finished art!

well, here i am again... so remember a couple posts ago how i was talking about how i thought i could paint with an airbrush with the rest of em? yeah, my chance came and went... you decide how well it came off...

some backstory: my buddy, dave, is a goalie. freakin' ninja goalie. anyways, he got bored with the stock "devil/demon" thing on his helmet, and we started talking about how to improve it. his family developed a board game called "Swashbuckled!" that is way fun to play. their main logo, or mascot, if you will, is a skull with a hat and crossed old school flintlock pistols... (blunderbusses? blunderbussi? i dunno, i just wanted to use the word) we decided that it'd look pretty sweet on a helmet, with dave looking mean out the mouth of the skull. so... we started. brought his helmet to work, put the image on a projector, covered the helmet in masking tape, and then traced skullito the pirate (my name, not his). over a couple nights, he came down to the house, and we painted, while the wives played (chick flicks, and homework, i believe, were the order of the weekend)

my camera is a little wonky sometimes, so that's the reason this took so long, but after fighting with it for a while, and a little "windows picture gallery - auto-adjust magic"... here they are!

here i am getting ready to paint... turns out this was entirely unnecessary, as there wasn't much overspray (in my direction) and it got hot way too fast...

the weapon, and first victim - the rear headguard for a goalie helmet... (is that the right word? who knows...)

work in progress, i believe this is after the first coat of blue.

here, prepping to paint the brown of the pistols...

after the brown was painted, this is what it looked like, pretty much.

another mid-shot, it was getting dark, and garage light isn't what i really needed it to be with my flash not working. this shot is what it started to look like after we painted the gold parts of the gun.

here's the finished product, in its home environment. before we called it done, i highlighted the edges of the skull with some brown to age it a little, and left the hat the original black of the helmet. dave went in and finished up the details on the skull and guns by hand. he then used a rattle can shellac-type stuff to try to protect the paint job...

i think it turned out pretty good for a first attempt! now it's just time for practice, practice, practice! what can i paint next... i do have a nice shiny portable hard drive that is just begging to have something awesome on it... the best part is, if i don't like it, i can just paint over it!

high school people watching

so once upon a time, i sat here and had a thought. i wondered how things would have been different had i grown up in a town larger than where i did.

but let me rewind and 'splain to you how i got to this thought location. over labor day weekend, the town where i live now had a big (for them) festival. it's a yearly thing, always on labor day weekend, and entertaining to attend. if not just for the tasty fried food (scones, anyone?), or the rides that are overly expensive unless you go on "family night" (then they are only a dollar apiece) (and seem to get me sick faster every year...), then go just for the opportunities to people watch. because i tell you what, that is an entertaining pasttime.

obviously, family night is the best time for rides and people watching. that is also the time when all of the high school kids are there to try to be seen, hang with friends, and generally cause crowds. these herds of adolescents are what started this whole post, by wondering what it would have been like to go to a larger high school, have large(r) quantities of friends living nearby, and being allowed to visit festivals and such with them through high school. the time when responsibilities were fewer, and the hardest thing to worry about was the next test.

call me strange, but i truly do wonder. (too many "what if...?" comics, mayhaps?

as an aside, the helmet mentioned in the last post? it is currently being prepped for painting, and we are planning on attacking it in the next couple weeks. (gotta be done quick, i think the hockey season starts after the 21st)

art?

so, it's a fault of mine, where i watch something on television and think,

"i'm an engineer, i totally could do that! and just as good!"

i think you can see where this is going...

my awesome, multi-talented wife, the super imaginative cake decorator, found last summer (with my help) that the spray colors that can be purchased for cake decorating don't do quite the job we were hoping for. so, when the opportunity came up shortly thereafter to purchase an airbrush and compressor for way cheap (50% off!), we jumped at it. it was purchased "for cakes" but my engineer brain started thinking about all of the extra money making opportunities i would have... yeah. the airbrush sat in the box for almost 6 months before i even got it out... i have this problem of not wanting to screw something up once i have it (plastic car models, using stickers, etc.). i have a good friend who has now approached me to help him out. he is a goalie, and wants to repaint his helmet. currently, the helmet is black with "stock" stickers of a devil of some sort on it. we spent about an hour tonight discussing the new look. a pretty sweet skull and crossbones variation that his family designed for a board game, with either waves or a plain dark blue background. along with that, he is wanting a few other cool touches on it. i'm definitely nervous, but a little more relaxed about the whole thing, as it's not MY helmet we're working on. but if this works, i may paint my own helmet. i've got a duct tape decepticon logo on it currently. i'm not sure how i could improve on that.

pictures will follow. i promise!

musings...

just some thoughts...

• will someone PLEASE explain to me what it is about watching people play poker on television that is so darned interesting?
• why did american gladiators ever go off the air?
• there was once a time when cartoons were awesome. what happened? about the only current ones that are "for kids" that are any good are Phineas and Ferb, the Spectacular Spider-Man, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. (all highly recommended, BTW!)
• cheese. tasty, tasty cheese.
• speaking of food... "organic" fruits and vegetables? really?maybe i'm wrong here, but aren't ALL fruits and vegetables sold in the produce section organic? i like my dad's approach - "excuse me, could you direct me to the inorganic lettuce?"
• one of the most fun things in the world to do? cats with laser pointers. on linoleum.
• if there is any advice i could give myself when i was a kid, it would be to enjoy being a kid, read plenty, spend time with your family, and learn to study, stupid!
• when i come up with ideas to write about, i really should write them down, or just write.
• monkeys.

wow. where did all that come from?

first!

well, here i am, interwebs! i like to think i have something deep to offer, but knowing the way these things work, probably not.

so, is the proper way to start these things with a rant? if so, here goes.

why is it that people can't be more considerate when they drive? i swear, around here, many drivers have a switch in their brain that, when the ignition key is turned, their common sense just turns off. driving my wife to work this evening, some guy in an SUV (denali) decides to turn right, in front of me. there was about a civic length between me and the vehicle in front of me. needless to say, i was annoyed, so i laid on the horn. (i'm learning from my wife. she readily encourages horn usage to broadcast displeasure with other drivers.) the DIAD (dummy in a denali) decides to brakecheck. now, i hadn't backed off as much as i would have liked, as this was only about 100 feet from where he decided to insert himself into traffic. so, i had to slam on the brakes to avoid him. luckily, there were NO cars behind me, so all possible accidents were avoided.

oi. times like that, i wish for a red shell from mario kart. had to satisfy myself with some minor swear words and a little fist shaking. somehow, i don't think he cared.

sad.

but on a lighter note, welcome! and hopefully i can keep you entertained for many [insert plural increment of time] to come!