Special 100th Post on Instagram!!!

I’m not really sure where this next year is going to take me but I have already started trying to solidifying a few plans for 2018. They include: Releasing a bunch of new art-toy related merch under my “Mr Blank Toys” label, Getting some of the films I shot in 2017 edited and finished for a 2018 release, and I also hope to work on my tour bus a little more now that I have some tools that will make my life a bit easier… On top of all that I’m just going to try to do even more art than what I did in 2017!

Being an artist costs a lot of money for everything from materials and supplies to the tools and equipment needed to make the art! In the long run it helps to have the right tools and equipment, but recently when I went out and got everything I needed for what I’m doing next (even on christmas sale) I pretty much completely ate up ALL of my savings. With that said, you can help me afford to make more art by going to check out my SHOP where I have a few of my first custom art figures available right now!!!

 

Lately (as I mentioned in a previous blog) I’ve been starting to learn how to make molds and cast in resin, but those supplies aren’t cheap either so I’m pretty much forced to buy a ton of expensive art supplies that I know will end up wasted and in the trash as I learn by trial and error. So far I’ve made 8 different molds. That’s two trips to the craft store for molding and casting supplies spending over $150-200 with nothing much to really show for all my work. Out of those 8 molds (see pic below) a few of them were barely even good enough to use, and out of those few good molds I’ve only had a few good pulls off of some resin… which leaves me with hardly anything that is sellable so I can recoup some of those expenses.

Now that I’m out of supplies again I went ahead and ordered some more online instead of getting it from the craft supply store because I wanted a better material to work with. I did a bunch of research this past weekend, asking a few figure making pros (Dain Marx, Killer Bootlegs, and Nekosatsu_toys) about molding rubber and casting resin so I knew what to purchase. In the end I decided to order some stuff from the Smooth-On company thru the mail because everyone seemed to suggest the same thing. I’ve got Mold Star 15 Slow (molding rubber), Smooth-Cast 326 (resin), and a variety pack of tinting colors and glow powder all on it’s way after the first of the year (spending about $150). I also went out and bought myself some tools and equipment including an Air Compressor (which will also be very useful for bus repairs) and A Paint Pressure Pot which I converted into a resin casting pressure pot with very minimal effort (spending another $251). All of this will hopefully make things easier and I should get better quality pulls from my molds and resins.

A couple projects I plan to start casting first of the year will be the “Yoda/Slimer” and the “Bach/Terminator” figures that I previewed on my instagram page already. I have a few other idea/prototypes ready as well and now that I have all the equipment/tools ready I can begin to make these figures available one at a time soon.

To get things started I’m going to be making a special announcement first of the year on my Instagram page (@muxblank). January will mark one and a half years that I’ve been on instagram and finally I am just about to hit my 100th post! Go follow me NOW on instagram to be one of the first to see whats coming next. To give you a little taste, I’ve posted a preview picture on my instagram today (post number 99) of the card art for the first of my next big bootleg custom figure series release called “The Crustious Boogers“! Right now I have 11 completed characters in the series with more coming soon… This will be a series of figures that you can collect, available beginning on the first of 2018. I am only releasing a small limited number of 10 figures (in 2 different colorways “original” and “ghost”, 5 of each) for the first run of the first figure! To see what it is follow me on Instagram ASAP!

See you next year!!!

 

 

OTHER AVAILABLE PRODUCTS from MR BLANK TOYS: