Category: What’s Been Happening?

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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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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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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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    Grotesque Moi! Update #19

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    To catch everybody up, we’ve been getting things together to start doing indoor and outdoor events. We attended our first artist’s market a couple of weeks ago. This was at Argosy Market:

    Today we were able to show some of our work at The Bubble Hut. It’s on display until Friday afternoon! If you’re in the area please stop by and get a refreshing bubble tea, check out our display and maybe order som prints or your very own commission!

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    Grotesque Moi! #18 Update

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    Hi everyone! I stopping by to give you an update on Grotesque Moi!. I’ve been adjusting the first five illustrations (illos) so that they print more accurately. After having some standard prints and canvas prints ran I’ve had to make some adjustments to my computer and IPad so that the new creations should print right with minimal adjustments. Please enjoy the new and improved images!

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    Family

    I felt an update has been long overdue. I’ll start with this. It’s been a few weeks since my mom passed. Earlier that week I found out that my dad has cancer in his lungs and lymph nodes. Smoking cigars is what brought this on. He started his first of 3 rounds of chemo and radiation last week.They had been divorced for more years than they were married. My dad had remarried. My mom didn’t.

    I credit Edgar Rice Burroughs for instigating my desire to create fantasy art. Long before this my dad introduced me to his hero’s. The stories about Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Hop Along Cassidy, Lash LaRue and the Lone Ranger are his favorites. We would watch the reruns on tv. We would catch Star Trek, Superman, Batman, the Green Hornet, the 6 Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman. Favorite Saturday morning cartoons were Hercules, the Roadrunner, Speed Racer and Astro Boy. My brothers and I learned to love these great stories.

    I get creativity from both sides of my family but the stories of the fantastic come from my dad. His side also gives me musical abilities which my daughter gets to explore in college and maybe even a career. We get more than our last name from my dad. As I mentioned it an early post, he made us the first generation in our line to pell out name as Thaxton. Another interesting thing is how much he wanted me to go into the sign business. Funny thing is that illustrating is somewhat like designing signs. You help others visualize a concept in both.

    Thanks, Pops, opening this fantastic world for me,

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    A Great Loss

    I’ve had a lot going on, lately. With work and my art, its been tough to squeeze out time to create. My daughter and I began our yearly adventure at Dragon Con.

    Friday night after I got off work we went to pick up our badges with a close friend of hers. After getting the badges we decided for them to checkout a K-Pop event. My phone has been giving me problems lately. The map wouldn’t function and I was getting calls that either wouldn’t open, wouldn’t connect, drop calls or failed messages.

    When I got a better signal my wife was able to get a message through. Someone was knocking at our door at home but it was late and she didn’t want to answer while she was by herself. Shortly after another couple of messages came through.

    The last one was telling me that my Mom had died. We left immediately.It was so hard to keep it together all the way back home. I waited to tell my wife and daughter until we were home together.

    It was very difficult to keep everything together. We were able to get to her house and see her before they took her. Her health hasn’t been good but this was a shock for us all.

    The thing is we were going to visit on Monday to talk to her about my father recently developing lung cancer. This has been the hardest week of my life.

    This is one of Ma’s proudest moments. In 1983, when I graduated high school, Ma also graduated with her GED.

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    Latest Updates 1

    I thought I would update you guys on my current status on my projects. Before that I wanted to ask a question of you:

    When you don’t have your materials redily available, what do you do about creating?

    My position on this will be explained within this post.

    Here I am working on a very long term project, “Relative Perspective”. (I plan to share the whole journey once it is finally finished.) I’m having breakthrough after breakthrough and making good progress, for this project. I find myself delayed, again. It’s not from any issues with the work.

    As I have mentioned before, having a portable art tool has been a liberating benefit. My daughter is enjoying the benefits with her school work. Because she has assignments due, the tablet is spending time with her this weekend, again.

    Luckily I have traditional work to continue. I was able to get some sketching done last night. I plan to bring that journal with me out today so that I’m making progress. As much as I hate multitasking and it’s horrible side effect, symptoms of procrastination, at least one of the projects waiting in the cue gets attention, today.

    I’ll have to remember my mindset when I can resume “Relative Perspective”. I hope my daughter does great! I’ll keep plugging away on the other work.