A state of Paul

Hey guys

So as many of you may already know ASOT 500 happened, and for those that don't ASOT Stands for A state of trance and they are celebrating their 500th episode which kicked off here in Sunny South Africa in Jo burg to be more exact.


So wow where do I start, well lets take it from when we got there.

After devouring some nando's in the car we arrived found great parking bought glow sticks shrugged off scalpers and generally got ourselves into a party mood.

Then the almighty queue happened fast forward an hour and Finally we crossed the threshold into what i would call one of if not the most awesome dance music event I've ever been too. The atmosphere was truly electric mostly due to about a thousand speakers and lights, oh and yeah 20 000 fucking people all there to have fun may have helped too.

I am gonna say that aside from the waiting to get in and all, everything was really well organized and also very professionally set up as you got there you could see Armin himself with the ASOT team broadcasting the event live and all the fans myself included clamouring to get a pic of him....dont judge me I'm allowed a lil hero worship ;P


I don't wanna waffle on about how awesome the sets were and how great the sound quality was and how quickly Icould get my redbulls, and I can go on about the awesome people I met and their were a few,
 But I won't instead, ill tell you bout how proud I'm that A local boy like Protoculture played an amazing set and did us South African Trancers proud and that for the 2nd time ever I felt I actually got more than I paid for with this gig last time was the prodigy which was awesome too btw.

And lastly I got a chance to chat to Blake Jarrel and Rubin van Buuren who were both really chilled out humble dudes considering how popular they are in the dance music scene and Blake even signed my copy of ASOT 2011 that I got at the party.

All in all it was an awesome weekend and my blog is late because of how trashed I was yesterday, it's a deep buuuurn lol

http://www.astateoftrance.com/
incase you wanna check out more.

Now for some JOE stuff yeah i know you been dying for this :D I think.

On Sunday I somehow managed to muster up the courage to sculpt some 1/18 scale custom gijoe heads.
I've been wanting to do this ever since I first saw other customs online, and yeah I manned the fuck up and got right into it, I think Stephens awesome custom lighting job on the Flagg was a major inspirational factor in me wanting to kick in and contribute to some of that awesomeness.

Customizing joes is something I'm used to but the last time I really did it was when I was still a kid in fact my buddy Dave and I pretty much repainted and retooled our entire joe collection. Hence I have no classic joe left now.

Looking back i wished i hadn't but whatever i have more Joes now and i'm smarter ok a lil bit smarter bout it now plus an airbrush and dremel tool help.

OK so what are we looking at here 

Heres the first two prototypes infact there were 4 but they were sacrificed in the pursuit of perfection, actually they got scorched in the oven when i baked the Sculpey.

Its how we learn infact I made em to be sacrificial lambs so that i knew how long how much etc.

I'm happy with my prototypes the one is a touch too small the other a tad big but with sculpey you can sand it when cured, so the big head will get smaller.
Then it's on to some hairstyles and molding so i can make more.

What I did

1. Looked up lots of joe customizing sites I will list them just now
2. Acquired sculpey
3. Spoke to some old ladies who knew their shit, the make miniature houses and furniture...word
4. practiced and messed around with what I knew and kept a small piece of note pad to make, well notes of course.

Some tips and I will post A work in progress when i get my technique down.

Sculpey is worth the hype get your hands on some
get some basic plastic or wooden sculpting tools they work very wel and helped alot.
USE REFERENCE try copy something that exists I used my POC duke as a scale and size ref and still messed up a lil

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE AND HAVE FUN.

Also Sculpey doesn't melt so use a small non flammable board when placing it in the oven and also make notes of how long your oven takes to scorch your Sculpey, I'm glad I did. else the pics your about to see would've been burnt offerings.

Also placing the head over the neck ball joint of a joe upper torso will help you a bit.

But ill have A work in prog soon with a mini tutorial.

enough Paul chatter

here's some pics


And you guys rock for reading this

Not signed by Armin but by Blake Jarrel who rocked the house,

Ill get Armins soon though :D

Imagine this brighter with 20 000 people

Ditto but with loud uplifting trance

The man himself

Heh heh partied out Paul

Yeah partied out Paul Self portrait

yup my first attempts, always open to advice and always happy to share my knowledge so feel free to drop a comment or 2

One crazy week

Hey guys

Ok wow crazy week hey infact crazy year so far.

Two massive earthquakes, a Tsunami and Artists block..... seriously

SO yes I'm sure someone is saying the end is nigh, and others are saying the great shift is nigh and others are hoping to see god or zeus or whoever burn in from the atmosphere and tear us humans a new one.



Also if anyone knows anyone in Libya that knows what the hell is happening over there, could you please tell us cos damn with the news the way it is they are severely smokescreening the Libyan conflict. Is it even a conflict I dont know cos yes news on it is scarce.


