Haha

Too funny. My friend Shelby had a little too much fun in Photoshop. Apperently I like to give Kaws Companions piggy back rides...

Spontaneous Trip to the City.

To relieve the stress of school and bills, I headed up to San Francisco with a few friends and the pug. There was nothing in particular we went there for, but just needed an excuse to hang out in the city we all love.



While there, I mentioned that I wanted to get some shirts so my friend Shelby took us to The Hundreds store by Union Square. This place looked like the bat cave inside. The lights were dimmed and store appeared to be carved out of the inside of a rock. Props to them on the look and feel of the place. I definitely got the hater vibes from some of the employees because I wasn't decked out in Hundreds gear, but that's what expected in those high end clothing boutiques. I picked out a limited San Francisco Hundreds shirt, and we were off.



Eventually, we wound up on Haight Street again. We grabbed a bite at a place called Cha Cha Cha. The Fried Platanos (bananas) were delicious. Definitely a place I'd love to go back to. We peeked in a few of the other stores and I ended up getting another cool shirt featuring the Star Wars AT-AT walker with a dog cone on. Around 7pm, all the stores started closing so we figured it was a good time to head out.

Before heading home, I took Jenny and Shelby up to a place that looks out over the city. The sun just so happened to be setting so I snapped a few images while there was still some light left. The image below is heavily photoshopped, but the sky was gorgeous.



While walking around trying to find the best angle for the city with my telephoto lens, I noticed my car was looking extremely photogenic. I snapped a few hundred photos or so of my car just hanging out on the side of the road with the wheels turned in. I think a few of them came out pretty cool.









Overall, had a great time with some great people. Hope to go back again soon!

Today, my Pug Turns Two.

Today (April 20th), my pug Coco is two human years old. I'm not sure how long this is in dog years, but I know it's up there.

I got Coco when she was about 3-4 months old, so having her and taking care of her this long is a big deal! I feel like one of those dog weirdos who treats their animal like a human, but my pug has a personality like no dog I've ever seen. She's down to lay around all day or go for a five mile walking adventure around San Francisco. She has a multitude of very unique expressions that always put a smile on my face. She's what I look forward to go home to after a stressful day of work or school. Just the way she waddles her butt and barks to greet me whenever I walk into the room. I love this pug, and today is her birthday.

A Source of Inspiration.

Today, I decided to check my YouTube messages and came across this awesome little note:

"Hey Doug, ive been following your work now for the last few weeks and each one of them are amazing in their own way. I'm only 17 and currently a year 12 student down in Australia which is our final year of schooling and for our media subject we are required to produce a short film due around november and i am currently looking into any ideas i can, i just have to say that your videos have inspired me the most and ive put together a few ideas inspired by segments of your work. I just wanted to say thankyou and if you can give me any tips that would be great, i love the film aspect of media and i wish to pursue it further as an occupation hopefully. My only video on my account was created when i was at the age of 14 from memory my first ever film and sice then have only created 2 more. Thanks a lot and i will let you know when i have finished this piece i will be working on although it will not be ready for a matter of months.

Chris"

I really like what sites like YouTube and Flickr have done. They allow their users to look at different artists' work from all over the world. It's great to know that I can be a source of inspiration to someone thousands of miles away in Australia.

Here's a film Chris made when he was 14 entitled "Real Life Pacman." Great work buddy, keep it up!

Bazooka Lens.

I was a bit hesitant about loaning out a Canon battery to a friend this weekend, but once he said I could borrow his Canon 100-400mm L lens in return, I was sold. Needless to say, I spent a good amount fo time this weekend playing with the new glass.



At 400mm, the background is soft and creamy, giving the image an almost dream-like element. It was a bit tiresome to hold this beast of a lens up, but the trade-off was well worth the sore muscles. My only qualm is that the auto focusing mechanism was a bit slow. This could aslo be the result of my Canon 5D's measly number of AF points. My girlfriend and I took our pug to romp on the beach while I snapped some photos. Because of the slow autofocus, only about 10% of the images were in focus. After awhile, I gave up on the autofocus and just went straight manual. This was a little better, but it was still hard to tell if I was shooting at critical focus. I'm sure with some more training and use with the lens, I'd get the hang of it much quicker. Luckily, I was able to get some really awesome photos that I'm happy to walk away with.

Thanks Eric for letting me shoot on your beast of a lens!

Here are some of my favorite captures from the day, most of which were shot at 400mm.

Still a Child at Heart.

When I was a child, I promised myself I would never lose my fascination with building things. Well, somewhere along the way, I did. A few years back I sold every lego set I owned for a measly $200. This ended up being the worst decision of my life. I figured selling my legos and other toys was just a part of growing up. Unfortunately for me, there isn't a day that goes by where I'd love just to dig through the hundreds of legos that I used to own to create a space ship or whatever crazy creation I have in my mind.



Since then, I've never really wanted to get back into legos. They're fun to build, but they end up just sitting around afterwards collecting dust. And, let's be honest, they're not exactly the cheapest toys. I love looking at all the new models and sets that are coming out, but I can never bring myself to get one. Every time I just convince myself that I don't need it or that I have no room for it.

All this changed a few days ago. Gizmodo.com, a popular tech and gadget blog, had a post about a new lego set that just came out. Apparently, Lego has a new line of models called the "Architectural Series," in which they recreate famous buildings and landmarks with lego bricks. The pre-existing models were nothing to write home about, but the one Gizmodo was unveiling looked awesome. Lego decided to do a rendition of the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois.



Over the past year or so, I have really been getting into design and architecture. Every week I look forward to reading the new issue of Dwell magazine to see what new modern designs people are integrating into their homes and offices. With this in mind, I knew I might have to indulge my childhood fantasies with my mature interests. So yesterday, my girlfriend and I headed over to the Lego Store at Valley Fair Mall in San Jose. I wasn't even sure they would have it in stock, but sure enough there it was right at the entrance. Before checking out, my girlfriend and I meandered around the store recalling all of our past lego escapades.



Back home, we tore apart the box and began constructing our new model. This thing was beautiful. The people at lego really did an amazing job on the interior. If you look through the planes of glass (clear plastic panels), you can see an array of tiny modern Lego furniture. The tiny white bricks were a pain to line up straight, but it's this sort of detail that really adds to the minimalist physique of the house. I don't plan on deconstructing this model anytime soon as it is a beautiful piece of architecture and design unto itself.

Here are some other shots of the Lego set.

Custom KAWS Dunny.

Sorry about the recent bombardment of KAWS-related posts. Much like how young children go through their "cowboys and indians" phase, I'm going through my "KAWS" phase. I have some other projects and films in the works as well, but more details will come later.



One of Brian Donnelley's most sought after vinyl toys is his "companion" figure. The piece loosely resembles a zombified Mickey Mouse character with a skull for a head and X's for eyes. On eBay, KAWS Companions can go from anywhere between $1,000 to $1,500, so it's no surprise people love this design. One day, I hope to add one to my collection, but for the time being, the cost is way too much. But alas, there is a short term solution to feeding my KAWS appetite, a custom KAWS Dunny.

I've seen it done once before on Flickr, but in the black/white mono color scheme. So with the help of my girlfriend, who is a master of clay sculpting and detailed painting, we decided to make our own. We used multiple photos for reference and began sculpting the teeth, cross bones, and buttons. The next day we began primering and painting. A few hours of meticulous detailed painting and we were done. Jenny did a great job on all the little accents, including the iconic KAWS X's, which I think she got down perfectly.

So now, even though we don't have a real Companion to add to our collection, at least we have a 3" custom version. Because we had so much fun making the custom dunny, we plan to make the two other colorways (black and mono) in the next few weeks!

Below are some of the "making of" photos for our custom KAWS Dunny!





























And here he is in all his glory.





And here he is in our collection.

KAWS Fever.

I was afraid of this. When I was first introduced to the vinyl art toy scene, I could not believe people were spending well over one hundred dollars on what is essentially plastic. Now I am one of those people. It takes a lot for me to justify spending a good amount of money on an art toy, but every now and again that one toy comes along that I cannot pass on.



For the last few months, I've been a KAWS addict. I'm constantly checking eBay and Kidrobot Forums daily to see if anyone has posted a toy for a killer deal. Most of the time, the prices are too crazy, but on occasion someone posts a KAWS piece for a low price in order to move it fast. One afternoon, as I was checking eBay expecting to be disappointed yet again, I saw a deal that I could not believe. A KAWS stormtrooper going for half of what it normally does. I knew there had to be a catch, and there was. The toy had no box and had two small marks on the back of his head. For many die hard collectors, this was a major turn off. Everyone wants their toys to be in pristine shape. For me, I could live with the downsides of not having a box. Because I wasn't planning on displaying the stormtrooper backwards, the marks on the back of the head didn't concern me. I eagerly hit "buy it now" and that was that. I was now the proud owner of a KAWS stormtrooper.

The funny thing is, the first place I was introduced to the KAWS stormtrooper was actually on Rob Dyrdek's show Fantas Factory. This was well before my obsession with collecting vinyl toys.




A few weeks later, my girlfriend texted telling me that I got a box from Hong Kong! I still had two hours left of the class I was in, but all I could do was think about getting home and tearing apart my new package. Finally, I got home and was able to check this guy out. My first impression was that this piece is SMALL. From the pictures I had seen online, it appeared much bigger. It's still one of the biggest toys I owned, but I imagined it a few inches taller. Regardless, the sculpt of this piece was awesome. So much detail! The marks on the back of the head were barely noticeable. I quickly made room for my stormtrooper next to my KAWS Milo.



The next day, I decided to take some photos. This vinyl piece is easily my most prized toy in my collection. It could be my childhood obsession with Star Wars or simply the fact that the sculpt is very well done. Either way, I love my new STORMTROOPAAAA!