What a gift to get to be part of a celebration of one of my favorite storytelling podcasts! Hosts Alex Simmons and Chris Ryan were generous enough to invite to sit in for their roundtable celebration of their milestone, taking questions from them and from listeners. Together we talked about identifying ideas with juice in them, navigating expectations placed upon us by the culture, and taking care of ourselves as creative people. You can watch the video above or subscribe to the podcast here!
It took me a few months to get to it, but I finally painted the Doctor Baer piece I started in October.
This was another experiment painting in Procreate. I purchased Nathan Brown’s Procreate Brushes, which I feel do a pretty good job of replicating natural media. But I still haven’t quite found a procedure that feels as comfortable to me as coloring in Clip Studio Paint. There are a few assumptions Procreate makes that CSP doesn’t, which slows me down when painting.
I could be wrong, but it feels to me like Procreate assumes you’re going to work with multiple layers to manage your flat colors. In other words, the house wall flats would be on one layer, the shutters/window sashes on another, the ghosts on another, trees on another, and so on. For the past decade or more I’ve worked with my flats on one layer, with a painting layer above. In CSP I could set the Magic Wand tool to select all instances of a certain color on the layer, then go to the painting layer and get to work. I haven’t found a way to select all of one color on a layer in Procreate unless it’s the only color on a layer. This meant I had to select each little piece of the house walls one by one in order to select the whole thing and give it a wash of color. That added a lot of time and got frustrating really fast.
Another Procreate assumption: You want the brush tool active immediately after using the Selection tool, and you don’t want to edit selections after they’re made. There were a number of times where I’d realize I hadn’t selected every piece of an element, and when I’d undo it would keep the painting mode active while undoing the selections I made. In other words, I could undo my selections, but I couldn’t edit my selections once I went into painting mode. and when I’d undo the selections altogether the tool would default to the paint brush. In CSP the selection tool would remain the active tool until I switched to the brush. I made more than a few unwanted paint strokes on the canvas, assuming I still had the selection tool active. Then I’d have to undo the paint stroke, tap the selection tool, and start again. Which added more time and frustration.
It’s clear to me that Procreate has a very different approach to solving a digital artist’s problems, and I need more practice to internalize the app’s assumptions. I think I saw some quick mask tutorials on Procreate, and I wonder if learning that could help with my flats frustrations. Or I just change my approach altogether and flat on multiple layers!
When I was a teen my art teachers and guidance counselors recommended I didn’t go to art school. Those schools were for people who make real art, like painting, sculpture, fiber arts, etc. I wanted to be a comics artist, which they told me was commercial art (and it was probably my own lack of self-esteem, but I always received their tone as condescending).
For years I wore the commercial art label with a sort of transgressive or subversive pride. I was always ready to correct people if they told me I was a good artist. I’m a capable illustrator or cartoonist, but I don’t make art, I would tell them. If making art that everyone could enjoy is commercial, then I would lean into that. What I didn’t realize is that I was also swallowing an assumption that other arts were off limits to me. My wife Anne almost had to drag me to a watercolor class. That, too, was something I had internally decided was the purview of real artists, not commercial artists like me.
Funny how those early experiences and unexamined assumptions can affect the rest of your life! It turned out I loved working in watercolor, and it wound up informing the look of The Two-Faced Statue.
A lot changed in me internally after moving to Columbus. When I’ve had more time to reflect on it all I’ll share some of it here. But the gist is that I started to relax my grip on the identity as a cartoonist (or commercial artist). It started to become something provisional, not definitional. And with that relaxation came a growing comfort with allowing the word artist in my vocabulary.
So now I’m having a ball exploring ceramics. Playfully making objects as if I visited the world of Doctor Baer and brought something back home with me.
My first batch were these talismans:
I started with some 3D printed stamps based on the mystical alphabet I developed ages ago:
I stamped them into the clay, then put some more marks on the objects using an underglaze. I can’t wait to see how these turn out after firing.
