I’m saddened today that my dad had to go to the hospital.  He got injured while he was serving at the local prison (he’s a chaplain), and so it’s been a bit stressful around here.  He seems to be doing well, but I really was drained after visiting him at the hospital.

The strange thing was that at the same time that he fell and hit his head, I developed a strong headache, and later on experienced dizziness.  A few of my friends say I’m really conscious of things around me, so I don’t know if that had something to do with it.  I hope he’s feeling better…he’s supposed to come home tomorrow.

In any sense, I’ll be taking a couple days off to re-coop my mind.  It takes a tole on your head.  The sculpture I was working on today…I don’t see myself finishing.  I’ll probably scrap it.

It’s always good for an artist to have fun, but it’s even more important for an artist to push the envelope.  For today I will be doing a really fun, fairly straight-forward sculpture that focuses more on details and balance.  

Tomorrow on the other hand will be about really testing myself.  I’m going to sculpt an upside-down character (it’s not a sloth, although I should do one of those!) and it’s going to involve a whole new method of sculpting!  It’s going to be a really difficult but really fun sculpt, I just know it.  It’s going to make you laugh as well.  

Practically speaking, I just love making people laugh and hearing them laugh right in front of me as I show them a picture is always priceless.  However, on occasions, I enjoy being serious.

I’ve been working on getting the data transfered to my new WD Studio hard drive as my computer has been running slowly.  It’s going to be a long process, but it will be worth it!  I can’t wait to have everything running quickly again.  

After supper, I’m going to start working on the next sculpture.  Definitely going to be funny, sexy, and very Jon-Lopez, haha.  By the end of the sculpt, you should recognize the character from Flushed Away.  A bit of fan art…

Oh, and I bought a new webcam as well.  Finally will be shooting 1080p time lapse!

Update: I’m saving the sculpting for tomorrow as I’m in a super analytical mood right now.  Found myself organizing all of the photos in my library, then creating a new Aperture library.  Sheesh, sounds like a lot cause it is a lot.  It’s been about two and a half hours worth of work.  Still, the biggest mistake an artist can do is to get disorganized and lose track of where all the artwork has gone…so easy in the digital age!

Over the past 26 days, I’ve enjoyed sculpting more and more, but felt less and less appreciated on the interwebs.  It’s a really discouraging feeling when you have 2,000 subscribers on all these different networks and literally only 10 people talk about it.

Read More

I have an incredibly good following of over 1,200 people on ClayAlchemist.com (clayalchemist.tumblr.com), and I am going to feature the finished works on that site.  This blog will be used for all the making of shots and thoughts while I go though the project.  

The way I figure it, Clay Alchemist is my branding and this is just a sub-project off of it.  Also, I know that there are a few people that follow both blogs, so I hope this fixes any problems with redundancy in the future.

My body needs a break from the computer.  I will not be posting on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook for the next week.  I’m actually going to put the computer into storage so that I am not bound to it all the time.  

My focus for the week is getting the animation going.  I have at least 20 seconds of script already plotted out exactly how I want it, and I’m going for it.  This will be my most difficul animation yet, but I’m sure that with the help of armatures and Instamorph my animation will be possible.  

FOCUS is the one thing I lack because the computer is merely a distraction.  All my work will be saved on SD cards until the end of the week, and which then I will import it.  Scary to some, I have always free-animated without the assistance of rotoscoping.  I enjoy the challenge of thinking out every last movement.

I’m happy to say that my hands are doing so much better!  I haven’t been so excited in a long time.  Three of my fingers don’t have fingerprints at all, but that can be seen as a plus in the sculpting business.

At the moment I am painting the walls in my room before it gets too cold to keep the window open.  Hopefully I will be done tomorrow or Friday with the painting.  This weekend, I would like to get sculpting again.

Have something you would like me to sculpt?

I’m feeling great after making some goals and getting things done.  

I found myself passing by Ace Hardware and making a quick stop; I’m so glad I did.  Found 200’ 12 gauge steel wire to make some armatures for my sculptures.  Then I got to thinking about how I could make some really, really impressive sculptures with this; after all, this is some seriously strong wire.  Sculptures on one foot, doing outrageous poses I could never do before.  

First, I have to modify my clay table or else make an expansion so I can have tie-downs and supports that come out of the ground, otherwise I’ll be drilling holes in my tabletop left and right.  I have plans to get more plasticine in bulk, but I’m going to try to figure out what is the cheapest way to do that.  Seriously think that buying in person is going to be the same as shipping if not cheaper.

For the past three weeks, I’ve been trying to make a functioning site off of Tumblr.  Perhaps it’s my lack of know-how, crappy luck, and dislike of websites over blogs — but it just didn’t work out.  I’ve got the money refunded and it’s coming in soon.

So what am I going to do with the money?  Seriously, thinking of investing it into some clay, a few new tools, and some odds and ends.  

So sorry for the few people that liked the blog off Tumblr.  Even without the Directory, this simply gives me more publicity than a standalone website.