Unpacking from the move to Las Vegas, I discovered a long-lost book.  A beloved story from my youth. 

At 5 years old, some of my fondest memories were of my Mom reading stories to me.  A tradition passed down through generations.  It continues as I've watched my cousin read to her son.

One of those stories read to me was a Japanese folktale called "Momotaro".  The title translates to "Peach Boy". 

There are variations of the story, but the one I grew up with came from this 1972 Island Heritage book, illustrated by George Suyeoka.

In this version, an elderly couple wishes for a child of their own.  Their wish is fulfilled when a baby emerges from a giant peach they find.  The boy is hardworking and becomes a skilled samurai.

He eventually embarks on a journey to free his homeland from the tyranny of evil oni (Japanese ogres/demons).  On his journey, he befriends a dog, monkey, and pheasant.  Together they travel to a remote island to confront the oni.

They defeat the ogres and return the village treasure.

I remember asking my Mom to read me the story over and over again.  I was so inspired by the book that decades later, it became the inspiration for one of my samurai armor designs.

After finding it, I re-read the book looking at it through adult eyes.  The illustrations for the story were so ingrained in my memory that I remember details of the drawings.  I remembered the imagery more than I did the words.

That's why I became a visual artist I suppose.

Renderings of landscapes and waves felt reminiscent of Japanese woodblock prints.  But the illustrations display a fusion of aesthetics as characters had a distinct Hawaii style to their appearance.

I guess it's fitting that I chose this particular rendition of Momotaro to pattern my armor after since it's mix of Eastern and Pacific styles mirror the fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics in my own art.

As I reflected on the book's artwork, I noticed how violent the story was.  There was mention of the oni who "rob and torture and kill" villagers and a description of the dog who "bit off the guard's heads".

A bit graphic for a modern children's book?

Maybe I'll ask my cousin if she thinks the story is too violent to read to her 5 year old.  But I turned out ok - I think.

If you'd like to read more about my Momotaro armor design inspired by this book click here.

In the coming weeks, I'll be starting to 3D print a full-size version of my Momotaro armor with the help of my friends at Lulzbot and 3D Fuel.  Stay tuned.

The artist proof is currently on display at 3D Fuel headquarters in North Dakota.

Please share your favorite folktale you grew up with in the comments below.

A hui hou.

It's been a while since I've posted a blog or updated my social media.  What happened to me?

Between my chronic fatigue and the pandemic, I ended up in a period of productive hibernation.  But I spent the last couple of months dusting off the cobwebs preparing to get the creative wheels turning again.

However, I find myself dusting off the cobwebs in a different place.  Not just mentally, but physically.  I no longer reside in Hawaii...

After my trip to Washington state and appearance at the Kauai Comic Convention in 2019, the chronic fatigue shut me down for a few months.  I spent that time contemplating my future.

Several years ago, I realized my artistic future wasn't in Hawaii.  A fact staring me in the face. But, for me to leave, I had to overcome two major hurdles.

The first hurdle was the internal struggle. 

I would give up the only home I've ever known.  Live far from friends and family.  The closest destination for my plans was over 2,500 miles away.  And the culture in the islands is very different from the mainland or anywhere in the world for that matter.  How would I adjust to another lifestyle?  Could I adjust?

My second hurdle was external factors: the timing and my health.

Even if I set my mind on venturing beyond my tiny home in the middle of the Pacific, the situation had to be right for me to leave.  I previously had ties and familial responsibilities that kept me in the islands.

As time went on, circumstances changed, but my health declined.  Nerve damage and chronic fatigue took their toll.  Over three years of recovery, and I finally felt strong enough to consider moving from Hawaii.  Then the pandemic struck.  Throwing the world for a loop.

Hawaii is a double-edged sword.  What makes it so beautiful and unique is also what makes it difficult and unforgiving - its isolation.

So after some soul and internet searching, the decision was made to leave the eight islands in the middle of the Pacific and move to the 9th island...Las Vegas.

The questions facing me turned from "do I leave" to "when do I leave?"  Do I wait for the pandemic to pass?  If I wait, what can I do creatively while I wait?  Or, do I leave when it seems safe enough?  I chose the second option.

When I tell people that I moved from Hawaii, I usually get one of two responses.

"Why would you want to leave Hawaii?" or, "Yeah, makes sense."  It all depends on who I'm talking to.  Hawaii people usually give me the latter response.  Islanders understand the price of living in paradise.

