Halfway to 2020

A random boat out in the middle of a meadow, that was not on a towing trailer, was a bit odd.

Okay, okay, we aren't quite YET to the halfway mark on this year, and lord knows the Missouri weather has been dealing weather cards out randomly like a blind blackjack dealer, so I'm never even sure what month I am in, BUT regardless of all of that, I'm back again with a bit of an update and some meandering musings.

Urban Exploration

I've not been doing as much of this as I would like, but I have found a few isolated gems that were interesting to check out. One was an abandoned site of what was a food, fuel, and tire shop. Both exposure to the elements and a lot of human interaction has accelerated the decline of the location. One thing I am very careful about is checking for other people around, from people who are homeless, to others with less than preferable motives. Safety first.

[Top] Shot from the far side of the main building. [Bottom Left] Closeup of some personal items that looked fairly new, including this random stuffed animal. [Bottom Right] Closer to the highway, where the old fuel pumps used to be installed.

But this site in particular was out on a long stretch of highway, off on a worn out access road. I checked with some of the locals to get a bit of history on it, and it was purchased by a larger oil company, and for some reason or another was closed down, and after the main pumps were removed, and the mini mart part of it was torn down, it was abandoned. Best I was able to find out was that it was active in the late 80's, and was initially opened in the 60s, and that's just from what research I could find online, as the two people I spoke to about it at another nearby restaurant/gas station just had some colloquialism heavy memories about the area. But I did get some cool leads on some other locations to check out.

One side of the building. The interior had a lot of graffiti and a smattering of what appeared to be a combination of dumped items and evidence of squatters. I wanted to look further, but I was pretty sure I heard something coming from the open stairwell in the back floor. It was pitch black down there, with what looked like a bit of water on the floor. Was not going to hazard looking around down there. 

This other find was sort of out of the blue. I had seen what I though was a rusted out water tower of some sort, and upon closer inspection, found it to be a kind of creepy abandoned refinery or industrial cement mixing contraption.

Stuff like this evokes reminders of things like photos I've seen of places like Chernobyl, where most of it is still intact, but has a feeling of being recently, and perhaps hastily abandoned.

The structure itself was in good shape, but beginning to show weather wear and corrosion throughout. The part that is always a bit unsettling is seeing something that looks newly abandoned, and the mobile home trailer with young trees in front, but the doors and windows smashed in, gave a sense of unease to me. I tend to love movies like War for the Planet of the Apes, and the general looks and worlds of stuff like the Walking Dead and Omega Man, that have succumbed to the natural work overtaking it. Not that I am all about the devastation or nihilism view of life, but the physical remnants of locations seem to still echo the previous residents and moments of life, at the same time the ravages of time overtake them.

I need to go back and get a better photo of the inside of the trailer, as it had a young tree growing up through the center of it.

That is something I try to capture a bit of in the photography I do. I don't include people in the images I take for the time series I am working on, but I do like the things that people have created, lived in, interacted with... because just like people, these places and things age and change. It's not always readily apparent, but photography and film have the capacity to for a long while, capture that moment, and keep something, if only in part, frozen in time.

Questions like, who owned this, what happened here, how old was this, or how did this get here, run through my mind. Sometimes, you can also find some interesting things along the way. I've found old books, tools, old corn husking gloves, just some odd things, that I've added into my personal collection from places I've been.

That said, I need to add in a note here: I will 99% of the time, just go into places and observe, record, and photograph things. When I have taken items, it was with permission, and in regards to if it was truly discarded or not. I've also been doing this off and on for years, and know my own limitations and risks involved when doing anything like urban/rural exploration of any kind. I always tell people that it's only a hobby, and it is, and that if they want to do it, to be safe, smart, and have preparation with them in the form of a day pack, gloves, good footwear, flashlight, all of that. But first and foremost, to not ignore danger signs or precarious buildings/site warnings. I've known many other explorers that have gotten badly injured because they didn't plan well enough, or heed warnings well enough. It's not unlike hiking in unfamiliar wild areas.

So just as a word to the wise, IF you do stuff like this, be smart. Be safe. And be respectful.

