set for scene 2

haven't had much time this week to keep things moving forward but i have managed to get most of the set for scene 2 modeled. This still needs a lot of texture and lighting work but that can come later.

Why Don't You Sell This Stuff?

Folks are always asking. And I do. When I've got time to lug it all somewhere and set up a table. Don't have a website yet. Started one; then we moved to Seattle. Maybe I'll do another.

If you see something you like, make an offer. Sometimes I know what I'd like for a piece, more often I don't.

Don't do much commission work because I prefer to let the wood tell me what it will become. Most people want a very specific thing if they commission you.

Nah. Not now. I'm playing here.

I like it better as a tree.

This is a piece of Eastern Magnolia that I dragged over from Georgia.


Not a particularly pretty wood. Kinda soft. Rots easily. This piece sucked to work. Very dusty. The pith was rotting and tore easily. Required way too much sanding.


I knew as I worked I'd get up in the morning, eyes swollen, sinus clogged; even with wearing a mask. Sometimes that's the way it goes.


But, I dragged it all the way to the west coast; there was no way I wasn't gonna do something with it.


Like the shape. No sure it deserved a seal on the bottom though.


Practice, practice, practice.

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henry about 3 years old

jasper

in college i spent much of my summers traveling. i had a 22' travel trailer and a dog named jasper. we'd go out in some direction and find a town to stay at for a day or a week. i'd shoot every day and jasper would follow.

the summer this was made we covered about 5000 miles through idaho, montana and wyoming.

a branch in the tree

I am starting to roast my own coffee, it is the logical next step in the quest for the perfect 'at home' cup of joe. I also decided to write about the process a bit since I am just starting so I can document the journey. You can read all about it at
g's bean

I've got wood!

And not just the kind that grows on trees, I'll have you know.

The new beast is up and running to a T. And I'm stealing every spare second to play with her before the baby comes in August.

Here's what we were up to this weekend. It's a piece of cherry I found on the side of the road near our house in Atlanta.

Some guy had cut down a beautiful old tree and left its torso lying by the road. I knocked and asked if I could have it. Dropped a third testicle trying to get it into the truck by myself. Took it home, and roughed out about 20 bowls.

This is the last of 'em.

My wife says we're long on bowls around our house, so she was visibly pleased to see a new shape emerge from the basement

Apologies for the photography. Need to work on that. Even after some tips from Nick, I managed to bugger 'em pretty good.

Under Construction

I am currently working on the set for Scene 2. There is no lighting in these shots, just the default maya light no real attention to materials yet though as you can see a lot has been textured but material details will get tweaked during lighting just before render time.

Frigging in the Rigging

Playing around with one of the characters to test their rig. In the first scene we meet Awaryn he will be leaning up against a wall or perhaps another character and I created a short screen capture movie while I was playing around with the rig and posing the character to make sure that I have it set up to allow me the poses and the animation that I will need. This is a 'low resolution puppet', something that is able to movie quickly as you animate to get the major moves blocked out. That is why you can see breaks in the character's skin or odd shapes when things animate. During this I realized that I needed to add some control on the clavicle bone so that the shoulders don't always look raised, I don't know if you can see it in this movie or not. In the end I was pretty happy with the pose and easy it was to get their so I will call the rig a success. More rigging to be done, I also need to model out the sets for each of the 5 or 6 scenes in the pilot . I also need to start looking for voice talent. Before I can animate I need to lip sync the characters and to do that I need voice actors. Two women ,four men. Anyone interested?

how henry came to be

the last portrait of the two of us

jeanna was on o2 most of the time

she labored for 15 hours with henry. her labor stalled early on. the doctors administered pitosin about 8 hours in...

i cannot imagine the emotion a mother faces when meeting her child for the first time.

but i can relate to the feeling as the adrenaline begins to wear off and terror takes hold. what the fuck did we do? how will we ever care for him? i think this realization still haunts me.

henry is 7 1/2 years old now. i am struggling as a father — struggling to understand my role in his life and how to raise him. it was easier when he was a baby... i could swaddle him.

summer is so close!

This Is What I'm Talking About.

Here's how I figured out something was amiss the head/threads on the new beast. I had roughed out a few green pieces, and didn't notice anything out of whack. But when I went to a finished piece, the discrepancies were pretty apparent.



This is a particularly hard piece of oak with some pretty markings within its growth pattern. Not my favorite wood, but I'll still turn just about anything to learn what you can and can't do with it.

The initial step went fine. But when I turned the bowl over to work on the bottom, it was out of true; it had a wobble to it. Notice how on the left of the rim, it's not as thick as to the right. Maddening.





But, I wanted to finish it, so I kept going. Since it was so out of round, and I'd really screw of the bottom by trying to finish it that way, why not try a finish technique that might hide or disguise the mess. I tried a scraping finish. Interesting. don't know if I love it though. Makes it nice to hold and feel, but I don't know about the look.

