My artistic journey for my Emperor Droids Custom was a fun one, and I'm happy with the results.
I got to play around with lighting a lot more than most. And using the Admiral Screed background as inspiration was interesting. I even stole from Screed... the starfield in the window is copy-pasted from that art. Little Easter egg for you right there.
As always, I made 20, and they're sold first-come, first-served. Unless you're 21st and willing to pay $500... then it's first-come, rich-served.
If you would like to purchase one of these Palpys, I'm sorry, but they've already sold out. Thanks for your interest!
Just in case you weren't aware, I am a C-3PO focus collector. My goal has always been to collect every offer available on every cardback. By far the most compelling of those is the American Kenner ESB45 Display Arena Offer, because it was never known to exist.
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I assembled my run of customs over the weekend.
I don't know if it's that I'm getting older or slower, but they seem to take longer and longer to assemble. This weekend I watched some MCU phase 4 movies while working. Saturday it was Black Widow and Shang-Chi. Sunday it was Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder. Eternals did not make the cut...
Granted, this one did have a lot more prep work than most. I had to trim up all the inner trays and the figures were a tight fit so I really needed to force them in. But still... this is pretty much all I did all weekend long. And I was pretty exhausted by the end of it.
The figures will go on sale Wednesday, September 28th at around 9:30am Eastern. I'll reshare the same advice I gave last time:
- DON'T wait for the sale announcement to pop up in your Facebook feed!
- Bookmark CreatureCantina.com
- Start refreshing the page at 9:30am Wednesday
- When the For Sale post pops up, follow the ordering instructions carefully
Good luck Wednesday!
I finished up the colors for my Droids Emperor.
It turned out pretty nice. So I was ready to drop it on my template and see what I had...
That first proof was for layout and bubble placement. You can see the colors are all super-dark because I hadn't put on the mask I use to tone things down, yet.
It's kind of sad most of Admiral Screen will be under the bubble, but I pretty much knew that ahead of time based on how large this bubble is. I was able to move the bubble area about 1/8 of an inch to the right based on the coin placement, and made the area a little taller. I also chose a different color...
Here you can see I applied the mask. And I went a bit too heavy with it. So, time for some adjustments...
This fourth proof is closer, but I'm still not satisfied. But that's as far as I got before writing this. I expect I'll have it locked in sometime today, and we'll be good to go this weekend. Check back Monday for a status report and sales details!
Saw these posted on "RR"'s Twitter and Instagram accts and thought I'd share them as well. After all, we don't wasn't the fandom getting mad at US for not sharing!
First is a list of their upcoming release schedule. All that has recently been released, what they have coming out, and exactly when said items are releasing so no one misses out, and if they do, it's their own fault! Call in sick, send the missus (or mister if that's the case) out of the house, hide in the bathroom if you must, just get the goods before they're gone!
Second is the next piece in their Archive Collection, with reservations starting at noon EST on 9/27. Once Tom shares a link for this, or any of the items with us, we'll surely share them with all of you.
Since this maquette is a Weequay, and it's part of their "Archive Collection", and Weequays are pirates, shouldn't this be part of their "ARRRRRRRchive Collection"? If you intend on obtaining one of these, be sure to get it from them directly, don't want anyone getting a pirated copy.
Last but certainly not least, I've received word from a very reliable source that a very few of these maquette will be done up to look like our favorite smuggler, and will come with an adjoining name plaque... HON DOlo, or was it Hondo Calrissian?... I'll see myself out now.
On a completely different note, this coming Fri I turn 54 years old, so if Daisy Ridley, or Felicity Jones, or Emilia Clarke are reading this, and wish to sing "Happy Birthday" to me, they may contact me via this website, thank you.
Colors are coming along nicely with my Droids Emperor...
It's a bit of a challenge keeping the background from becoming too dark. I used the original artwork from the Admiral Screed Droids cardback as a color template, but I'm still finding myself making things darker to ...
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A few weeks ago, a project I started back in 2010 came to an official, final end.
C7YB was a web comic I started in my bid to become the Penny Arcade of Star Wars collecting. I drew 531 comics over 4 years (sort of... there were quite a few "on vacation" placeholders over the course of the strip). Ultimately, it never took off like I'd hoped, and I ended the strip and switched my focus to Droids Customs. That was the right decision, obviously.
So a few weeks ago I finally allowed my rights to the c7yb.com domain name to lapse. I'd kept it around, even after disabling the URL forwarding with my host several years back. "C7-YB" began as a joke designation among my OSWCC buddies for crappy carded figures. After I sold off my original domain, collector-z.com, to a firm that sent me a baseless cease-and-desist order, I opted to change the name of the comic to that beloved acronym.
The strip never lifted me to fortune and glory, but it was a worthy endeavor. Now the domain name is out there for anyone who wants to showcase low-grade yellow bubble figures. Enjoy!
With my base colors finished, it was time to add a bit of electricity to this piece...
Seeing how the lightning bolts would dictate how everything else in the art is lit, I figured it best to lay those down first. I drew them in pure white then added an outer glow Photoshop effect.
For this second screen grab you can see I worked on The Emperor's skin first, and I also added more effects to the lightning to get it to look closer to the film.
In this third, you can see I colored in his outer robe. I also swapped the dark and light grays so his inner robe is lighter than his outer robe. I neglected to take a screen grab of the finished inner clothing before taking this:
In this last shot you can see the final colors for both Palpatine and Screed. I also modified the lightning filters so it's a bit less cyan. I'll probably still play with it some more after I print some test sheets. I'm thinking both characters will need another layer of super-highlights to really get the intense brightness correct. But it's progressing nicely.
I was thinking maybe I could complete the art and maybe even assemble this thing over the weekend, but I don't want to rush it. I'll be on a trip next weekend, so most likely I'll assemble the run September 24/25 for sale September 28th. The nice thing about that weekend is the Steelers play Thursday night so I'll have Sunday free. It looks like I'll have tons of time to tinker with the art... just hopefully not enough to ruin it!
Another news flash fresh from "RR" that we want everyone to know about!
Regal Robot's has released a new Darth Vader magnet inspired by the epic, climactic battle between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Vader in the hit Lucasfilm series, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kebobi.
Darth Vader's unforgettable battle-damaged look ...
Click here to read the WHOLE story!
With the pencils and inks done on my Droids Emperor, it was time to scan the thing and block out the colors. I made quick work of it.
And I haven't gotten anything done on it since. But Now that the base colors are done, I'll be able to get onto the real artwork. Who know... maybe I'll be able to wrap this up by next week!
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