I've had a few people ask about this hobby so I may later do a more in-depth look into what I do.

Online Store

If you've not had a chance to check out the online store, it's up and running and has all of my current works on there. I've also updated my Society 6 store, so if you are wanting some of the work I do on the lifestyle item that you fancy, be sure to check that out.

Most of my artwork will be available on these items, and I will be adding more thumbnails to my store listings. 

Thanks for reading!

Until next time, support your local artists and businesses. Be kind to your fellow beings and always take the path less traveled. We all may live in times uncertain, but kindness, understanding, and believing in the good that is in most each and every one of us is what can bring about better days!

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue
Illustrator, Voice Actor, Writer, Animal Rights Activist

www.theartisanrogue.com

February and I got a lot of updates below.

I didn't set up the chair in the shot on the right, I found it there in the alley way like that. There's another one that was up against the wall with a busted front leg. It kind of reminded me of the old wooden chair that was out in the woods near a park pond shore in Warrensburg for years and years before someone finally up and stole it.

I don't get down to the West Bottoms that often at all, even though there are huge haunted houses and the Gangsters and Ghosts tours held down there. But when I do, I try to get photos for reference and future projects, and this past first Friday, all of the antique boutiques were open.

The incredibly cool "Green Man" door knocker was on this massive oak door that was partially buried behind a lot of other decorations in one upscale boutique.

Now mind you, this whole antique thing is quickly becoming very mainstream, and there are some places down there that offer upcycled and renewed items, which, hey that's certainly cool. But there were a few places that had massive old bookshelves and items like that, that LOOKED sort of vintage, until you got up close and realized that it was just a fairly decent job of drybrushing and artificial weathering that had been applied to many items. From mailboxes, to bookshelves, to industrial pipe fitting lamps, there was probably about 30% bland-tiques (I just made that word up) that were available for the hipster and upscale crowd.

Places like this are where you find the really good items.

Maybe I had too many junk dealers in my family, maybe I like legitimately worn out and previously used things too much, perhaps I like authentic and time ravaged elements to not come out of a tube and onto a texture sponge. I mean call me old fashioned, and I'll answer, but I do like finding something that no one else can get. Amazingly that was found within the first twenty minutes of being down there, but I'll get to that in a moment.

So many old and cool items. These three immediately stood out to me.

I may try to go back and find this little book. It was only $4 or so, and had a blown out binding. I read a little bit about the story, and it seems like a quirky and odd but fun read.

An old green lantern. As opposed to the new Green Lantern, which was a terrible movie.

There were some really odd finds like the dental tooth replacement kit in the upper right hand corner.

This was another set of books that would have been cool to pick up. They were published right after the Great War (WW1), in which I can only imagine what the authors must have been feeling not knowing that WW2 was only a few years away.

I guess TPS reports were WAY bigger back in the day... Seriously what the hell kind of paper do you type on this thing?

As a kid, I HAD this set of die cast cars, and I remember, man it was a weird bit of deja vu when I picked up the still sealed cars, because it took me back to my birthday around 1982 or so when I first got this set. I know I still have these three somewhere in storage.

The cool thing about finding a lot of the shipping boxes and crates is that there is a lot of really cool typography that I find pretty inspirational.

The big round object is what I assume is a Society of Creative Anachronism viking shield. I was labeled "Wagon Wheel".

There are a lot of LEGO knockoffs nowadays, and I really want to do some digging into what and where these building blocks came from, and if they were precursors to the LEGO ones (which originally didn't snap together either like these).

I ended up with the very kick ass little shelf, but before I was going to hang it up to put art supplies in it, I wanted to put some polyurethane on it.

It really brought out the colors in the wood.

And so with the newest shelf addition to hold my inks and dyes, my studio status upgrades once again. Bit by bit, until I can either get more money in with more steady work, or win the lottery. Personally, I'd take the work.

I did work on a few other things, including this new podcast dealing with what I go through mentally when doing resumes, interviews, things like that. I try to find the humor in things so that I can face daily challenges with as much gusto and positive thought as I can.
I also have some more additions to my Art Creation playlist on my YouTube channel you can check out below.