But, that's what's fun about doing this. You play. You try things. There is no destination really. Always learning. Always moving.

Next, I took to finishing the bottom. But I gotta admit, it was getting late and I was pretty pissed that something was wrong with the lathe. (That's a lot of money and back in forth with my wife just to get the dang thing...) So, like I default to with a lot of things in life, I proceeded to rush it; instead of walking away and coming back with a clear head.

The bottom bears my signature of sorts. I don't like to sign things and push my brand that way; I prefer a more subtle, creative way that lets folks know that's my work.




I use pewter buttons, and inset them into the wood. Oddly enough, one of the first thing people do when they pick up a bowl, is turn it over and inspect the bottom. I give 'em a little surprise. A little design they're not expecting.

And lastly on this piece, here's a dead give-away that someone was rushing: look at the fine cracks on the rim of the bowl. That's what happens when you heat the wood up too high during sanding. It dries too fast, and will happen to almost any wood.

But that's ok. I learned a lot from this piece of wood. And I'll apply it to the next bowl.

Idle Hands.

Yes. That's what they are. I traded out the head and bed of my new lathe this past weekend, and now I'm waiting for some free time to play. My hands are restless for it. Gotta figure out the vacuum system so dust doesn't go throughout the house first though. Hands so anxious they shake while getting everything ready for the new beast. Excited to feel the wood spinning. To see the ribbons reel off the rounds; dancing in the air. Maybe this week I can steal a few minutes. Take a few pictures, too. Stay tuned.

30 seconds

last year i had some pieces in the seattle erotic arts festival. it was a juried exhibition and a lot of fun to be a part of. msnbc did an article and showed a guy looking at two of my pieces (mine are the two framed in black). the slideshow shows the third piece.

i will be half dead in 6 days...

i'm turning 35 this sunday. to be honest, no birthday prior (and perhaps no birthday after) will be quite as profound as this one. i feel my age, though i haven't quite gotten around to living up to it. life passes so quickly when you measure years in relation to your children.

i feel the need to hit the reset button. i'm not talking about finding a 22 year old and buying a sports car... more like drive a city bus and make pictures.

jeanna and i (NYE-2007)

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light seems to follow jeanna. i really don't have to try very hard. maybe she radiates it... creating her own?

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i'm always surprised at how jeanna handles stuff like this. my first instinct is to shush... followed immediately with a brisk turn on my heals.

i gotta get the fucking hot tub fixed this weekend!

my old ride

Fuckin'-fuck-fuck-fuckity-fuck!

It's my new lathe. She's broke. And I am sad. I thought I fucked up the threads on the spindle by trying to force the faceplate off while the set screws were still in it. Nope. Was ready to take the blame. After three round trips to Burien and a half hour circle-jerk with some Jet tech guy in Tennessee, looks like we gotta replace said spindle because the threads are crooked. (A separate trip to WoodCraft, with a sales guy throwing on three different manufacturer's faceplates on her finally illustrated the point.) Sorry there're no pics to document all this; truth be told, if I had a camera with me, I probably woulda chucked it at some point. Probably in the general direction of the Jet tech guy in Tennessee.

The fellers at Equipment Sales and Surplus have been stellar and are replacing everything at their cost, seeing as Jet won't. They, too, are disappointed with Jet. But, if anyone's in the market for heavy equipment, let it be known my experience with the Burien boys has been stellar.

commercialism...

as an ad man, i guess it would be hypocritical of me to voice my distaste for commercial photography. i did it for a number of years — printers, fashion, product v.r., architectural and the likes. it was never really fulfilling... perhaps because i never got very good at it.

now i'm that fucking art director that i always hated working with. what is the old saying about those who cannot do?

yellowstone

form over substance

'Barengaria' character after some sculpting in Zbrush

'Ferdiad' character head sculpted

zbrush sculpt

the other 'Druid'. Here is a screen shot with wireframe.

character models after sculpting in Zbrush

One of the 'Druids'. I like how these guys are turning out.

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some afternoons, i try to come home early from work to take henry down to the pier for clam chowder and french fries. he loves to take the bus.

my good son...

by our house...

we have an amazing beach that we rarely visit... great restaurants that we've hardly tasted... we need to get out more as a family

jack

mike

i found him on a week-long trip to seattle years ago (1996). he told me stories about his time in the navy and how he used to take pictures. he smelled like urine. i took his portrait, gave him a couple of smokes and moved on.

lemonade stand

these girls were selling lemonade on the road side in northern idaho (north of wallace, id). it was hot so i stopped for a cup. the lemonade tasted like shit.

life with boys

Henry: 5/Jack: 1

Henry: 5/Jack: 1

Henry: 4.5/Jack: 9 months

Henry: 4/Jack: 1 month