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Saturday, December 10, 2011

ABOMINATION! (More Grotesque progress)

This Flesh Friday is a little late, but here it is nonetheless. From here on out my sporadic updates may get all the more sporadic as I'll be undertaking a big ol move from the UK back to Canada next week, and I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to get back into a consistent modeling groove.

Some modest progress to report on the Grotesques. They've all got beefy necks now with Talos masks attached, and all of them who were waiting for spines to be sculpted onto their upper backs now have them. I've also started on some armour plates for a second grotesque:


Monday, November 28, 2011

BREAKING NEWS! A message from the Moloch

Today is Hive Fleet Hydra's birthday, and Moloch, that most mysterious of modeling geniuses, has seen fit to bless the Hydra with a message. What's more, he makes a comment on the status of HiveFleetMoloch.com, which has been down for a time.



Unfortunately, this may be all for me this week as I'm heading out to Edinburgh for a week, and I haven't had a chance to put a post about my progress on the Coven in the can. That means no Flesh Friday, but I guess it wouldn't be Flesh Friday if I didn't miss it!

If anyone is keeping up with this, and you're feeling bored, feel free to pop over to Warpshadow in my absence and contribute some ideas to my Raider Problem, that would be glorious.

Friday, November 25, 2011

A little update on the Monsters

For this week, I've got a little more progress to report on both the Wracks and the Grotesques.

For the Wracks, I've now got all nine of the masks I'm sculpting formed (the squad leader will receive the honour of one of those bad-ass Reaver helmets), and I created another plasticard blade weapon, inspired by one of the weapons that come with the Talos. Next step, I'll likely start on the squad leader as I've got some dastardly plans for him, including one to big him up with some spacers so he towers over his hunched brethren.

Friday, November 18, 2011

A Recipe for Wracks

As you may have noticed, I've been posting stuff about pain counters and Grotesques and Raiders for the coven, but one of the main staples of a Coven force--the Wrack--has been conspicuous in its absence. However, that's not for lack of ideas. When Bob-o and I were sitting around brainstorming ideas for how to create things like Grotesques and Wracks before GW released their Finecast versions, I took a trawl through all of the plastic kits GW made with my thinking cap on, and I came up with a magical formula for Wracks:

Flagellant Legs
+Bloodletter torso, back spine, and 1 horn; 1 Savage Orc Bow:


Friday, November 04, 2011

A Strong Case of the 'Roids


I'm about to duck out the door to Paris for the Norn Queen's birthday (WOOT!), but before I do, I thought I'd put this update into the can for Flesh Friday (yeah, it's a new thing I'm trying to stay on target). I've only had one day to work on on the Coven since I started in on the pain counters, so I thought I'd use it to return to some shambling constructs who hadn't seen any love in a long while: the Grotesques!

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

It's a Small World After All...

Everyone needs a random side project to use extra bits of greenstuff/Apoxie Sculpt on when they get tired of sculpting frankesteinian horrors. This is something I've been meaning to attempt for quite some time. Here's a peak:

Friday, October 28, 2011

Power from Pain: Coven Pain Counters


I've been rolling around ideas for pain counters for the coven for some time. One of the things I love most about the Haemonculus covens is the way that they seem to twist and sculpt bone and spines. I started thinking about how this sculpting must be driven by pain, so what better way to represent pain counters than with a victim who is being sculpted into some kind of grisly trophy by the pain that a squad is collecting?

Hideous? Certainly! And, for that reason, perfect for the Coven >:)

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Art of the V&A: Miniatures & Inspiration

Japanese Miniatures VnA_3089
While in London earlier this week, we stopped by the Victoria & Albert Museum near Knightsbridge in London. I'd never been on my previous trips to London, and I'd really been missing out. If anyone is located anywhere near London, I'd recommend heading down soon to check out the very inspiring Power of Making exhibit (pictured above) that is on for a limited time.

Power of Making from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.

