must say it was a very cool show. There were tons of great customs, including my Water Totem BUD. Artists were also on hand, kicking back and talking with all the fans. Even better, Munky King held a raffle for three of the much sought after exclusive Black Possessed toys. And no, this wasn't just the original idea of the guarantee to be able to get one, they were giving them away for free! No waiting in line, no cost! FREE!! So three people left the show very happy that night. Anyway, I just want to thank Jack for inviting me to participate in the show- I was honored to be a part of it and have my work displayed with some of the top toy customizers/artists in the scene. For pics of the show, be sure to check out the Vinyl Pulse's write-up.

Upcoming Show Listing

2007-05-10T23:39:00.000-07:00

While trying to organize and prioritize my projects, I've been looking over my calendar and realized I'm in quite a few shows coming up pretty soon. Wow, I am really in over my head with this stuff. I need to stop blogging and get to work!

Vinyl Elements
May 17th, 2007
Barracuda (Los Angeles, CA)

Art Toy Alchemists
June 2nd, 2007
Artifact Unmundane (Anahiem, CA)

Cereal Killers
June 9th, 2007
Monkeyhouse Toys (Los Angeles, CA)

Detroit Munny Show
June 23rd, 2007
Lift Footwear (Detroit, MI)

Love and Hate
July (SDCC) 2007
Subtext (San Diego, CA)

Tofu Robot Show
August 2007
Robocon (Los Angeles, CA)

Social Tilt and Urban Vinyl
September 7th, 2007
Arthouse (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

I think I'm also participating in a custom painted lunchbox show at Monkeyhouse Toys coming up sometime this year. Either that, or a blank metal lunchbox has sprouted from underneath my work table. Okay, enough chit chat- back to work...

Art Toy Alchemists Show

2007-05-06T23:55:00.000-07:00

So I mentioned this a few posts earlier, but I'm in the upcoming Art Toy Alchemists show down at Artifact Unmundane in Anahiem, CA. I'll have my Spade-Skull IceBot and an older 3-inch Totem Dunny I made a while back. I finally saw the "flyer" for the show, and the line-up is looking pretty good. I'm hoping to cruise down there for the opening on June 2nd. I also heard a rumor that they might be having a Wheaty Wheat Mr. Bunny giveaway. Whoa- that should bring in a crowd...