How To Scare Children (#IWSG November 2024)

Halloween has passed and Christmas looms on the horizon. My wife insisted we take a break in between; we put a lot of work into our haunted house (this year was the fifth annual!), so we need some down time before rushing headlong into the holidays.

Here's a few pics from the haunted house, to show you what we traumatize our children with:

This year's event led them all over the neighbourhood, from my in-law's shed, to our garage/kill room for the main festivities, out into the woods behind the playground (led by a path of mysterious lights) and finally back to our back yard where one final surprise waited for them in an ominous box.

Now that's out of the way, I've been able to return to writing. Still revising Gale Harbour Book 3, and writing this year's Christmas book. I'm always a busy beaver.

November Question - What creative activity do you engage in when you're not writing?

Plenty. The main ones are creating scary settings to frighten my children and nieces (see above), but I also do a lot of miniature painting and crafting (see here, here and here... and here and here)

I also draw, do arts & crafts with my kids, make costumes for school plays and Halloween, play and make games (both tabletop and an occasional video game). I used to play music but I honestly don't have time to keep up with it on top of everything else. I've never had trouble finding hobbies - the problem has always been finding time to do them all.

How was your Halloween?

Hugs & Kisses,

-CDGK

P.S. I'm number 39 on the IWSG List! Look at me and be awed! Mwahahahaha!

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Writers post their thoughts on their blogs, talking about their doubts and the fears they have conquered. It's a chance for writers to commiserate and offer a word of encouragement to each other. Check out the group at http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/

Painting Part 4 - Custom FUNKO POPS!

Are you familiar with Funko Pops? They're little vinyl figures with giant heads (sometimes bobbleheads) made in the likeness of various pop culture characters and personalities. Virtually every fandom has Funko Pops: movies, tv shows, video games, musicians, anime, athletes, the list goes on and on. They're fun little collectibles for your favourite pop culture content, and a rather large collectible industry has grown up around them. Some rare figures can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

So, combining my love of making custom presents (see Christmas books) and painting small things, this year I've started making custom Funko Pops as birthday presents for my family. My digital sculpting skills aren't that great yet so I don't design them from scratch, but there are many websites where you can buy custom Funko Pop components. I mash them together, print them on my 3D printer, and paint away!

This is the first one I did, for my father-in-law. He's a handy guy and he's worked as a carpenter for years, so he got a little hammer. He told me I gave him too much hair.

This is my wife. I liked this one for the detail on her tattoo, which of course you can't see in this picture. She loves to bake cakes (you can see her cakes in the background of several of these picture). This is one of the first models I had to physically re-sculpt, because her classes didn't come out properly. I had to use clay to repair the glasses frames and her hair, and I was pretty happy with the results:

This one's my daughter. It's not in the official Funko Pop style, but this one fit her perfectly. She loves the devil horns and demon wings. And at least she got to have details on her eyes.

This is my sister in law. She loves band t-shirts, and David Bowie is her favourite artist, so she got a little "Bowie" logo on her shirt.

Everyone loves the dog the most, of course. I had to repaint it, because I originally used a photo of her as a puppy, then saw her in person and realized her colours had darkened and changed. 

This is my older niece. This one is actually a repainted version of a character from the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. I painted her as her D&D character (she loves cloaks), but her hair really is electric blue. She also got the nicest base so far.

This is my brother-in-law, and it's my favourite one so far. The logo on the hat was some of the first free hand painting I did at this scale, and I think it turned out pretty good. I was really proud of the stitches on the baseball and glove, but of course you can't see them in this picture. There's also a really nice salt-and-pepper effect on his hair and beard. 

So that leaves my mother-in-law, son and my youngest niece (and me of course, if I feel like making one of myself). I've started work on my niece, her birthday is the end of this month. I may do my son and mother-in-law for Christmas, though realistically I'll probably do them for their birthdays early in the new year.

Anyway, back to work/painting/writing/preparing for the Annual Halloween Haunted House.

Hugs & kisses,

-CDGK

Miniature Painting Part 3

Wow, it's been a year and a half since my last post about mini-painting. If any of you were following me for that, you must be gravely disappointed.

For those who don't remember, about two years ago I started a new hobby - painting gaming miniatures. I don't play Warhammer, but I do a lot of roleplaying game minis (Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, etc) and I'm branching out to some other things. I did a whole series of posts about painting and modelling for the 2023 A-to-Z Blog Challenge. I meant to continue using this blog as a place to share some of my creations, but I've been really irregular about it. 

So anyway, let's get back to it. For reference, I think this batch are all models I painted about a year ago.

It's nice to see how far you've progressed. Below are two models. The one on the left is one of the very first I painted, well over twenty years ago. The one on the right is a new one. I think I've doing pretty good.