It's a random collection of fantastic creations by modern artists (from miniature sculptures carved into the lead of pencils to giant, wooden exosuits designed so Steven Hawking could fight crime), and though the exhibition is small, it has an inspiring focus on the act/process of creation, rather than on the finished products themselves. I spent like 40 minutes in the small gallery and came out with a burning urge to MAKE SOMETHING.

While at the V&A, I also stumbled across some mind-numbingly intricate Japanese carvings that I thought bore sharing with folks who appreciate tiny little things. Here's hoping they can provide someone with some inspiration!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Games Day UK 2011

This year I wound up in the UK, within striking distance of Games Day UK, and Games Workshop saw fit to hold the event on my birthday no less! Here's my impressions an photos, only a month late.
The event was a zoo. We had to fight our ways into the Golden Demon cabinets, and once we'd fought our way through those, I wound up feeling a little lost.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Back to the Coven: A Haemonculus Raider

Well, it's been a BLOODY long time since I posted anything here, and my only explanation/excuse for it was moving between three countries in under a two month span (Japan -> Canada -> England).  Now that I've finally settled here in the UK for the next couple of months, I've been using my free time to get back to work on the Coven.

And I jumped right in with one of my whackier ideas: creating a Haemonculus Coven Raider by crossing it with a Talos. I came up with two separate concepts, and I feel like this is the more normal of the two (I can't wait to get to the second concept as it's a little more grizzly). Here's another time lapse video showing some of my progress on the raider:



Though my first concept for the Coven raider was a Talos fused to the front of a Raider, as if it were driving it or towing it, I wanted to give the thing a slightly different profile than just a Raider+Talos.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A Return to the Realm of the Creative

I should definitely start with an apology to anyone who has taken the time to check this blog since June. As I wrapped up my teaching job in Japan and prepared to move back to Canada in August, then onto the UK in September, my model-related projects kind of fell by the wayside, and so did this blog. That being said, I'm now firmly set up here in the UK, I've dusted off the models and made myself a "Man Cave," so it's about bloody time I started cranking out some more content for the old bloggerino. Here's hoping there are still some folks around who'd like to read it ;)

So, though I have been away, I haven't been idle. My creation tends to follow tracks, and as I wrapped up my sojurn in Japan, cameras broke and new ones were bought and, eventually, photography moved to the forefront as modelling was placed on the back burner.

So, though this might not be, strictly speaking, of interest to the modelling/40k crowd, I've filled my summer with stuff like this:
Spider Webs
Bs
Hanging with the Gordons
For Jack
Applewood

...and this:


...and, as I made some of my first forays into videography/editing, they yielded stuff like this:


...and one of the things I'm probably most proud of ever having created:

And that all has little and less to do with modelling and sculpting, but I dream of a time when I will be able to just sit around and make stuff all day long. When that happens, I hope that this can be the place where those creative forays come to rest.

Enough of that for now, though.

The blog will be back to models by Friday. Promise :)

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Art of Tom Box

The concept series is my schizophrenic attempt to shine light on the art that inspires me. I always do some of my best work when working from concept sketches. I find the hard lines and white space conducive to creation as they give you just enough definition to get you going, while still leaving space to do your own thing. Here's hoping you find these sketches as helpful and inspiring as I do.
Though I'll be showing off some Tyranid sketches by Tom Box (aka: Bocks on the Warpshadow boards), I feel a bit wrong calling this lone, meagre post "The Art of Tom Box." You see, I actually know Tom marginally better than some of the other members on the forums, and, were it not for an unexpected attack of MySpineIsTryingToMurderMe-itis (it's a technical term: look it up), I actually would have met the guy back at Games Day Toronto 2009, when Moloch and Hydra came out for the event/the Tryan board. And, from what I've come to know about Tom, I can tell you that if we were to try and encapsulate his Art into one post, we would be needing a far bigger...well--for lack of a less corny word--box.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Spinal - A Grotesque Update--NOW in 3-D!