The Visit the Moon art isn't going to the Moon anytime soon, but I will be on it's way to a show in Iowa tomorrow.

And last but not least, you can check out my new write up over on Tenacious Ninja, on the AT-AT mini vehicle review and build.

Until next time, thanks for reading, watching, and listening to what I do. If you'd like to help me keep creating this sort of stuff, check out my store at the link above, or on Patreon. Remember to support your local artists, be kind to your fellow beings, and always take the path less traveled!

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue
Illustrator, Podcaster, Writer, Toy Collector, and Animal Rights Activist

www.theartisanrogue.com

Stay on target...

First attempt at learning to build a platform video game.

I know, I know! Kansas City Comic Con is coming up in less than a month's time now, and that is definitely something I am trying to prepare myself for. I've got new artworks in progress and will get some of that up for you all to see in the update just prior to the show.

Otherwise, I've still been busy. I've been working weird hours now, and have been taking a good chunk of this weekend to slow down some, and work on starting and finishing various things I had going on.

The other day, I had a moment of inspiration strike...

"Earlier today as I was unpacking old games, I found my old cassette Walkman, I put some batteries in it, and as I pushed the play button, the cassette, Cinderella's Long Cold Winter started up. I had not touched this thing in 21 years or so, and the music sent shivers down my spine moment was when I realized the song was "Take me back". I suddenly was back in high school memory overload and remember the exact moment I pushed stop on the song. I've had that song stuck in my head all day and have been writing down some old memories I had forgotten. So freaking weird."

with the end result of it being that I wanted to learn how to build a platform game. I mean, inspiration hit, and this idea that I could do with that, came into focus so strong, I had no choice but to see how to solve this.

So I spent Friday night in a span of 5 hours quickly working on rough random graphic elements in Illustrator and bringing them into a game engine to see how fast I could learn how to set up a quick interactive game.

The result is this screen cap recording below of a few minutes of debug testing play time on a very rough platform based game.

I have a direction I am planning on taking this, but in the mean time, I will keep attempting to learn more about just the general building of games, and slowly start working on the graphic assets for the idea I have, so that when the time comes, it will all hopefully go together rather smoothly.

Commission of the Bubblegum Crisis character Nene Romanova. 9"x12" on Bristol Board in markers.

In other things, I had been doing a run of illustrations from commissions like the one above of Nene Romanova, to Lily Spitfyre's new logo just below...

Logo design created for the awesome Lily Spitfyre.

To bringing Topsybot 5000 into being. I love all the bot designs that ICWXP has, but Topsy is probably my favorite.

New artwork created of Topsybot 5000 from the world of Incognito Cinema Warriors.

And here's a time lapse video of the creation of this particular illustration as well!

One more unique commission I was requested to make was one using a very cool set of armor design from the creators at Brick Warrior, who make wonderful LEGO compatible items.

The suit painted up very nicely, and there are two of these armor suits in progress at the moment. I'll have more pictures and a full review of this custom job in progress soon over on Tenacious Ninja Toy Blog.

Brick Warrior custom job in progress, to be featured in my next update on Tenacious Ninja toy blog!

Last weekend I was down on South 13 HWY on the way to Clinton, and had realized that there were more than a few dilapidated and worn down abandoned buildings around some areas of the drive.

I had not seen this place in a good while, but man was it ever perfect for photographing for illustration reference, and possibly for using for some filming if anyone was in the need for an abandoned place.

When I have time on weekends, I am always on the lookout for odd or abandoned places for reference.

So that's about it for now. I hope to have more up soon, but adjusting to new work hours, projects, and all that, has me in a bit of a spin.

Thanks all for reading and listening and following my odd little endeavors. If you want to support me in a cool and more direct way, I am updating my Patreon acct once again this weekend, and that's a great way to help me keep at what I am doing now.

Till next time, enjoy Pokemon Go, your family, the simple things, and laughter.

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue
Illustrator, Podcaster, Writer, Toy Collector, and Animal Rights Activist

www.theartisanrogue.com