These are from the first painting contest I ever entered last summer. The character, the "Red Scribe," is from an actual play podcast set in the Lord of the Rings universe, featuring a bunch of notable gaming folks, such as Reggie Watts, Deborah Ann Woll and Luke Gygax (Gary Gygax's son). It also featured Sala Baker, an actor and stuntman who played Sauron in the Lord of the Rings movies (he was the guy inside the sharp pointy armour), as well as numerous orcs and other monsters, and an appearance by Elijah Wood. It was in support of Children's Miracle Network, and anyway there was an associated painting competition. The scene I depicted was when the heroes encountered the new villain at the Grey Havens (years after most of the elves had gone West over the sea). 

I did not win anything, but I thought my entry was pretty good and I was happy with how it turned out. It was fun to have a set goal and a deadline, as usually my painting is pretty laissez-faire. 

Here are some random baddies I made for nothing in particular, just because they would be useful for any D&D game. I used mostly Army Painter Speedpaints (I talked about these last time), which makes it very quick and easy to get a decent outcome, but I continue to notice how bad I am at taking photos. 

Here are some minis that were inspired by a specific game. I was playing D&D with my kids and nieces, and somehow the bad guys ended up as this organization that destroyed forests just for the fun of it - they called them the "Anti-Environmental League." So I made some models to match, with even a some custom-painted coat-of-arms. These bad guys were also featured in the yearly Christmas book last year, which I'll probably talk about at some point.

Finally, I'm quite proud of these models of Rincewind and Death from Terry Pratchett's Discworld. They're a little larger than the miniatures I usually paint (about 10cm tall), so on the one hand it was easier to paint some of the detail. On the other hand, there was also MORE detail than usual, so it took a lot longer as well. 

Anyway, that's an update about where I'm at with my painting (or where I was about a year ago). Maybe next time I'll show some of the larger pieces I've done, or maybe something about the terrain you see in the backgrounds (all those pretty trees and stone walls). 

Hopefully I'll see you sooner than 18 months this time!

Hugs & Kisses,
-CDGK

Spring is Coming (#IWSG March 2024)

I'm sorry about my mopey and depressed post from last month. Not sure if was the winter blues or what, but I'm feeling much better now. More positive, more energy. It probably won't last, but I'll make the most of it while I can.

I've been writing again, and revisions on Gale Harbour book 3 are coming along well. I've also started thinking long and hard about my next project, and I have several ideas for short stories I want to write in between. It's amazing the impact not being depressed has on your productivity. 

I've also been painting again and I picked up Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I've only played it for an hour so far but I'm really looking forward to getting into it - there's only so many hours in the day.

I finally finished this guy last week, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

My day job is still crazy busy as it always is this time of year, and will continue to be for about two months, but once I'm past crunch time I should be able to finish my writing projects and get into Final Fantasy VII. Spring is looking up!

Random Question: I've almost reached the 500 subscribers limit on my free MailChimp account, and I really don't want to pay the $30+ per month to expand the limit. I really don't make that much money off my writing. I want to keep building my mailing list, obviously, but I don't send very emails/newsletters - just when I have a new book or pre-order to announce, really. I'm considering exporting the email addresses, and just using MailChimp to collect new addresses. Does anyone have another solution, or suggestion on what other systems they use?

Oh, and there's still the question of the month...

Have you "played" with AI to write those nasty synopses, or do you refuse to go that route? How do you feel about AI's impact on creative writing?

I have not played with AI for writing synopses, though I really want to because I hate writing them myself. I guess there's a part of me that's afraid of feeding entire manuscripts into the AI's learning algorithm. Not that it couldn't have picked up my text from somewhere else, and I'm sure it's already scanned tons of work way better than mine. Still seems weird to actively do it myself.

I'm also being hypocritical, because while I'm apprehensive about embracing AI-enhanced writing, I use it for producing art all the time (mostly for fun, and not for commercial purposes). Whether it's feeding on my written words or someone's visual art, it's still stealing/borrowing without permission from someone's work. 

I know that AI is going to have an impact on writing and publishing, and fighting against it is a losing battle. It's inevitable, like the lightbulb replacing oil lamps. And algorithms learning from the work of others is not that different from humans being inspired by the writing or art of others - we all borrow elements from our favourite creators. The difference, of course, is that a computer program can process artworks a million times faster than we can, and does not have any discretion on how it uses that information. 

I'm also really paranoid about that "Does your work contain any AI-produced material?" question on the Amazon publishing page. For now I'm steering clear of any AI content, because I don't know what Big Jungle will do to my books if I click "Yes."

Most terrifying form I've had to fill out in awhile.

Wow that's alot this month. Time to go check out some other blogs.