Okay, so maybe that 3D bit's a lie, but it is the case that I felt bad for not updating the Grotesque project on Friday, as I had been doing for the last two weeks, so I decided to use a new toy that just came in the mail to create a time-lapse-style video of me at work. It's the first time I've ever done anything like this, and the angle is a bit pants, but I thought folks might find it fun.
Featuring the sounds of fine, fine Canadian group MSTRKRFT. If you like the music, look them up. You won't regret it. Back to the video, though: I think that, should I do this again, I'll probably learn a lot from this initial outing.

So anyway, yeah: I got some more work done on the Grotesques this week, but not as much as I was hoping. Lesson? Don't predict that a week is going to be great for working until after it already has been!

Here are some pictures of the team in their current state:


Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Art of Jutami: Continued

This guy just doesn't let up. In the last week Jutami has returned with a whole pile of Tyranid sketches. As I'd featured his work just last week, I thought I should just continue on with a good thing.

If you're interested, Jutami has started a concept/art thread on Warpshadow, which he may start updating regularly. Here are a selection of my favourites from his thread. As I amended to last week's post, the best way to get in contact with Jutami is through his Deviant Art account.

Thursday, June 09, 2011

Grotesques from Bioterrors: Progress Report

This past week has been a pretty busy one (weekends included), so I've made only modest progress on roughing out the poses and starting the most rudimentary of repositionings on the first unit of Dark Eldar Grotesques from the Paulson Bio Terror models. Though they're not much more to look at, the work has given me a really strong idea for the role of each member of the unit.

Though there hasn't been that much progress, I think that repositioning the various Grotesques is essential as the fact that they all came from the same model will really start to show if I left the Bio Terrors as is.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

The Art of Jutami

The concept series is my schizophrenic attempt to shine light on the art that inspires me. I always do some of my best work when working from concept sketches. I find the hard lines and white space conducive to creation as they give you just enough definition to get you going, while still leaving space to do your own thing. Here's hoping you find these sketches as helpful and inspiring as I do.

The next installment in the Concept Series comes from another fairly recent addition to the Warpshadow forums: Jutami. He gained people's attention with his big beastie conversions--particularly his very heavily armoured Swarmlord. He also caused a fair few eyes to bug out when he revealed his clean, masterfully-applied, nearly luminous paint scheme. And, most recently, he rose to the task when forum admin Hive Node asked for artist on the board to contribute their pen-and-pencil renderings of Tyranids for the inspiration of other bugs on the board.

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Paulson Bio Terror Review and Grotesques

Something exciting arrived in the mail on Thursday:

...apparently shipped at the SPEED OF LIGHT from the 'States as it made it here to Japan in just under a week. It's my first order from Paulson Games, and with service like that, I'm sure to be a repeat customer!

Here are the contents, still all mysteriously and protectively packaged:


And here's what they yielded:

That's right, baby! Time to unleash some Paulson Games' brand Bio Terror on the world. I've thought that this model would make THE PERFECT basis for Dark Eldar Grotesques since the instant I laid eyes on it. As the Finecast release approached, I awaited pictures of the GW Grotesques with equal parts excitement and trepidation: excitement because they're concept art was so fantastic, and trepidation because I really wanted an excuse to mess around with some Bio Terrors, and if GW put out nice Grotesques, I'd have little reason to (aside from price, that is--YIKES!).

Then this was released...

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Art of Callum MacDougall (Iron Nid)

The concept series is my schizophrenic attempt to shine light on the art that inspires me. I always do some of my best work when working from concept sketches. I find the hard lines and white space conducive to creation as they give you just enough definition to get you going, while still leaving space to do your own thing. Here's hoping you find these sketches as helpful and inspiring as I do.
Callum MacDougall's (Iron Nid) concept for a Swarmlord. Sure, it's just a head, but I think it does a great job of marrying the current Tyrant design with the Aliens-rip-off-Queen head of the 3rd Edition Tyrant model.

I think that the aspect I love most about the Tyranid community that has sprung up around Warpshadow.com over the years is the artistic bent of the majority of our members. Sure, there are Tyranid tactical geniuses around, but I focus the majority of my attention on the Modeling and Painting section of the forums. That focus has meant that I've stumbled across some pretty awesome, innovative Tyranid designs over the years. And, now that we've got the "big guns" like Goodwin and Cirillo and Vermis out of the way, I figured it was about time for the Concept Series to focus on some up-and-coming artists.

