Category: Site and Blog Updates

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A Long Overdue Update

Poor ARTSY

It’s been a while since I posted anything on this blog. 😕 There are some major things that have played a part in this. From loosing my job for 15 years. Then loosing my new job to COVID 19 cutbacks. Having to burn through all of my 401K savings to keep my family from going broke through all of the issues around the pandemic. Then getting scammed by a potential art job for a big chunk of those savings. The Apple Pencil gen 1 stopped charging. There’s also the problems with my health taking a big leap forward, especially this last year.

Poor ARTSY is not feeling very well. 🙁❤️‍🩹

Last night this poor flash drive surrendering loosing the digital work I’ve been doing since 2012 along with some photos and other files. After hour of trying to resurrect it I had a glimmer of hope when all the folders suddenly reappeared. I opened the las folder I was working from. Suddenly all the files disappeared. Then the other folders evaporated. The drive was just there with the same sequence flashing but none of the computers I tried to load it n could find it.

Luckily, last night, I sent samples of the last piece I was working on through messenger to my client. The first sample was a full size png file. I can use that to keep going on this project. All the other stuff is gone, possibly.

So, What’s New?

I’ve kept busy illustrating, in pencil sketches, the landscapes and vistas on Terrene. That journal is up to 80 pages of line drawings and shaded sketches. There’s so many places to design! I’m excited to bring everyone there to learn it’s story!

I suppose I will have to move posting the sketches and first looks to Patreon or another subscription site. Funding has pretty much dried up. I may be pulling down the commission tiers from my store, too. There’s not really been any traction there, too. I think I can showcase them better through promoting them through video. Although, I could just do them in the shop with some revamping.

I’ve been, more off than on, studying Blender. Eventually I’ll animate this story with it. I like being able to store a creature of mine that I can put in any situation or position that I can illustrate them later. Plus’s there’s a lot of potential outside of the illustrations and animations.

The original plan was to animate this story without dialog. The reason is that I learned to express myself through drawing before I was fully able to teach myself to read. I really wanted this to be a total visual experience. Then Genndy Tartakovsky came out with Primal a few years later. I’m really working hard not to copy others work. Originally this story wound up with a huge Tolkien element that I had not intended. With all of this I’ve had to regroup a lot to try to keep this as original as I possibly can.

I hope everyone is well and enjoying life however you find it ❣️

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Grotesque Moi! #26: Long Delayed Update

It’s been a while since my last update. There’s been a lot and not really so much happening at the same time….. I’ll explain….

After posting my hopeful and nicely laid out plan for moving forward with my projects my path hit a major speed bump. That was January 2021. In February I had some problems with a fake company that messed me up financially. This caused me to postpone all of my plans. Then early this year (2022) I signed on to do contract work running an art workshop as therapy for people struggling with mental health issues. We were to get certified through this foundation and start immediately after that in April of this year. By July this year we still didn’t get to start our workshop. Every week or so there was a new issue from the foundation that caused new delays. There were multiple false starts. A group of us wound up leaving. There was money involved with this one, too. I’ve heard that of the ones that stayed with the foundation that they have Ben having problems getting paid by the foundation.

I did start learning Blender and I’m building some simple projects with it. It’s been a little hard to stay focused with all the financial pressure constantly being there. My goal, after I’ve gotten some of the basics down in Blender, is to try creating my vision for Grotesque Moi!

I’ve had it in my mind ever since the beginning for Grotesque Moi! To be totally a visual story. I didn’t want it to be developed as a written story. The problem is that I will have to develop it with the majority of it being predominantly written. The silver lining is that it can become many books based on all the stories to be told about each creature character’s race and culture. This means that I’m going to have to re-focus my direction of my website and what I’m doing with these creatures.

On a different note, I’m considering doing some workshops of my own. It would be training sessions for drawing, pen and ink, stationary and wrapping paper making, basic greeting card making and advanced greeting card making. When I get everything straightened out on my website I will set up either a video tutorial or maybe a live training over a platform like Zoom. I’m still working out the fees. Let me know what you think and if you would be interested in taking workshops like this from me.