Now that I'm in Las Vegas, what's next?  Resuming my relationship with old friends at 3D Fuel.  And starting a new relationship with LulzBot. 

I'll be posting updates here on my blog and on social media with details on my sponsorships with 3D Fuel and LulzBot.  Please follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to the right.  Stay tuned...

Till next time, a hui hou. ​

In retrospect. 2018 was a transitional year for me. It was a year spent finding ways to cope with chronic fatigue due to nerve damage from the shingles virus almost two years ago.

It was a year of finding ways to put my life back on track. The first half of the year was largely trying to stay stress-free and give my body time to hopefully recover.

Of course, no matter how hard you try, life is never stress-free.

Somewhere during that time, I began a resto-mod of my Tombo Kabuto, preparing it for its new home at the second location of a Hawaii themed restaurant, Kona Kitchen, coming soon to Lynnwood, Washington.

Both locations are owned by actor Yuji Okumoto, who played one of my favorite childhood bad guys...Chozen from the Karate Kid Part II.

More on that project soon.

Toward the latter half of 2018, I reconnected with some friends at 3D Fuel. 
3D Fuel produces 3D printing filaments to meet a variety of needs including high impact PLA and unique composite materials made from hemp, coffee, and beer.

John and Carl (3D Fuel) and I discussed sponsorship possibilities. Timing was good, I was just getting back on my feet and back to work.

3D Fuel's sponsorship also provided an opportunity to pick up on a project that has been on hold since 2016 because of family health issues...the Momotaro Armor. Its design is inspired by the Japanese Folk tale "Momotaro" my Mother read to me as a child.

A big thank you to my new sponsors.  John and Carl, thank you for making this happen and I'm looking forward to awesome creations with 3D Fuel.

Great people, great products.  Please check them out at www.3Dfuel.com.

I'll follow up soon with more about the inspiration behind the Momotaro Armor and a reveal of the design itself along with details of what's to come.

In the meantime, check back here on my blog for updates on all my projects and follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter where I'll be posting progress pics of the Tombo Kabuto.

Till next time, a hui hou.

How times have changed. When I was a kid, I hated eating vegetables and watching anything educational. I also dreaded research projects in school, especially creating bibliographies.

Now, I eat veggies on a regular basis...ok...I don't dread eating vegetables. I often find the shows on the Science, Discovery and Smithsonian Channels the most interesting things on TV. And I find myself researching almost constantly.

What do I research? Everything. Among other things, cars, electronics, and... armor.

With the armor comes a lot of history, culture and philosophy, in addition to the things you would expect to be associated with armor such as metallurgy, weapons and fighting styles. And lacing!

I love European and Asian medieval armor. But the armor of the Samurai really captures my imagination. The way they are traditionally displayed sitting with their anthropomorphized masks, they look like their own being.

Like they could stand up to greet you or to challenge you.

It's what inspires many of my armor designs. You can see some of my works here.

To that end, I'm about to embark on a research project to learn more about historical Samurai armor functionality and construction by building a ½ scale version of Date Masamune's armor from DeAgostini. I'll be posting a build diary to the ModelSpace USA forum.  Link to my build diary soon.

Who was Date Masamune? For those who want to know more about him but don't trust the Wikipedia entries you can visit the Sendai Museum site. If anyone has better information about Date Masamune please share it in the comments below.

In the ModelSpace USA diary, I'll be focusing on the mechanics of the actual build. Pointing out things I did differently or observations about particular assembly steps.

I'll also do supplemental posts here in my blog. My posts here will focus on my thoughts about the traditional Samurai armor design and construction and how, what I've learned from this build, may influence my future armor designs.

Stay tuned.

Please feel free to leave any thoughts you have about my research project or let me know if you've ever done a build like this as a research project in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by.

I happened across this video of Nika Harper's presentation, "How To Become Fireproof: Surviving Internet Negativity" at the Game Developers Conference 2014 and had thought of Tweeting it. 

It touches on a topic that affects us all both on and off the internet - negativity.  So I felt compelled to express my thoughts and reactions.

Being from the Game Developers Conference, it looks at negativity from the viewpoint of a developer receiving negative comments but at its core, much of the thoughts and techniques for dealing with negativity are universal.

Having grown up bullied, I have especially struggled dealing with negative comments.  Most people probably do, even people who have confidence and great self-esteem. 

My wife and I have often talked about how bullying was when we were growing up and how much more difficult it is for kids today with how far reaching and easy it is to bully others through social media.

