Movin' on up!

To the west side...er...yeah.

So I'm now moved! I'm living with my lady in Ukrainian Village now, and the place is starting to look mostly unpacked kinda sorta. I'm really looking forward to having my office done, and having a place to work. I'm sure my girlfriend is looking forward to not having my art stuff all over the living room when I'm gearing up for a craft show. Thinking I'm gonna go grab a drafting table this weekend. My hope is to find something that can double as a flat worktable for pouring Milos and sculpting new toy prototypes as well.

Things have been so crazy with the move, and getting stuff settled in (in addition to spending a week and a half flat on my back due to that eeeevil flu bug that's going around, Captain Trips anyone?)

So, I'm looking forward to getting back into Milo-world very soon, and sharing that with you all. And since I don't have any pictures of me on this blog yet, I figured I'd share this favorite from our recent trip to Venezia. We saw these huddled guys on the side of a church and decided to huddle with them in fear of whatever stone menace was gunning for them. I love this snap.

Here comes the sun...

This little guy is a character in the Milo book, and I just felt like posting him here today. It's the sun, and he's a mover and a shaker in Milo's world. I'm sure I'll do a sun toy at some point, but I need to get the first true batch of Milo toys out first. Gonna contact the Rotos soon, so I can see about getting some Milos in their store.

Just in case you're curious, I finally decided to draw each face by hand. I solved the bleeding problem with using Sharpies. I think it had something to do with the liberal job I was doing with the clear coat. Too much paint all at once = bleedy face. Doing the face with a brush ended up being way more hassle than it was worth, and far too inaccurate for my taste, so the Sharpie seems the route to go.

The book is coming along nicely, and I'm particularly happy with this line from Milo's conversation with the river:

"That's a really lovely thought, Milo, and I'm sure you'd take good care of these fish. But the belly of a cloud isn't so swimmable, and a fish gotta swim."

Have a good day, all. Enjoy the sun if it's out where you live. He sure was smiling on me when I took my break today.

Platinum Cure!

Last night I mixed up a little bit of Brush on, platinum-cure silicone to test, and see if I could make a good mask for painting. I think this is gonna do it. This stuff is so tough, I can see it being thin enough, and still strong enough to do the job. I think I'll mix up a bit more tonight and do another coat, and maybe start in on a new mold. But at the very least, I can see having a good enough mask by Wednesday to try a new paint test. I also got some Krylon Fusion spraypaint, which I hope will do me better in the happy-paint-love department.

Moving along. This first batch of Milos will not all be identical, because the original mold was so varied, and the amount of sanding necessary also made them varied, but they'll all still be pretty darn cute, I'd say. So, if nothing else, this Milo v 0.1 is incredibly home-made and collectible??? Maybe this version goes to friends and family, and the few folks who write in and say they WANT the experimental first batch.

Roadblocks

It's sometimes good when you hit stumbling blocks, because it makes you realize just how excited you are about something. Right now, I'm huffing and puffing because the painting just isn't happening the way I'd like. It's maddening to have a bunch of clouds just waiting to be painted, but unable to really do much because the painting I've done already looks so bad. I've never done any kind of spray painting before, and I need to get some practice with making it look just right. Plus, I thought I was done sanding, but I'm obviously not. So, I bought some different paint, because even the color isn't right out of the can, and we'll see how that goes.

Then comes the other hurdle: masking. I have yet to find the perfect way to mask out the face and have it look decent. I'm sure I'll hit upon it, but it hasn't happened yet. It's cool. It doesn't have to be perfect right now. I'm still experimenting and I haven't released it to the public, or taken any orders from stores. It's still bubbling, just not boiling yet. So I'm enjoying it now. Enjoying this anticipation and enjoying the feeling of knowing that I have something that people will dig once it's done.

If you've got anything you're bubbling about, I'd love to hear it. Hit me up with a comment, and link me to your steaming pots.

Best,
Sean

Milo The Cloud is Online!

I've just registered MiloTheCloud.com and put up a placeholder site which will be up there until I can get some mojo working on building the actual site. All of that hinges on actually finishing the toy in some fashion and getting some packaging happening as well. I just did some spray painting last night and this morning before I left for work, so hopefully tonight I'll be on track to get the faces painted on, with some clear-coating going on over the weekend. I'm happy so far with them, but I think I could be happier. Very likely I'll make a new mold once I get these guys painted and looking good. The process of getting them to where they are was way too intensive. There were so many tiny imperfections in them that I had to spend an inordinate amount of time sanding and buffing before I could ever get to painting them. Tags of plastic that were just too huge to ignore and holes that were there in the original cast that got added to each copy and consequently into the original five piece mold. I was too hasty in making that mold, because my enthusiasm was bigger than my patience at that moment. I wanted to see a ton of these guys and I wanted it FAST.



So, even though I posted this picture already at the old blog I figure it doesn't hurt to show it here for those who didn't see it there. This was the first batch, the ones that were full of pin like holes in the back that had to be sanded out of every cast I've made so far. They're cute, and the sanded versions look good, but the next batch will be as clean as I can get the new mold to be. I expect to sand a bit, because they'll need it to take the paint, but not like this.