Ideas for Creature Making

A roly poly soot dragon. The current idea, and the many iterations of it. I have a large box of donated fur coats to make creatures out of. Normally i wouldnt pick real fur to work with, but the coats are not in good enough of shape to be worn or donated for anything else, so I shall make creatures. So far I have mostly brown, dark rust, and black fur, with a little faux gray and really cheap tan. So cheap I'm having second thoughts about using it at all. Maybe to practice with.c

Creature Making Inspiration

this one is mine

Its hard to define the kinds of creatures I want to make, but done of the first steps that I can do it find things like it.
I have quite a bit of random materials, and would love to populate a craft booth with creatures like these.


This  is a good example of the kind I want to make:
http://www.dollmakersdream.com/free-polymer-clay-tutorials-creature-6.html

Its semi realistic, soft bodied, and also has polymer clay sculpting.










Also like these:
http://santani.deviantart.com/art/I
nari-Foxes-418720127

http://lisatoms.deviantart.com/art/Silver-aqua-dragon-spirit-411076252

http://wood-splitter-lee.deviantart.com/art/SOLD-Poseable-Hand-Made-Baby-Fum-420878939

http://scenceable.deviantart.com/art/Exalt-435968577

Polymer Clay Creature Concept Drawing

I've been driving to make more polymer clay creatures. Maybe one day to design them for mmorpgs or illustrate them for card games. Here's a sketch.

A Riddle For The Outcast and Lonely

There is a special section in the store just for these items. They are often set apart from the others. The majority of customers do not buy them, or even look for them. When you do look for them, you can look very hard and be very excited when you find it.  Sometimes they have special packaging. They fluctuate in quantity, you never know what you will find.You feel like you got a deal when you buy it. Often, it is what you can afford.


      So, is it discount merchandise at the grocery store, or a rare gem at a jeweler's?

  Maybe you feel you are cheap , that no one searches for you. That you are weird. And you find yourself thinking you are a malformed item on a discount shelf. But perhaps the truth is very different.


God refines us though fire, and the result is something more valuable than fine gold. He sets us apart so we are no longer common, we are precious.

But we are costly, and few will pay for something rare when they can get something shiny and pretty for much cheaper. 

At what cost to them? And yet, it is their loss, and they don't even bother to find out why. Our packaging it different. We have something to guard. There's security, laser lines and
pressure plates like a rare jewel in a museum. And we don't have to  apologize for our boundaries when they protect something precious.

.

heheheheh

Few have the skill to navigate those boundaries, because few appreciate the value, and even less are willing to put in the effort to get it.






Don't apologize for your boundaries when you protect something precious. Don't worry that you are hard to find, that God puts you in the back of the store. He's protecting you, he knows you are valuable, and only those who know the high cost can have you.

For we are far above rubies.

Encouragement From Success and Encouragement From The Trenches

To pay my bills, I work as a janitor. And I hate it with a passion.

Monotonous, and doing the EXACT thing day after day with no accomplishment or anything that really gets "done." And it doesn't really use much brain power either. Which is hard when I have 180 credit hours from college and I'm not
using a single one.

When you find your passion, and are prevented from using it, everything you do tastes like ash.

And it's in this situation that I feel God wants me to write a book, a devotional workbook for artists.
Most of these kinds of books are written by people who work at art as a living, or at least full time, maybe even through church. And I would think there are a lot of artists who don't.

This book would be written by one in the trenches. By one who hasn't had the "success" of profit through art, or the joy of being able to do it full time, and is not writing it out of that confidence. Also, I don't have that kind of success to validate what I am saying. But if God wants me to write this, why should I need ANYTHING else to validate my credibility? Worldly success won't validate it more than God does. Noah didn't have a degree in ship building. If you don't listen to me just because I don't have the resume that you think I need to qualify to write this, you are dismissing God's truths based on worldly value. So I won't tell you what I have that would remotely qualify me to write all this.

It's more important right now that I'm not, and that I haven't seen success yet, and that I am writing out of a place in the trenches, with the rest of you who also have not seen the success you want. It's easy to take the "advice" of a Christian artist who is successful and rich, apply it, and get happy or angry depending on how much that advice "worked."

It's easy to make faith based decisions when you see them physically rewarded.

But I write as a challenge to you to faith in the times when you aren't "successful," and have no confidence that you will ever be. That is where faith is tested. And we are very much in it together, I have no guarantee that this book will make any money. Maybe it can be free.

I wanted crowd funding to take time off to write the book. I have two jobs and don't want to quit either of them.But

I think God wants me to write this as janitor me. 

Not as a person working in the ministry full time, but someone who still struggles. On the other hand, if I don't depend on this for income, there is a lot less temptation to make it look and sound pretty just so it sells more. I'm after excellence and impact, not popularity. And I have the freedom to do that and my job isn't at stake. In a way, it's less of a risk. 