For this posting I wanted to introduce the video.  I thought it was significant enough to say a bit about why this video interested me so much.  For those interested, I will follow up with a second posting focused more on my thought on individual points from the video.

Please leave a comment below with your thoughts on the video or negativity or negative people.

The Surface Pro 4 was recently announced so was the Surface Book.  Both computers were of great interest to me.

So with that being said, I am not normally an early adopter, especially of technology.  In fact, when it comes to computers, I usually run it until it dies or it can't run the software I need.

One of those exceptions was the Surface Pro.  upgrading from an Android tablet, I bought the first gen Surface Pro as soon as it was available.  I did forego the second Surface Pro.  While It did address some of the limitations of its predecessor, I felt that it didn't offer a significant enough of an upgrade in performance and form factor for me.

The Surface Pro 3 was a huge jump from the first gen.  I pre-ordered it and got it as soon as it was available.  I have not been disappointed.

One of my initial fears was Microsoft's use of the N-Trig technology.  One of my main uses was as a digital sketchbook.  I did research the differences between N-Trig and Wacom technology especially the pressure sensitivity.  I found this great article.  It was one of the deciding factors for me.

Ultimately, I was sold enough on the N-Trig technology to move forward and purchase a Surface Pro 3.

I am temped to purchase the Surface Pro 4.  I like a lot of the improvements.  But the Surface Pro 3 is holding up well for me so far, and the improvements don't seem like they would impact my work too much.  I am hoping that there will be a big leap in improvements from gen 4 to 5 like there was between gen 2 to 3.

I like the Surface Book form factor.  It sounds like it will be the solution for many people looking for more battery life or processing power.  It will also be the solution for those who want the "laptop experience".  For me, the Surface Pro 3 has great processing power for what I do and decent battery life.  I also don't often use it in my lap. 

The lighter weight and slimmer profile of the Surface slate form factor is more beneficial to me than a larger longer lasting battery.  I'm on the road sometimes and I don't know if I'll need my computer or not.  I also sometimes find myself with some time to kill especially when plans change at the last minute. 

In either case, the Surface Pro 3 is small and light enough for me to carry just about all the time.  So I have full computing power handy all the time.

So I don't see myself being in the market for the Surface Book.  But I do see a solid place for it in the Microsoft Surface product line.

Please leave your thoughts about the Surface Pro 4 or the Surface Book in the comments section below.

Just about everyone feels like they don't belong at some point in their life.   Well, earlier this year, while showing some of my pieces at the 3D Printer World Expo, I found out how much of an outsider I really was.

Just after the Expo ended, I had the chance to sit down with some of my fellow digital and traditional artists from the show.  Everyone introduced themselves and what digital tools they use to create their 3D models.  Going around the group, everyone mentioned NURBS and how difficult it was.  In fact, everyone seemed to have a NURBS horror story.

I was last.  I gave my name and said I was a NURBS modeler.  That got a laugh from the group.  Then it went silent.  And somebody said, "seriously?"  I said, "yeah".

Out of a group of 15 artists, I was the only one who didn't hate NURBS.  Not only that, I use NURBS as my primary modeling tool...almost exclusively.

I am self taught. I got started from manuals and, back then (about 18+ years ago), books.  The software and hardware was very specialized and in most cases, very expensive. Not much of a consumer and hobbyist market.

Because I am self taught, the way I do things is unconventional. This has been both blessing and curse. I needed to learn as I went so, a lot of how I work feels like workarounds. 

On the other hand, it's led me to a pretty unique build and unique designs.  It has pushed me to look outside the box for ideas and inspiration, even in other areas of my life.  I believe this is at least part of what draws attention to my work.

Long before my fateful artist roundtable in Burbank, I would have discussions with one of my colleagues about NUBRS and Polygons.  He is a former Art Director for a major video game company, who now teaches 3D modeling and runs his own software company.  He is partly self taught and partly classroom taught.

I gained a lot of insight into the world of polygon modeling and designing for video games from him.  I also see the differences (advantages and pitfalls) between being classroom and self taught.

Always being one to constantly learn.  I have been interested in expanding my 3D modeling tool set to include more polygon modeling skills. 

I'm not planning on changing my primary build style and tools.  But the more diverse your are, the better you can adapt to any situation.

Would like to hear any thoughts you have about NURBS vs. Polygon or any thoughts you have about self taught vs. classroom taught.