Happy Holidays!

I wanted to get in one last post before the end of the year.  Sketchbot wishes you all a Happy Holidays and a great start to the New Year.

I'm cooking up some new goodies for New York Comic Con (only 5 weeks away!) so stay tuned and see what comes out of the oven.

One more thing as the NFL post-season begins - GO GIANTS!

Plushiepalooza

I've been meaning to post up a slew of pictures since returning from an amazing week-long trip to Seattle for Thanksgiving.  Jonlyn and I walked around quite a bit on our first day in the city, and we stumbled upon one great little gallery space after another.  There's this funky shop called The Anne Bonny, and upstairs is Coco Howard's studio.  We were then pointed in the direction of Schmancy, where we met the incredibly nice Kristen Rask.  If you're into inventive uses of all things plush you've got to check out her shop.  Kristen reminded us about a plush show that opened last week at Gallery Hanahou here in NYC.  There's an incredible array of plushies on display for the next month, and I encourage you to check them out in person.   Be sure to peruse my Flickr set devoted to all things plushie here.  I've always had a few designs in mind that would lend themselves perfectly to the plush format and will definitely be exploring this medium in the new year!

Collab with Fabric Lenny

Just back from an amazing week in Seattle and I wanted to post up some photos of the collab piece I did with Fabric Lenny for his upcoming show at Low Space Gallery. He sent me a set of wooden Russian Dolls that were half-painted and left for me to finish. As you can see, I was in full "serpent/sperm" mode after using a similar motif on my DCTO piece. Be sure to catch his show this Friday, Dec. 5th,  if you happen to be on the other side of the pond!  Check out a plethora of Lenny's work here.

DCTO Sneak Peak

Here's a few snaps of my DCTO for Dacosta Bayley's upcoming Dreams To Dreams custom show.

Happy Birthday Sketchbot!

Today marks a full year since the Sketchbot blog went live.  The character has come a long way over the past 12 months, evolving from a simple silhouette sketch to a full-fledged, resin cast prototype.  I've also acquired a bit of recognition as a fledgling custom artist, having participated in seven custom shows since the beginning of the year, and in the process of completing two more.  Next year promises to be an exciting one, with the plan for Sketchbot to become fully realized as a designer vinyl toy accompanied by an art show.  I'm working on something small for NY Comic Con in early February, so stay tuned for more details.   In the meantime, I've got a couple of freelance gigs that need my immediate attention, as their completion will help greatly in funding the Sketchbot venture.

Dreams to Dreams Custom Vinyl Show 2008

I'm putting the finishing touches on my next piece, Dacosta Bayley's DCTO (Dreams Come True Object) daruma vinyl for the first custom toy show to be held in a museum - the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, CA. Opening reception will be held on Saturday, December 6th, 1-4pm, and the show will run from Dec 1st thru January 4th. I'll post a sneak sometime next week. By the looks of that artist list, this is going to be a show not to miss!

Friday Night Openings - kaNO's "Bodega' @ MPH

Last night, My Plastic Heart hosted the launch of kaNO's latest designer vinyl toy, Bodega. The character is based on the small juice bottle drinks that were widely available at the corner bodegas. I personally like the use of transparency in this new character, along with the proportion of the spray cap serving as the character's head. This run is limited to 300, so be sure to visit MPH in person or online to pick one up. More pics from the opening here on my Flickr.

Friday Night Openings - Osaka Popstar Devil Dog at The Showroom

The second show we saw last Friday night was at Toy Tokyo's The Showroom, featuring Osaka Popstar's Devil Dog platform.  There were an enormous amount of pieces on display, with a few celebrity signed pieces by Rose McGowan, Robert Rodriguez and Seth Rogen.  Plenty more pics up on my Flickr set, and also at the Devil Dog Art Show preview page.

Friday Night Openings - APW Halloween Show

Looks like I just found the title for a new posting series, "Friday Night Openings."  It seems there are more custom art show openings than ever taking place in NYC.  This past Friday night was no exception.  The first stop was APW Gallery to check out their Halloween Custom Toy Show.  There were quite a few excellent pieces on display, among them entries from Osiris Orion, Patrick Fransisco, forcefeed:swede, Rebelwookiee, and a slew of other.  I also discovered a totally new (to me), extremely cool character that I had been unaware of - the lightbulb-shaped platform toy 'Ouip' by delitoys.  Hans Yim and Kerry Lee have been putting on top-quality shows on a regular basis, and it will be very interesting to see what they do with a larger space set to open next year in Long Island.  Check out the full photo set here on Flickr.