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Grotesque Moi! #25 – Planning for 2021

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I hope everyone has had a great holiday and a Happy New Year celebration! I’m really hoping that everyone has a successful year in whatever you do!

Plans for Grotesque Moi! are as follows:

  • Illustrations – The goal is to produce 6 to 12 new portraits this year. some may be in the form of scene illustrations combining multiple creatures.
  • Illustration Canvas Print Frames – I plan to continue creating customized frames for each of my illustrations.
  • Red Bubble Catch Up – Setting a deadline for updating each newly finished and released portrait or illustration.
  • Expansion – Develop illustrations on a splinter line that are quicker to create and potentially making a separate set of pricing tiers that fits with these quicker illustrations.
  • Plan for phase II and III of Grotesque Moi! – More on these after the above has been integrated.
  • Grotesque Moi!’s Patreon Page – Add more sketches and line drawings to Grortesque Moi!’s Patreon page..

Plans for Terrene and Ba’anta

Now that Terrene and Ba’anta have been hinted at in the lore of the Grotesque Moi! creatures, it’s time to start the story debuting this world on Patreon!

  • It’s time to share the first posted sketches that was in my early blog posts here to Patreon.
  • All future sketches will debut on Patreon first.
  • Publish the updated labeled geographical map of Ba’anta on Patreon.
  • Create a large (maybe 48”x36”) illustration of the lands of Terrene.

There’s a lot of things planned out here! I will have to create a calendar to keep things on track!

Indicates Grotesque Moi! Exclusives And White Tier Merchandise!
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New Things for the New Year: Part 3

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Posting here first before it goes up on other social media! This is a new video ad that I made for my work for Grotesque Moi!. Everything (including the music) was created by me! If you like my work and want to own a part of it, there are different levels of prints and commissions available here on my website shop. Patreon is another option where you can support at any tier.

As a reminder, please support your favorite artist. It’s easy to assume that they’re ok especially if they’re producing work. Many are struggling because they are not able to make their normal income from conventions and art markets because of the world situation with COVID19. Financial support is best of course but you can help in other ways. Likes, comments and sharing helps bring their work to so many others.

Thank you for being there to help us through a difficult time!

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New Things for the New Year!

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I hope everyone’s New Year is off to a great start! If you’ve made resolutions, I hope you have a great plan and succeed by the end of the year!

XT Illos has some new things coming this year, too! Before we get to that, I wanted to remind everyone that Grotesque Moi! has exclusive content on the creatures being created over on our Patreon account! There’s also a couple of reference videos that are free to download over there, too!

Speaking of Grotesque Moi!, there’s a couple of new things on the horizon! I’m looking into possibly doing stickers and coloring books. This means there will be a new set of flat color pieces done for these projects.

For XT Illos there will be some new tutorials and processing for some of the projects I’m working on there. The instructional videos will be made available to purchase by download. There’s quite a few projects that I have to choose from!

As for everyone who has been with me from the beginning I have a surprise for you coming up soon over on Patreon! Also, for any who is fairly recent, there will be something for you in the works too on Patreon!

I hope everyone will have a great and prosperous 2020!🎊🎉🍾🥳😁

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Updates #1

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I thought that I would share some updates with you! I’ve been more quite lately and I can finally tell everyone what I’ve been up to. Most importantly for the last few weeks I’ve been designing and hand crafting anniversary cards for my wife and daughter. (Yes! Our daughter has participated in every anniversary since she was born!) photos and videos of the cards to follow in a different post.

Grotesque Moi!

  • Illustration number seven is still in process. I plan to continue it to completion. There are another six illustrations lined up to make the first set of thirteen.
    • I had to rework parts of the background and struggled a bit with the main figure.
    • It’s still on the schedule for completion.
  • Commissions are still open for Fantasy Creature/Monster Portraits!
  • Future Plans:
    • A calendar of the first thirteen creatures is to be designed and offered either in the XT Illos Store or through an on demand print site.
    • Three more waves of thirteen creatures to be created.
    • A new calendar is to be created at the end of each set of thirteen creatures.
    • Eventually there will be four calendar options.
    • Fifty two creatures to be combined in a card set to be offered on a crowd funding site.