Here’s the menu I designed for her Cafe, wherein you can find the logo on the mug:
And more test talismans:
Right now I have no expectations as to what these objects will become. Products for a store? Things to display on my table during signings/events? Gifts to give to my relatives? They might be simply objects for me to enjoy. It’s not important to me right now. What is important is that, for the first time in a long time, I’m letting myself play with art again. No expectation or purpose, like I did when I was a kid. And it’s been a lovely experience.
A bit of a break from the norm; before the new characters start showing up, we’re taking a minute to discuss the many Autobots we already know, as well as their little squishy friends. Don’t worry, I edited out the 2 hours Jerzy spent crying and muttering “How is Chip so good??”
And yep, that means next time we’re covering the Decepticons. Episode coverage will resume after that with “A Prime Problem”!
The second model, based on adaptations outlined in my last post, is printed! For review, the changes I wanted to make were:
Thicken the staff and the Wisps’ connections to it
Open Doctor Baer’s pose so it’s easier to sand/clean after printing
Be more careful with setting up print supports (little towers of material to support overhanging material during printing)
The first two items were pretty straightforward. I opened up the pose, which made it even more dynamic:
It almost looks like he’s dabbing, doesn’t it?
Here’s the thickened staff.
I’m fortunate to have some friends with a lot more experience than I regarding 3D printers, and one of them suggested I slice the models in half. This way I can set the printer to start from the flat edge and work its way up. This way I might not even need supports.
My first print at home with the Flashforge Adventurer 3 came out okay! I just had to glue the halves together, then glue the staff to Doctor Baer’s hand. Here’s an itty bitty first print:
Working on some larger prints to see what my options are regarding sanding/painting. What I’d really like to do is eventually print this in pieces to make a model that stands something like 17-24″ (43-69cm) to have at my table during book signings next fall!
More testing to come, and I’ve started working on models of supporting cast:
First off, please forgive the audio issues this episode, we were dealing with two separate audio problems teaming up!
So THE CORE is not a PRETTY episode, but is it a BAD one?? We found it’s NOT! You might just shut your eyes and listen to it. Chip Chase is BACK, and he’s got a PLAN! But so does MEGATRON! And Starscream has a SNIPER RIFLE and 6 Autobots in his sights!! Tune in and find out why we groaned at this episode as children but have a new appreciation for it as…. older children.
Song at 54:48-55:30 is “We’re In This Together” by Nine Inch Nails covered by Tara Rice. It’s fantastic!
Watch the episode before listening to our commentary:
While the first print test of a 3″ tall Doctor Baer figurine came out okay, it’s clear I need to make some adjustments to the design, and level up my slicing software skills.
Adjustments I’m making going forward:
The staff is too thin and the Wisps’ connection to the staff are too fragile. Orange and Violet snapped right off as I was removing the support scaffolding. I had to glue them back on.
The fragility of the staff also made it challenging to sand down the rough bits left by the supports. I nearly broke the staff trying to smooth it out. You can see little bits of filament hanging off of Violet in that rearview picture.
I need to be more patient with placing the supports, and I need to do some research on how to properly place them. There were a few bits on the print where filament dripped off into loose loops because they had no place to rest. I was able to trim most of them off, but it’d be nice to not have to.
I might even change the pose so it’s a little more open. Getting behind the staff to trim loose filament and sand rough edges was a pain.
Dr. Fujiyama (the famous scientist) has created a female ninja robot, which is definitely NOT an assassin, even though it has nunchucks, throwing stars, and sais! Definitely not!! Megatron MUST HAVE IT, and Starscream gets all kinds of jelly!! Good story, pretty good animation… it’s even got Rumble and Frenzy. All this, and Trailbreaker gets blasted across a huge auditorium!!
Watch the episode before listening to our commentary:
And a friend of mine, who has been helping me out a lot with this work, pointed me at Mixamo, an Adobe product that will automatically rig your model and let you download some basic animations:
After drawing this character for over 20 years, it is wild to see him moving around like this.
His staff is done, and I’ve started posing the rigged model:
Once he’s off to the 3D printer I’ll share the results!
Which got a friend of mine to point me at the iOS app Forger, an iPad version of Blender. Over the last few days I’ve been working on a model of the good Doctor.
Next I need to sculpt his staff, then I’m going to try posing him and making some figurines!
