LVL +

I haven't gotten to my dad's Munny in weeks. It's a very disappointing feeling, and frustrating too, to have a project literally at your fingertips but the free time with which to do said project is just ohhey! nonexistent.

In the mean time, I have devoted my time to making logos for a non-profit client (which they rejected, ugh...and after all that work! oh well), a typography class label project, and a t-shirt design for Kristen of Rhody Dreaming. I haven't finished the t-shirt, unfortunately that's gotten backburnered until I finish this typography thing (due tomorrow, of course).

I'll spare you all having to read about my adventures carrying a giant bit of matte board (3'x4' I kid you not) from Utrecht to Academic (about 1.5 miles) in the great gusting wind and rain (which was not as gusty but irritating nonetheless). I honestly felt like I was walking with a giant kite.

Instead, have a peek at the labels I just finished. They're fruit drinks for gamers as a healthy alternative to 5hr energy shots or whatever they are. The commercials are nasty and portray gamers as drooling shut-ins who never sleep (while this may hold true for some, it most certainly does not hold true for most) and it makes me angry. So here you go, 3 flavors:

God Mode Cherry
Bossfight Blueberry

Grindfest Grape

At some point you shall get to see them in their final form stuck to these neat little glass bottles that I found at Michael's. Until then, enjoy the juicy fruits, haha.

Secret project update

So! That project I hinted at recently, that I'm making my dad for his birthday (which was yesterday, oops) is taking a lot longer than I thought it would. I had a definite setback after the Munny Night with Maria (Museum Musings). The clay I purchased, that was advertised as "dry hard, no bake" clay, was a dud. It worked well with Maria's Howl Munny, as his entire coat was made from it and stayed in one piece. It did separate from the Munny's back, but I see this as a plus as it is much easier to paint this way. My Munny, however, did not fare so well. It was supposed to be a miniature of my father when he was a bit younger, with his hair blowing in the wind as he drove his Avanti (we will get to that). This clay I used (called Laguna), well, it shrank. As it dried, it lost moisture, and naturally shrank. Not so bad at first, when his hairline crept back a few inches.

"Well," I thought, "that's closer to his actual hairline anyway." When his face sculpting fell off completely and I could remove his hair as a single, helmet-type creation, well, that was a problem. Glue could fix it, maybe. And then the hair just broke apart. Huh. Perhaps not so fixable after all. After cursing and howling and whining about it for a few days to those who knew of the project, I pulled it together and trekked back to the craft store, bought some Super Sculpey (for the Munny) and some Delight (for the car), and called it a night.

What my project is actually trying to accomplish is quite simple. I am modifying a model car to look like a Studebaker Avanti (which you can see at the bottom of this post). In this model car I am going to place a replica of my dad. The car model I decided to customize is a 1965 Mustang. The body style is quite close, and with a small bit of front-end modification I can easily replicate the nose of an Avanti. I also cut off most of the roof to make the model a convertible; the Munny is pretty big in comparison to the car itself. It's been a long time since I actually put together a car model (I did it a lot as a kid, I loved that sort of thing), but it was fun getting reacquainted with an old hobby. So much so that I might actually make another car later on.

The car is about 99% assembled, and about 85% complete. I have only to attach the tires and front bumper at this point for assembly to be complete. I still have to sand down the mods to the nose and paint this bugger, though. For that I have acquired a metallic flaked sparkly bright limey kind of green modeling spray paint for the body, and I picked up cream and orange oil-based modeling paints for the interior detailing. That part will be fun, I love the crazy color scheme and dad and I are always joking about painting our cars obnoxious colors like that to begin with.

The car is much closer to being done than the Munny is; presently I still have to sand the Sculpey (it's been baked already), cut off the lower half to seat him in the car, and paint the bugger. Looootta work left. With the hectic trimester I have approaching I have no idea when this will get finished. Dad doesn't mind waiting (not that he knows what I'm doing) til it's done, so that's okay, I guess, but I still want to finish it soon.

We'll see! In the meantime, take a peek at the finished (re)sculpt and the mods to the front of the car. Rough, but pretty okay, I think!

New Term, New Expectations

The new trimester has started, and (for me at least) it is the last trimester. Finally! I'm pretty sure I'm going to drop Personality Psychology, mostly because I don't need it and if this tri is going to involve as much work as I think it is, then this class is only going to get in the way of progress.

I don't have much else to update, except perhaps that progress on my dad's present has pretty much come to a standstill with the start of classes. Since his birthday is this sunday, I'm going to have to give him an I.O.U. Crud. In the interim, enjoy these t-shirts I had to design as homework using only type. If I could remember where the templates came from, I'd tell you.

Huzzah

I love that word, Huzzah! It makes me feel as though I'm in the middle of a Renaissance faire. No artwork to update once again, but I'm making progress with the my plans for my second customized Munny. My best friend (Maria of Museum Musings) and I are getting together tomorrow afternoon to start a customizing marathon of sorts. This will be her first Munny and she's as excited as I am.

On a random scholarly note, finals are over and I am trying to enjoy my week off between the trimesters. So far, it's okay. Aside from a bit of a snow-shoveling debacle at D's house on Monday it's been a decent vacation. Grades are in too, and I scored awesome. 2 A+s, 3 As, and a S for Satisfactory (typically identified as a pass/fail class at most universities) as that was only a 1 credit course. I was terrified that trying to balance 6 classes, a part time job, 2 club memberships and a social life was going to end horrifically. I got very, very lucky. Didn't sleep much though! But that's to be expected.

So far getting my life in order is going okay, too. I've been able to put some money away in the bank and still make decent payments to some of my bills. It helps that I've been working more hours. I've also been reading the book I bought about freelancing in depth; it's definitely going to be a great resource for any future business endeavours I make. It's already pointed out a few things I never thought about and I've only just begun the 4th chapter. An excellent investment, that.

I know none of you are interested (ha who am I talking to no one reads this) in what I personally am doing, so I'll leave you with a teaser involving my latest custom undertaking. It involves one of these: