So as usual I am deep in the middle of 10 projects and I figured I would share what all is going on at Aradani.

First are my new paintings:

This one is for a contest I am in. Always cool to have a chance to paint a half scorpion half woman.

This one is called: Give Peace a Chance; Don’t Let Robots Kill Innocents. Fun image, sad thought. Read more »

So we had a blast as always at Connooga, the room parties were crazy this year. We were glad to get to hang out with some old friends and become better friends with others. Me and Paul were on a couple of good art panels and got to chill with some great artists, Mark Helwig, Larry Elmore, and Billy Tackett.

Me and Laura heading into the Bellydancing panel in our Steampunk costumes. she is trying out the new contacts she got at the show.

If anyone is on the fence about attending Connooga next year… do it!  Everything was great, good panels, good parties, great dealers room, and great guests.

Next we are working on getting ready for MidSouthCon. At this con me and paul have aton of panels, as well as hosting the Saturday night dance party.

On a costuming side, I am working on my second set of steampunk wings and a female version of the jungle cat prosthetic which is similar to a Avatar Navi.

New painting by me:

And I relaunched my portal site: michaelbielaczyc.com

Just added some stuff from my personal collection to Ebay. Some Steampunk / Sherlock Holmes coats, some pants, ect. If this goes over well, I may start adding some of my older costumes.

My Ebay listings

You can now order our silicone Jungle Cat mask at our Silicone page!

Silicone Cat Mask

So we had a blast at Chattacon. It was so good to see all of our friends, Robin and Andrew from Faerystone Creations, the Hypericon Crew, and all the rest. Both nights we partied like satyrs on a midsummer night, and got to wear some of our newer costumes. Paul won People’s Choice in the Art Show, and I won best Fantasy costume in the masquerade.

You can find pictures of our adventures here: http://aradani.com/photogallery/thumbnails.php?album=54

I am also working on a bunch of new projects. The Jungle cat mask (for Avatar Na’vi costumes that everyone is asking about) is finished, the silicone is curing in the mold right now. The latex version is finished as well. Tomorrow we are having some snow (hopefully) so besides taking some costume pics out in the weather, I will be taking photos of those new masks. Read more »

Day Final

Changes since the last post… I went in on the front reflection and added some other lines and highlights. The front just wasn’t bright enough.

After talking to some people who still didn’t understand the “crown” part of the tower, I got rid of it. It is gone, nothing more. This gave me more space in the background to provide references for where this is. I added more to the perimeter wall surrounding the tower (think Isengard layout). I also added some windows to the perimeter wall and guard tower to give a sense of distance and scale. Light cast from these windows can be seen on the ground inside the perimeter.

Finally I finished the ground behind the wizard, which provided a nice contrast to the white light on the opposite corner.

Well, there you have it. The diary is complete. Please let me know if I should do something like this with my next few pieces. Or if it was just too boring to see how ridiculously slow I work on art.

For those that are interested in dressing as a Na’vi, we are now offering our painted faun ears in a new default color, blue! Just order as normal, but choose “blue” for the drop down menu.

Technically these ears are not simply painted blue. The majority of the ear is painted a royal blue, with subtle lighter blue streaks across the top of the ear. The inner portion of the ear is painted using red and white to give it a nice pink. This fades out to the blues of the outside of the ear.

Anyway, this is such a subtle change on the website, that I thought it should be mentioned.

Click the image below.

We just have the basic coat up for now, but soon you will be able to add all sorts of options, like the tall collar, the big cuffs, make it shorter or longer or add a shoulder cape.

Sara’s article about one of her costumes this Halloween. Click the image above.