Iron Nid's Doom of Malantai concept sketch. An important aspect of it was his idea that the Doom would move by slithering through the air, held aloft by its massive psyker abilities.

This week, I'm posting up a few sketches by Callum MacDougall, who goes by the handle "Iron Nid" on the Warpshadow forums.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Art of Robert Cirillo

The concept series is my schizophrenic attempt to shine light on the art that inspires me. I always do some of my best work when working from concept sketches. I find the hard lines and white space conducive to creation as they give you just enough definition to get you going, while still leaving space to do your own thing. Here's hoping you find these sketches as helpful and inspiring as I do.
For this week's installment of the Concept Series, we go with an obvious choice: Roberto Cirillo. This talented artist was contracted by Games Workshop to churn out a pile of concept sketches for the 4th Edition Tyranid release, and in an unprecedented move, the company posted a gallery of what must have been every sketch Cirillo did. In the interest of making sure that Gallery of Tyranid Win isn't lost to Tyranid Hobbyists, I'm reposting it here.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The Art of Warren Beattie

The concept series is my schizophrenic attempt to shine light on the art that inspires me. I always do some of my best work when working from concept sketches. I find the hard lines and white space conducive to creation as they give you just enough definition to get you going, while still leaving space to do your own thing. Here's hoping you find these sketches as helpful and inspiring as I do.
This is the second installment in the Concept Series: a recurring feature here meant to showcase the concept sketches of both professional and amateur Tyranid artists. When it comes to converting and creating new Tyranid organisms, I have yet to find a better source of inspiration than the concept sketch. The goal of this series is to make sure this work is visible, allowing converters and kitbashers to get new ideas for diversifying their swarms.

We started the series off with an artist as professional as they come: Mr. Jes Goodwin--a man who has been defining the Tyranid aesthetic since Andy Chambers was called The Great Devourer. This week, we switch tracks to an amateur artist (in that he is not employed by GW), and as the series progresses, it will feature many more amateur artists. However, the decision to start with Warren Beattie was a conscious one as he was the first to ever pop up on my radar, and he may be one of the finest amateur, 40k-related artists I have ever run into.

"Warren Beattie" is probably a name you've never heard, and it's only marginally more likely that you've heard the forum handle "Vermis." It's more likely that you may have run across this sketch somewhere along the way:


Or, perhaps, this version that he coloured up for Hive Fleet Moloch:

Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Screamer Killer rides again

To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.



The classic Jes Goodwin pewter Carnifex/Screamer Killer has always inspired me. When they look at it these days, most people see an oddly constipated-looking beast intent on giving someone a big hug with those curvy arms of his. However, when I look at the thing, I see the model that first got me into Tyranids specifically, and Warhammer 40K in general, back in the mists of second edition. It also reminds me of the black-and-white sketch that greeted me when I first opened the Tyranid codex all those years ago:

From Plastic Screamer Killer

Though I love the pewter Screamer-Killer, and I still field them to this day (well, on the few occasions when I actually play), I’ve always felt that there was so much more potential in that sketch than the rudimentary casting processes GW used to use could ever truly capture.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Art of Jes Goodwin



This is meant to be the first instalment of a recurring series that will showcase particularly talented artists who have lent their pencils to the Tyranid cause. I've been a fanatic for concept sketches ever since I--then a child--watched my best friend's older brother come up with sketches for the characters he was running in AD&D/Rifts. When it comes to converting and creating new Tyranid organisms, I have yet to find a better source of inspiration than the concept sketch.

And, if I'm going to profile some artists who have produced good, inspirational Tyranid artwork, what better place to start than with the man who, pretty much, set in stone the idea of what a Tyranid should look like: Jes Goodwin.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Redux: Tyranid Dominatrix from a Hierodule

To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.
01 complete1

First up, I would be remiss if I didn't credit my Hobby Brother, Hydra, for being the first person ever to convert a Tyranid Dominatrix from a Forgeworld Hierodule. Go see his original work, though he wrote that article about 12 years after he created the original!

