Failure.

Oh, don’t you just love failure?

It is in one’s nature to attempt to hide such things. But, I have a habit of putting them out on display.

Back in the days of building Charr, we had the whole fiasco with the legs. 4 failed configurations, and a bunch of $… before we settled in on what would become the final version.

Well, Steve 3 is an utter failure.

From 2010 Buildup

The IDEA was for Steve 3 to be less a mummy than he was a bindle of bones. Thinking something had gone wrong in the process or something along those lines…

It just wasn’t working. Too big, too ugly, not formed enough…

So, time to work out another plan.

From 2010 Buildup

No plans to make EVERY bone, but enough to portray the idea.

Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better.
– Samuel Beckett

Time for me to fail at a new project.

Talia has named it “bear”.

From 2010 Buildup

>

I’m afraid my intended use for these is still secret…but I am going to promise a tutorial when they are done. (yes, they…)

Less is more: The importance of black

Alright. We’ve had something of a learning curve with this UV paint.

With our last shipment of paints from Wildfire, I also received a handy little booklet that was mostly just a catalog of their products, but also included some tips and tricks for utilizing UV paint and effects. And, with that was the importance of black. Which, in the UV world, means anything that does not fluoresce.

I had been going about Steve wrong, trying to keep adding highlights to bring out the details (as we would do with normal painting), when all it was doing was bringing us closer to white. The problem was, Steve never started from black. So, we are fixing that with Steve 2.

The base coat is some REALLY OLD red mahogany stain. Something about this stuff turns more and more red with age…This is our “black” coat, completely non-fluorescent, so no mixing with my paint colors to bring us closer to white.

From 2010 Buildup

From there, we did some dry-brushing of 2 slightly differing colors of UV paint. (Purple+yellow and Purple+green for 2 different tans under UV) I am much more pleased with the results.

From 2010 Buildup
From 2010 Buildup

I am still having some issues with the camera and colors, however. When I attempt closeups, the camera loses all color definition for some reason. But, that made for some really interesting pics…

From 2010 Buildup
From 2010 Buildup

I need to go fabric shopping from here. I’m not happy with how Steve 3 has been turning out, so we’re going to be starting over on him. I’ getting a little tired of the Steves, so I also think we might be looking to get going on another project soon.

Published
Categorized as Steve

Incan Steve

Steve 2 is well underway now.

I’ve been less than completely sold on the skull. I had wanted to make sure it was DIFFERENT from the original Steve, as the last thing I need is a number of identical faces. So, we tried our hand at free-sculpting one. Much like the last skull I sculpted, it was looking a little simian.

But, with the lower jaw set in place, I found it to look quite Incan. Which, is rather fitting.

From 2010 Buildup

So, it was time to add some skin again.

From 2010 Buildup

The legs are not getting skinned on this one as they will be completely covered with wrapping once he’s done.

The creepy grin just kinda happened…

From 2010 Buildup

Hand…

From 2010 Buildup

I’ve decided I really need to go buy me a blacklight flashlight to take with me when doing my fabric shopping. I want 2 different glows from fabric on this. I just don’t see the flashlight happening quickly, so gotta be guesstimating. Might do some tests at home…

Slow going…and spring scream time.

It’s been slow going as far as Halloween production goes…

Between injury, me being completely bedridden with sickness this last weekend, and Kyle’s various projects eating up time and space I normally use on Halloween….It’s been slow going.

We hope to have some updates on Steve 2….and 3…very soon, however.

But, more importantly, time has come once again for Spring Scream again.

Castle Of Chaos is once again opening this spring for 2 weekends to give us all a little bit of a Halloween primer.

In case you are not in the know, Castle of Chaos is one of our favorites. It’s one of the haunted houses that are NOT just about jumping out and screaming, or throwing as much scary stuff at you as they can. (though they do offer the Xtreme attraction if that’s what you’re into as well) They focus on FUN and telling a STORY with their haunt.

And, since that story changes every year, it’s always new and exciting.

Now, to find a time I can make it down…