 Yes, I'm scared of being mediocre and amateurish. I'm scared of it being too big and my ideas getting in the way. I'm scared of all the permissions I have to get just to quote the Bible in my book.

I will do the thing. 

Now I actually need to do the thing.




I have already had opposition to the thing, which I take as a sign that its a good thing.

The Labor Pains of Art and Wanting

I had a recent attack of depression that was triggered by bitterness and disappointment at things I wanted but assumed I couldn't have. I felt taunted, like "here's the awesome thing you can't have" and somehow it was my fault that I couldn't have it. Punishment for acting "irresponsibly;" punishment for not being good enough.

What bugs me the most is that my gut reaction was to suddenly be disappointed, bitter, and start crying. These are not a mature reaction to seeing good things. God's gifts do not bring bitterness.

I was bitter that I did not have the money to do the things, these "perfect" things that would strengthen my gifts. Why show me something so "perfect" if I can't have it?

And I think it's because I was trying to earn it.

Here's what I learned:

God made the whole universe. All of it. he made the materials that we print money from, it's not like his resources are limited, and he gives it all to us, when it is best for us. And he does not withhold good things from us

"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"  Romans 8:32

If I can't earn the biggest gift of all, why am I trying to earn the lesser ones? God gives us what we need when we need them, and sometimes we need to struggle in order to grow more than we need a vehicle. Sometimes there are more opportunities to "minister"when we are the ones asking for water. Jesus asked for a very human need to be met in John 4, he asked for a drink of water from a social outcast, and gave back something even greater.

As an artist, I need materials, and God has spoiled me with them. I buy them, I find them in the trash pile, people gift me, I can use almost any thing I find to make art with. And I still struggle to use up the materials "in case I run out."

That seems pretty silly now.

"Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God." 2 Corinthians 9:10-11

God does provide seed to the sower, in fact, free materials are everywhere. But we must gather them and learn how to use them. "Some plant, some water, but God makes it grow."

     "So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes      things grow." 1 Corinthians 3:7

And we must sacrifice the things we have to let it grow.

"Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." John 12:24

And art is very much like a plant; little messages in bottles that you send out and hope that people will read (and plant more seeds) Art is my fruit.
So I have to use it up in order to make more. Then again, I could sit on it. Here, I have the paint you gave me!   And look where it got this guy: Matthew 25:14-30.

If you have something, and are called to that ministry, don't be afraid to use it up!! God created the world, he can turn your one little offering into a feast for thousands. John 6:1-14

What is the fish and bread you have to offer God?

If I have something, it's an opportunity to "minister" to others. If I have a need, it's an opportunity for them to minister to me, and for me to learn the humility of accepting it.

Until we learn the humility of accepting the small gifts from others, we prevent ourselves from being used by God as a channel of the larger gifts. 

Do you accept charity with humility and gratitude? Or with entitlement or bitterness that you couldn't do it yourself? You sabotage yourself from participating in God's Big Wallet when you limit yourself to only the resources you think you are responsible for.
 
 So if I don't have that perfect thing, there are many reasons for why I don't have it.

• it's not good for me, it's artistic junk food
• God has something healthier in mind, even if it doesn't taste as good
• I am trying to earn it on my own
• It's a chance for someone else to minister and for me to participate in God's Bigger Economy

 In Conclusion: 

Here's the first layer. more to come.

Firstly. I am making a painting that reminds me that God owns it all, that it's my job to gather what I can, sow and let the seed die, water, and harvest, but only God can grow it and multiply it. Pictures up soon!!

Secondly, that I need to ask, and I can't always "earn" the bigger gifts by behaving like a good little Christian.  Sometimes God fills your needs with amazing circumstances that he set up for years in the making, and you just became aware of it. Maybe you haven't even told anyone yet. Maybe you need to.

So I set up a Donate Button on my blog.

Like that good old song says, friends can't fill the needs you don't let show.

So what is it that I want? 

These things, or things like them, as they specifically strengthen my gifts:

• OM Arts Training, Incarnate 2014 - Visual Artists (Artslink) (Italy)
• A Membership To Christians in the Visual Arts
• Gathering of Artisans Scotland

Donations would go towards these things, and art supplies, unless you signify otherwise. Any amount helps, $5 even.

And it's on my honor, if you don't trust that, don't give, that's ok too. Maybe someday I can make it so I can gift those who donate with small pieces of art.

Donate if you can, take the idea and ask for donations yourself if you need them. I look forward to participating in God's Big Economy with you.

And suddenly, I'm not bitter anymore.


Might I mention that a few days after writing this post, someone gave me a gift card to www.dickblick.com for $50.