Pumpkin Fence - Cobble Hill

This impressive array of pumpkins - on view in the beautiful Brooklyn neighborhood of Cobble Hill - is one of the more inventive displays I've seen out there. 100 small pumpkins have been hollowed out from underneath and impaled on individual stakes of the fence. These are left up until they fully rot, turning the display into a ghastly, drooping procession. More photos in my Halloween 08 photoset on Flickr.

Pumpkins '08

We got replacement pumpkins from the same stand upstate and finally got 'em both carved up this afternoon. They turned out better than I expected, considering they were fairly thick to cut through.

Demo Reel Updated!

So, I desperately needed to update my demo reel. I've had this amazing piece of music from Lalo Schifrin in mind to use, like, forever. I'm posting on Vimeo because they allow larger file sizes with somewhat better compression than youTube. You can also download the full-size, uncompressed version from there.

UPDATE - Credit list now up on my personal website.


Steve Talkowski Reel 08 from Steve Talkowski on Vimeo.

Kathie Olivas and Obama '08 Show Openings

There were quite a few events happening this past Friday night in NYC, and the two we saw were well worth the time spent waiting in line.

First up was Kathie Olivas' stunning "Uninvited Guests" show at My Plastic Heart. Pretty much the entire show sold out and lots of people waited in line to get stuff signed. Brandt Peters was also there tagging sketchbooks. Additional photos here.



Next up was the incredible "Art + Action = Obama 08" Barack Obama Action Figure custom show at The Showroom NYC at Toy Tokyo. I wasn't one of the participating artists in this show, but I wish I was! There were many gorgeous pieces on display. The good news - due to overwhelming demand, the show has been extended until Oct 22th, so be sure to check it out if you get the opportunity! I've got plenty more shots up at this Flickr set.

Sketchbot On The Move

Playing around with some rendering ideas for a possible 2d animation approach.

Pumpkin Time - MINOR SETBACK :(

We got these killer pumpkins while upstate last weekend. Paid a butt load for both and didn't want to carve them too early. Well, now they are deteriorating terribly and we're gonna have to scrap 'em. grrrr

Oh well. I'll just have to adapt the designs for whatever new shapes we acquire. Let me know which ones (all 4 sets viewable on my Flickr) ya'll would like to see make it to final carving!

Soft and Furry Site Updated

Cypher13 have updated their Soft and Furry website! You can now check out pictures from opening night at Plastic Chapel, view multiple angles of each piece, and order those still available (hint ;) from their online store. They're also planning a future book that will feature interviews from all the participating artists, so be sure to check back for developments on that too.

iPhone/iPod Touch Wallpaper

I'd like to offer up one of my custom images that I've been using as wallpaper for my iPhone to all the Sketchbot readers out there who also drink the Apple koolaid. Enjoy!

Post-It Slinkies!

EepyBird's Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

Saw this on Gizmodo and had to share it with Sketchbot readers. (Ok, so I also wanted to try embedding a Vimeo link into a blog post) ;)

Pictoplasma NYC Begins Tonight

Just a quick reminder - PICTOPLASMA NYC begins with a party tonight, followed by two days chock full of speaker presentations and character animation screenings Friday and Saturday. I'll be attending both days, so if you happen to see me in between presentations, hit me up for a Sketchbot sticker!

Custom Groond up on JoyEngine

Guess the cat is somewhat out of the bag... ;)

http://www.joyengine.com/tag/steve-talkowski/

My Photoshop mock up is on the upper right corner.

Soft and Furry Sneak Peek

Here's a little peek at my entry for the Soft and Furry show.

Upcoming Show - Cypher13's Soft and Furry

No sleep for us customizers - next show up is Cypher13's Soft&Furry show at Plastic Chapel in Denver, CO, featuring Looft, Doo, and Groond. I only had time to do one, and picked Groond. The show is September 13th, and I'll be sending my entry out in a few days. Stay tuned for some sneak peaks...

House of Liu Custom for APW Gallery Show

Here's my piece for the APW Gallery "House of Liu" Custom show taking place tonight.

More pictures up here, and at APW's site here.