Wow I keep wanting to say something empowering and positive to those of you in Japan and New Zealand and I'm really powerless I can't really say anything without sounding like a hypocrite. What do I say wthout sounding trite and pretentious.

All I can do is salute both countries, and hope for the best.


So yeah last 2 weeks have been nuts, been on a creative block so haven't produced any work that I'm particularily proud of, I have however been very busy practicing which is what I feel is the best thing to do in a creative slump.

Been going through my colour theory, anatomy, pencil technique and have even tried other ways of holding my pencil.
 It doesn't make the situation any less miserable but at least I don't feel like I've pissed two weeks away being mopey.
Because I've used the time to better myself and in The Empire Strikes Back Yoda has a lil something to say about being mindful of where you are now which has been resonating with me these last coupla weeks.

By Yoda I mean the real Yoda from Empire and Return, not cg captain obvious yoda from episodes 1,2,3.
Choose the wrong Yoda and you'll get crap advice, simple.

Also for those of you who care I'm now single, I'm sure this is somehow affecting my mood too.
thought you should know.

As always thanks for reading.

Sorry if this has been a miffy lil blog post, but I feel miffy or shit, yes shit is more manly than miffy.


So I'm sorry if I put you all in a shit mood.

Also a big shout out to David Harpestad at Yojoesa.co.za for being my Gi joe pusher you are truly an awesome dude.

If your a fan of the awesome that is Gi joe or Transformers please check out his Bid or buy page.

http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/seller/422509/yojoe?pageNo=2

And if you enjoy some crazy Joe reviews with a local flavour go check out my boy, Stephens Blog.

http://arealsouthafricanhero.blogspot.com/


And now for some artwork :D


Yes I just finished this it's fresh and yeah I kinda dig it, in fact I dig it a lot and I used a very limited palette, practice, practice, practice remember.


Pink was used to bring out the greens yellows and blues, decided cool foreground would add a creepy feel.
Also split the lighting a lil to help give him a lighter side of evil.

Here is the artwork

Hey there all


8 of you now, wow I'm nearly big enough to get AdSense on here.

Firstly a rant; 'cos I wanna:

Have any of you encountered these power bracelets that are designed to centralise your energy and promote well being and balance throughout your body, they also serve to help you stabilise your vibrations and other such energies.

Well, if you haven't seen 'em then you must live in an awesome cave 'cos yeah they're everywhere and are apparently so amazing that you can expect to pay up to R450.00 for one.
 I hear that they also protect you from the harmful electromagnetic radiation that is now abundant in the world we live in today.They are also making some asshole a whole lot of money and yes, you asshole, I mean you.

Kudos though for managing to make something that is tantamount to an elastic band the most important gimmick of the last 2 years 'cos admittedly, foil cone hats would probably not be fashionable for at least another 5 years or so.
Once again kudos to you.

 Also to those of you that own one, I want you to listen closely, this is very important. In fact, make sure no one is around, because this will most likely help you a lot more than your power bracelet do-hickey:
I want you to take out R450 and a lighter, now take off your clothes and put the R450 on something non-flammable (I bet you know where this is going).Ok now make loud gorrilla noises while setting the money on fire, but please be careful; you can burn your house down so maybe some adult supervision is required.
Now, after the money has completely burnt away, I want you to walk outside and tell the first beggar you meet that you just burnt 450 bucks while performing the above mentioned procedure.

A startling realization may suddenly occur to you, either before or after you tell the beggar what you did.

And in point form:

You'll be bleeding out of your face, while the beggar laughs at you.
You can tell the beggar you've done it twice,  because you already did that by buying a power bracelet; you'll get hit again so do so at own risk.
• OR you'll realise that you're too fucking embarrassed to tell a beggar that you just burnt money and hopefully you'll also realise that you actually had more fun acting like an ass while literally burning money than you have ever had with that silly bracelet.

Okay, that's my rant. I do apologise if I offended you, and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe your bracelet is helping you with your burgeoning issue with flatulence.
 All I'm trying to say here is, use your head and think for yourself. If you disagree with me, thats great, but then again I havent wasted my money on a holographic rubber band in the hopes that ill lean to the left no longer.

 I admit, I do spend money on toys, and maybe I'm at fault there too, but at least I know my toys wont improve my balance and that they'll greatly endanger my sex life, but hey who wants to sleep with a girl that doesn't enjoy toys right? 

Okay, so I hope that was fun, it was for me.

I also wanted to show you guys a sample of the new artwork, below you'll see a basic work in progress and I don't want to reveal too much before the final is out.

Please note this is a preview for work that is in progress and is intended for publishing any copyright infringement will have you met with their lawyers.

The client is satan btw and he has the best lawyers, just saying.

The offending bracelets I have removed the branding to avoid lawsuits :

Hey guys be excellent to each other and party on


Kind Regards
Paul Loubser