XT Illos

  • Grotesque Moi! to continue production.
  • Ba’anta world building development to pick back up.
    • Some of the creatures developed in the Grotesque Moi! project will be representative of the races in Ba’anta.
  • Visual novel with Creative Idiot E to begin development.
  • Patreon promotions to be ramped up.
    • Exclusive content from Grotesque Moi! is already available.
    • Free original content reference videos are already available.
  • Art Markets/Cons Vending results year one.
    • Art markets have had very little flow of people attuned to my style of work and no revenue for my illustrations.
    • Cons have had a good flow of people interested in my work and the revenue was barely better than the art markets.
    • Increase con vending over the next year and try bigger cons.
  • Overall production to slow down.
    • Revenue is currently to low to support projects.
    • Part time schedule to resume to allow hours for non-art work.
    • look for more art revenue options for current XT Illos lines.
  • Test other optional lines.
    • Special occasion cards test market.
    • Offer special occasion cards in XT Illos Store.
    • Grotesque Moi! stickers test.
  • Video Production
    • Twenty minutes or less videos to start production on this site and Patreon.
      • Process Videos
      • DemoVideos
      • Promotional Videos
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Site Update! #1

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Hi everyone!

I wanted to give you an update on things. First of all I have been busy putting things together to show my work in artist’s markets and planning to do some small (and possibly some large) conventions through this year and next! My daughter has joined me with her work this year and we’ve been showing together! I’m really enjoying having her share something that is so much a part of me! I’m looking forward to having her with me next year, as well! I’ve got my blog page back on my site and added Mailchimp for email signups and campaign notifications for everyone That’s signed up,

To set up for the artist’s markets and cons I’ve been making our:

  • Table runners
  • Banners
  • Signage
  • Adding mounts to table cloths/ banners/table runners/backdrop
  • Creating banner extensions for the back drop
  • Making the backdrop’s length adjustable for height restrictions
  • Making the backdrop banner’s length adjustable for width restrictions
  • Designs token coins to use at shows
  • Creating picture frames for the first three Grotesque Moi! illustrations (still working on this one, maybe 1/3 of the way there)
  • Designing a couple of table displays for prints
  • (Here’s some pix of our artist’s market setup!)

    • I will post more about the things I’ve been working on individually in future posts.

    I hope you’ve had a great summer and are ready for the holidays!

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    What’s Been Happening? 

    Hi everybody!

    I thought I would ask you what’s happening in your world. Aside from the recent holidays, what events are influencing you? Is there great positive things going on? Maybe it’s not so positive. It’s ok, you’re welcome to share that, too. 

    Many of my friends are gearing up for this year’s convention circuit. Either submitting work, getting notifications of their submissions or preparing for an upcoming convention. 

    Some of my friends are dealing with tough life events. Physical or emotional pain has entered their lives. Stress in dealing with these situations, trying to erode their peace of mind. 

    For myself, it’s a mixed bag. For the negative side, problems from a old injury have come back on me. Sometimes there’s pain for days, even weeks. My real world paying job is affected because of this. I’m stressing over where my future is going. What about my family? How will I continue to be able to support them? Will I return to having constant pain? How much this is triggering my blood pressure and depression. A lot of heavy things.

    On the positive side I’ve celebrated 20 years of happily married life with my wife! Both her and our daughter are my whole world! I’ll be turning 54 soon. I’m reworking a piece of fantasy art that was started as a pencil sketch in ’96. I’ve posted progress photos of it before here, “Relative Perspective”. I’ll post updates of it later.

    Here are some photos from before: 

    I hope all is well with you and your world is great! If it’s not, I hope you find a way to get peace and balance. May the right side always win.

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    Re: xtillos On Etsy

    Just to let everyone know, in case you missed the previous Etsy post. I have some of my color and pen & ink work available as digital prints On Etsy. here’s the link https://www.etsy.com/shop/xtillos. Prints are going for $15.00 each. I will add new prints as they come available. As always, thanks for your support!

    Approach things creatively!