Nathan Bowers

Remember when I talked about a huge artistic breakthrough that dwarfed everything else I did in March?

Here it is:

In true blocked artist style I had been putting the sculpting off even though I had an excellent guide to DIY toy sculpting sitting on my desk.

I’d tell myself: “I’ll just do a few more sketches then sculpt.”

Or worse: “What if my sculpting is awful and this desire to make and sell toys is just a stupid fantasy?”

Or the worst fear of all: “What if I actually can do this?”

Humans are amazing. While we intellectually know that our species is capable of creative feats like discovering General Relativity or writing the Moonlight Sonata, a blank canvas or fresh block of polymer clay can still terrify us.

Of course, once you actually sit down and start working the fear just evaporates. The same thing happens when you first start strength training. It’s impossible to be afraid of looking stupid because holding 180lbs. of iron above your face puts you in the moment.

This post is titled “How I became a sculptor” and by now you may be wondering when I’m going to get to the how-to part. Well, that’s why I didn’t title this “How I became a successful (or rich, or award winning, or devastatingly handsome) sculptor.” The first, only, and most terrifying step is to sit down with a lump of clay. Maybe you’ll be a huge success, maybe everyone will hate your work, but either way you’ll never find yourself in the ludicrous position of lying on your deathbed wondering what would have happened if you had just purchased that $12 brick of Sculpey.

There will be more about the creative/sculpting/toy casting process in future posts, but for now if you’d like to be notified when you can actually purchase my work sign up for my mailing list at MonstroBots.com.

P.S. – What would be a good name for an 8-eyed toothy monster?