Having learned from the work I'd done on Ross'/Accommodator's original Dominatrix, and having improved a bit through practice over the time in between, I endeavoured to take ANOTHER stab at the idea of creating a modern Tyranid Dominatrix from a Forgeworld Hierodule model. The project was another one that was sponsored by Moloch, and, when all was said and done, it would be he who would put his brush to it. With this in mind, and having seen the fantastic treatments he'd given the Dactylis and Exocrine, I was well motivated to go above and beyond on this Dom.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

The Infestation of Casavant Prime

To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.

F.T. W.

With my budding work on Tyranid Scenery from scratch coming along, I was asked by some friends in Toronto to breathe some Tyranid life into their table build for Games Day Toronto 2008. These guys had been bringing original tables to Games Day for a couple of years, and the previous year their extensive trenchwork table had been beaten out by a PC speaker and a smoke machine. This year they were determined to bring the pain to their long-time table nemeses.

The meat and bones of the table were actually constructed by the original build team and took the form of a cityscape with a canal running down the center, and me, Accommodator, and our creative ilk were given free reign to add some flare to the cityscape by transforming it into one that was in the beginning stages of a full-blown Tyranid infestation. I jumped at the opportunity to have a focus for my until-now-largely-aimless Tyranid scenery building.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Dactylis - Project De-Sluggify 2.0

To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.

11 Dactylis_painted

Though I initially created the Exocrine for Moloch (hence his applying his brush/scheme to the beast), due to certain matters of sentimentality and friendship, he gifted the finished model back to me. However, we made the exchange with the understanding that I would create him an even better version of a Carnifex-sized gunbeast to make up for the lack of Exocrine. For our next tandem effort, I would move on to the next Tyranid beast from the old Epic line that I hoped to DeSluggify: The Dactylis.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Mycetic Spores

Canopy Carapace

One of the biggest chips out of my shoulder when it comes to Tyranid design is the way that the concept for Mycetic Spores/Tyranid Drop Pods has been mailed-in ever since it first came about with the Tyranid Seeding Swarm list back in White Dwarf and Chapter Approved 2004. Bitchy or not, I have never seen a model for a mycetic spore that I could love, and that's mostly because they all wind up looking like the same, bloated, rugby-ball-/coconut-inspired Tyranid fleshbags. Space Marines get these sexy, tapered drop pods that open up like flowers of death upon impact. Tyranids get exploding fleshbags.

Not. Cool.

It was with this niggling annoyance in mind that I set out to come up with an aerodynamic, lithe, distinctly Tyranid-looking design for a mycetic spore.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Tyranid Atmospheric Procressors

To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.


Awaiting Arms


These Tyranid terrain items were conceived 'round about the same time that I was working on the Tyranid barricades I detailed previously. I wanted to find a way of not just making Tyranid scenery but also a means of representing the diverse structures and creatures that may be present on a world that was being Tyranoformed/gutted for its natural resources. One idea I had (largely inspired by the shape and material of the plastic orange containers) was for balloon- or blister-like growths on the surface that would process the air in the atmosphere. They would expand to fill themselves with nice clean air, but when they contracted they would spew out a toxic, infectious fume teeming with microscopic Tyranid phage organisms. 

Tyranid Barricades

To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.


Finished

Well, repurposing walnuts, coral, and lotus seed pods is all well and good for some quick-and-dirty Tyranid terrain, but I've never been much of one for quick-and-dirty as far as modelling is concerned. So I listened to that little voice that every 40K player has inside his/her head: the one that looks at the foam packaging that your new monitor came in and thinks "that would make a pretty bad-ass piece of scenery." Except, I followed this voice a little further down the rabbit hole than most do, seeing a fantastic-piece-of-Tyranid-scenery-to-be in this:

Oranges

Dominatrix from a Hierodule

To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.
Dominatrix 1 Complete

Though I created this beast, a large portion of the credit for it goes to two other folks. First, Hydra, for if he hadn't had the spore sacs initially to take a saw to an already-beautiful Forgeworld model, there never would have been the idea to create a Dominatrix from a Hierodule. I'm glad he was rewarded for his inspiration at the Canadian Golden Demons back in 2007. Next, credit needs to be paid to Ross Nickle, a dear friend of mine and paragon of moderating might over on Warpshadow under his handle Accommodator.

When I expressed my interest in taking my own stab at a Dominatrix from a Forge World Heirodule back in 2006, Ross told me to do it. When I told him I hadn't the stones to pay $200+ CDN for a pretty model like that if I was only going to tear it appart, he bought me the model and said I could build it for him on commission.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Exocrine - Project De-Sluggify 1.0

To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.


exocrine_01-1

In 2006, I got a hold of the plastic carnifex kit for the first time, and immediately set to work tearing it appart and attempting to build it up into something more. I was, once again, inspired by a fantastic concept sketch for a Biovore (this time by the phenomenally talented Roberto Cirillo) that had gone unrealized in the rather underwhelming resculpted Biovore model.

Exocrine Concept

Though it was a sketch for a Biovore, I thought I'd be able to do it a bit more justice if I upped the scale somewhat to Carnifex-size. I also thought this might be a good opportunity to start in on a completely separate idea I'd had for some time: starting in on re-imaginings of the classic Tyranid Epic-scale beasts. I wanted to give them actual legs, bodies, and a imposing presence on the battlefield (hence why I labeled the idea the "De-Sluggification" initiative), and I thought that, perhaps, the plastic carnifex kit was the best backbone for the project.

Thus was the Exocrine born.

Old Strains: Old One Eye Conversion - Hel

To build up some content on the site, I'm going to be posting a few of my past projects that were kind of like milestones in my development as a sculptor. I'll call them "Old Strains," and you can feel free to check them out if you're curious.

Hel Scale

Way back in the summer of 2004, I made my first true foray into the world of sculpting when I attempted to convert a pewter Old One Eye model into something that looked a little more imposing than the old grinning rhino. The project was meant to be a Golden Demon entry for Games Day Toronto 2004, but, as it was my first time entering a Golden Demon competition, I had very little idea how stiff the competition could be. Thus, though I made it past the first cut, my rough sculpting and only slightly-better-than-table-quality paint job left me beat by other 40K large models that were whole worlds better than mine.

Still, it was a good experience, and I was (and, looking back on it now, am still) very proud of what I'd accomplished with so little former experience with greenstuff/sculpting.

Though the project became a Golden Demon one, the real inspiration to start it came from a concept sketch by Dave Gallagher (I think) in the back of the old GW Inquis Exterminatus sketchbook.

Carnifex Sketch

I've been a big fan of concept sketches ever since watching a friend's older brother create comic-perfect pencil drawings of characters to run in his D&D games. As I've progressed into the world of conversion and sculpting, I've found concept sketches to always be the most inspiring thing for kicking off projects. They are detailed enough to provide you with a good framework for a new model, but the white space in them still yawns wide enough to allow you your own interpretations.

What is Modern Synthesist?

This is meant to be the home for the various and sometimes-schizophrenic artistic endeavours of one Mr. Pink. If you're looking for his full name, it's Pontious Pinkerton, once Rear Admiral Pontious Pinkerton, but that is a story of high adventure on the seven seas, and it is one for another time.

In the here and now, Mr. Pink is an accidental artist who always had the interest but never really got the knack of Fine/High Art in school. However, despite these early slip-ups, he has がんばれ'd, observing the finest of Japanese traditions, and--for the most part--has achieved some success in fields of Lesser Art, such as design, photography, sculpting, and various multimedia that are likely best described as "Rough Art."

The majority of his motivation has come from an unlikely source: a dorky table-top wargame that, likely, is going to make up most of the content that appears on this site.

In all of this, he is most hoping to inspire new ideas and start new discussion about how a concept can never be realized and the best sculpt/layout/design is the one that you have yet to create. If all goes according to plan, the goal of this site is to spread creativity like an infectious disease.