Urban Vinyl & Designer Toys

Wacom Bamboo = Fun!

nobody@vox.com(sandman) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:39:15 -0800

Just played around with my brand new Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch that I got this Christmas today. Takes some getting used to, being an old school sketch artist. I've been using pens, paper and pencils for so long.. Well now that I have this thing I had no excuse... to stay in the dark ages lol. Well I'm sure sketching on paper will never be replaced but this will eliminate needing to scan ideas into the computer so much.

So anyhoo... onto my first (partial) rough sketch. Keep in mind I am not used to the tablet yet! :P

NewSkellie

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Media Militia: Drips and Spray Paint brushes

nobody@vox.com(sandman) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:40:43 -0800

Just a re-blog of Media Militia's giveaway for today, Drips and Spray Paint brushes for Photoshop.

Get the stuff here.

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Style Influences... what's yours?

nobody@vox.com(sandman) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:47:40 -0800

Ok so I've had plenty of references to artists I like over the years. Of course they all have great influences over my own art, just like every artist. But I thought I'd take a moment today to write about some specific influences that have gotten my creative juices flowing lately (past few months) Its only fair to give these guys/gals recognition for their wonderful art! :D

One artist that I like for obvious reasons, is from Switzerland. I found his site via Media Militia's periodical "get inspired" posts. His name is Patrik but goes by the name of 2much as an artist. You can find his work following the post in the links.

2much

An online comic book I ended up reading in its entirety in about a week, is called Megatokyo and is by artist and writer Fred Gallagher. It is a manga-style comic book and I say "manga-style" as it is written and drawn by someone other than an Asian writer and I know that for some that might make it an "impure" manga, but if you ask me, its ever bit as good as a Japanese, Korean or other manga you might find. The art is very well drawn but although it has the Asian "look", Fred has gone to great lengths apparently in creating his own flair to his art and I admire him very much for it.

Fredart

Creaturebox is a site by artists Dave Guertin and Greg Baldwin. Well-established character designers and artists with Insomniac games. (Insomniac Games is responsible for such huge titles as Ratchet and Clank and Resistance for the Sony Playstation systems.)

Creaturebox

Robin Mitchell is another great artist that has had an impact on my art lately. His blog is usually kept pretty full of updates. He is an illustrator and from what his site says, for most of his career, a concept artist. There are plenty of sketches on his site to gain inspiration from.

RMitchell

So those are some of the biggest influences on my art lately. Check their sites out, I'm sure they'd love the hits!

Enjoy!

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Kidrobot's new DIY styles

nobody@vox.com(sandman) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:02:57 -0800

Ok I'll admit I've been out of it for awhile when it comes to the toy scene and I've had a bit of a sour taste in my mouth about the whole deal. Because of the over-saturation of artists and the many of the companies becoming so close to mainstream (IMO)... I just have been bored with it for the most part.

Frankly though, I've never stopped loving the DIY aspect and customizing stuff has continued to remain close to my heart. So recently I checked out KR (Kidrobot) and was very pleased to see several new DIY designs in the tradition of the munny. They are all mini sized about 4" in height.

So tonight I had to share my newest blanks! The two I purchased were Trikky (the kitty-style) and Bub, that seems to look like a hippo. They are sooo cool!

DSCN0351

DSCN0352

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Christmas Istockphoto additions available

nobody@vox.com(sandman) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:14:03 -0800

The two newest files uploaded previously have been approved and are available on istockphoto: flamehead santa, here and beanie santa here.

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Christmas Istock additions

nobody@vox.com(sandman) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:41:22 -0800

Some new images hopefully to be approved soon on Istockphoto.com. I hope you'll enjoy them and many of you will find a use for them as Christmas comes closer... First up is my design of FlameHead or sometimes called Flameboy, decked out in Santa clothing. I thought he'd look great as Santa's helper, what do you think?

FlameHeadSantasuit

Next is another revamped design (I didn't like him as much before, as he had a lot of weak lines in him and I beefed them up. I thought a biker-style young Santa would be cool. Well maybe not too young, after all his goatee is still white, but hey... The idea for the slogan "Sleigh to Live" just hit me and I went with it, so if its way stupid, deal with it :P People can always just remove it if they buy the art once its approved.

BeanieSanta

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Jack O bomber, coming soon

nobody@vox.com(sandman) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:25:33 -0700

JackO001

Next up for istockphoto: JackO!

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Grim Bomber - New Istockphoto image

nobody@vox.com(sandman) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:17:14 -0700

Ist2_10625086-grim-bomber

My newest offering on Istockphoto.com. More spooky sort of graffiti characters coming soon! Keep your eyes peeled!

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About web proxies and anonymous web surfing

nobody@vox.com(torrin) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:45:04 -0700

Proxy Servers

A proxy server is a kind of buffer between your computer and the Internet resources you are accessing. They accumulate and save files that are most often requested by thousands of Internet users in a special database, called cache? Therefore, proxy servers are able to increase the speed of your connection to the Internet. The cache of a proxy server may already contain information you need by the time of your request, making it possible for the proxy to deliver it immediately. The overall increase in performance may be very high. Also, proxy servers can help in cases when some owners of the Internet resources impose some restrictions on users from certain countries or geographical regions. In addition to that, among proxy servers there are so called anonymous proxy servers that hide your IP address thereby saving you from vulnerabilities concerned with it.

Anonymous Proxy Servers

Anonymous proxy servers hide your IP address and thereby prevent unauthorized access to your computer through the Internet. They do not provide anyone with your IP address and effectively hide any information about you and your reading interests. Besides that, they don t even let anyone know that you are surfing through a proxy server. Anonymous proxy servers can be used for all kinds of Web-services, such as Web-Mail (MSN Hot Mail, Yahoo mail), web-chat rooms, FTP archives, etc. bproxy.ru - a place where the huge list of public proxies is compiled. In a database you always can find the most modern lists, the Proxy are checked every minute, and the list is updated daily from various sources. The system uses the latest algorithm for set and sortings of servers by proxy, servers for anonymous access are checked. Results of Search always can be kept in file Excel.

Why Should You Use Anonymous Proxy Servers?

Any web resource you access can gather personal information about you through your unique IP address ?your ID in the Internet. They can monitor your reading interests, spy upon you and, according to some policies of the Internet resources, deny accessing any information you might need. You might become a target for many marketers and advertising agencies who, having information about your interests and knowing your IP address as well as your e-mail, will be able to send you regularly their spam and junk e-mails.

A web site can automatically exploit security holes in your system using not-very-complex, ready-made, free hacking programs. Some of such programs may just hang your machine, making you reboot it, but other, more powerful ones, can get access to the content of your hard drive or RAM. Everything a web site may need for that is only your IP address and some information about your operating system.

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New material... just playing with ideas..

nobody@vox.com(sandman) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 07:33:11 -0700

This is Bid 'Ed Bunny. Why the name? Because he has a darned Big 'Ed! (head) He has a grumpy attitude for the same reason too. Everyone seems to call him Big 'Ed when he knows its not because they think his name is Ed cus he's not a big bunny at all. In fact most of the rest of his features seem to belong on a runt but anyway that's another subject he'd rather not discuss or I might be " Ed-butted".... BWAHAHA!

BigEdbunny001

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