Hugs & Kisses,
-CDGK

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Writers post their thoughts on their blogs, talking about their doubts and the fears they have conquered. It's a chance for writers to commiserate and offer a word of encouragement to each other. Check out the group at http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/

Z is for Zenithal Priming

Zenithal Priming is an advanced priming technique that attempts to simulate shadows and highlights created by the sun at its zenith.

Basically, you prime the entire model in black, then spray on a white primer from above only. This leaves any lower edges and recesses black, creating baseline shadows even before you start blocking in your colours.

I've also seen this done with black, then a grey layer and then just a touch of white for the top most highlight.

All photos from The Army Painter

You don't even necessarily have to use white and black. You can also use complementary or contrast colours to get different, interesting effects:

And that's it! Twenty-six days about miniature painting! I did it, Ma! Thank you to those who stuck around for the full month, and I hope you learned a thing or two, or at least weren't too bored. Maybe you laughed at some of my terrible jokes or painting. Either way, you came back, so I appreciate it!

Hugs & kisses,

-CDGK

Y Can't I Find a "Y" Word?

Y can't I find painting terms that start with Y? I've been trying to come up with something for almost two months and I can't think of anything good.

Oh well. Instead I'll talk about a few terms that I missed earlier in the month.

Flash is the excess plastic on the seam lines of models, where the piece was previously attached to the sprue. These are usually easily removed with a sharp blade (like an X-acto knife), though they may also need sanding at times.

This model piece has a very pronounced flash line running all along its side. Hopefully it can be removed without slicing off the model's finger.

Source: Scar Hand Painting

Kitbashing is taking pieces from different model kits, and putting them together to create a new model. Many miniatures that require assembly (ie, Warhammer) come with extra pieces for customization (like alternate heads, weapons, etc). After you've been building for a while, you inevitably collect a variety of leftover pieces. These can be put together, or the "kits bashed" together to make completely new models.

This was very obviously put together from random parts. I have no idea what it's supposed to be, but it's kinda cool.

Source: Reddit

Varnish is a final layer of clear coating applied to a finished model to protect the paint job from the regular handling, bumps and scratches of gameplay. Though pretty much all painters agree that varnish is required, there is a variety of types to chose from. A matte, anti-shine varnish is most popular, as it prevents light glare and reflection, which can make your model look weird at such a small scale (remember how we talked about how light behaves differently on tiny models all the way back on Contrast day). There is sometimes use for gloss or satin (semi-gloss) finish, however, such as to simulate different textures or materials on your model. On my recent Darth Vader mini, I used matte varnish on his cape to make it look more like cloth, but satin on his armor to give it a more hard plastic and/or leather look. And gloss varnish is great for making things look wet, like eyeballs or fresh blood.

Varnish is commonly applied with a spray can, as aerosol varnish, like paint, tends to go on more evenly. That said, sometimes you may not want or be able to use spray varnish (varnish is even more sensitive to temperature and humidity than paint, and it also smells bad), so brush-on varnishes are also an acceptable option.

The difference in this one is a lot more noticeable, as I used a full gloss for the helmet and matte for the rest of it. In retrospect I probably could have used a satin for the helmet instead, but the gloss certainly gives a strong contrast.

Fun-fact: spray varnish and spray paint actually dissolves untreated XPS Foam, unless you seal it first. Like many other modelers, I learned this the hard way. Now that I seal the foam with a mixture of paint and glue before painting, however, I am able to use a spray varnish to finish my terrain.

One more day to go!

Hugs & kisses,

-CDGK

X is for XPS Foam

XPS Foam, or extruded polystyrene foam, is a type of rigid foam board usually used as insulation. It's very useful in construction as it's water resistant, easy to cut and work with, and very effective at insulating from heat and cold.

It comes in thicknesses between ½ to 2 inches, and convenient sizes from 2x2 up to 4x8 feet.

For our purposes, XPS is also incredibly useful in model building. It has numerous uses for making buildings, furniture, terrain, and countless other props and objects. It's very light but rigid, and easy to cut, carve and glue.

The Army Painter actually sells terrain-building kits that come with sheets of XPS Foam.

There are other types of foam out there, like Styrofoam and foamcore (the kind that has paper covering both sides, often used for presentation boards in kids science fairs) that have their uses, but none are as versatile as XPS. Personally I've used it to create dungeon walls and floors, houses and brick walls, forests floors and rocks.

See? I've got more happy little trees. And cute little cottages, too!

My walls are all carved, but I've also seen people with better tools and more patience cut thousands of individual bricks out of foam to create masterpieces like this: 

I had to include the picture with the finger to prove it's actually a scale model and not the real thing.

Source: Oliver Jolly Models

Lately I've actually been spending almost more time with models and "dioramas" than I have just painting miniatures. I'm turning into a bigger nerd all the time. Someone please stop me before I start building model trains. ;-)

Hugs & kisses,

-CDGK