Photos of the Day: Todd “Dammit” Kerns of Slash feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators (Living the Dream Tour) — The Fillmore Silver Spring — October 2nd, 2018 / LEGO Dammit and LEGO Liz-O!
Happy Birthday, Todd Kerns! Hope you're having a mighty (morphin'!) good time in London performing at the Rock Vault!
They’re DONE! All of the LEGO Myles & LEGO Frankie figures that were ordered before December 16th have been packaged, handled, and are on their way to their new homes all over the globe!
If you haven’t gotten the chance to snatch up your own LEGO Myles or Frankie, do it now! This limited edition is running out fast!! Get yours at etsy.com/shop/ElizabethArtOwens!
(Oh, and just like with the LEGO Dammit set, I’ll be writing a “Project Recap” for these figures in a couple of weeks! After that, it will be Fitzy’s turn to become a LEGO Conspirator!!)
SPECIAL POST TIME! Meet LEGO Myles & LEGO Frankie!
The news is FINALLY out! From that person who made that LEGO figure of Todd Kerns that time… LEGO Myles and LEGO Frankie!
Like with the LEGO Dammit set, these premiere editions of LEGO Myles and LEGO Frankie figures are EXTREMELY LIMITED in stock, as each figure is meticulously hand-painted by yours truly. Get yours before they run out at Etsy.com/shop/ElizabethArtOwens!
Thanks so much to Jaime (who runs both myleskennedyjunkies and frank_sidoris_junkies!) for helping me with this project! (And for those who are curious: an edition of LEGO Fitzy figures, as well as an entire 4-figure combo set of "LEGO MK & The Conspirators", is in the works! Look for more news on that front in the new year. EXCITEMENT!)
Hand-Painted LEGO Minifigures and Custom Packaging — September 2015 (in partnership with Todd Kerns USA)
Want to know how a spur-of-the-moment idea inside a LEGO Store evolved into a tiny-yet-mighty set of custom-painted minifigures inspired by Todd “Dammit” Kerns (of Slash feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators), ready to “set this world on fire?” READ MORE and you’ll find out! Plus, I’ll be sharing some NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN photos that will break down how I took this set from “default” to “DAMMIT” in just seven days. Dammit Army, assemble!
When I was approached by Janette Martin in the first week of September about taking on a commission to make a full set of LEGO Todd “Dammit” Kerns minifigures for fans of the Todd Kerns USA Facebook fanpage, with the blessing of the REAL Todd Kerns himself, I was taken by surprise! At that time, only one hand-painted LEGO Dammit figure existed. On a day in July of 2014, my sister, Cathy, and I found a tiny piece of long, black, and wavy hair in the bins of assorted minifigure parts inside our local LEGO Store. To us, the piece looked JUST like Todd Kerns’ current hairstyle, so we decided to build a minifigure to match the rest of his likeness. Later that month, on a night when Internet service was down, I decided to “complete” the look by painting its torso and 3-string guitar, using equal parts acrylic paints, Sharpie markers, and clear drugstore nail polish.
We really liked how our tiny LEGO Conspirator turned out, as Cathy and I even took photos of (and with) LEGO Dammit almost ten months later in May at the SMK&C concert in Baltimore. (I even made a travel box with leftover cardstock, so I could safely stick the figure in my pocket during the gig!) However, since I was now being asked to make an entire set of LEGO Dammits as a commission, I saw it as an exciting challenge to immerse myself in a new art form. (And with less than two weeks until SMK&C started their final North American leg of the 2015 “World on Fire” Tour, I had to conquer that challenge, fast!)
Day 1: After spending the previous day at Tysons Corner Center’s LEGO Store, digging for two hours straight in bins filled with LEGO heads, hair, torsos, legs, and accessories for (almost!) enough parts to make ten total figures — nine to ship to Janette at Todd Kerns USA headquarters, and one to keep at home as a back-up — I was ready to paint! I began by painting thin base coats of black acrylic paint to the torsos, legs, and guitars, making sure to give each coat plenty of time to dry to the slippery plastic. (In the future, I’d recommend applying some type of paint primer to the plastic pieces before applying any paint. LEGO parts are NOT forgiving when it comes to smudges!)
Day 2: Halfway through the day, I was ready to add some white paint to the guitars! My design for the guitars was essentially an exaggerated hybrid between the “Stingray” and “Thunderbird” bass guitars that Todd had been using during gigs in 2014 and 2015, with a white accent color that stayed round on the left side of the guitar, but traced the edge of the right side, including a Nike-esque “swoop” to highlight the knobs at the bottom. I knew this part was going to be tricky to paint, and would involve a lot of back & forth with both black & white paint to keep the shape of the accent color clean and smooth. Patience was key!
Day 3: After having to take a few days away from the commission due to prior commitments, I immediately got back to work! I still needed to finish the details on the “swoop” design of the guitars, so I carefully painted the tiny parts, leaving the “strings” exposed until I finished every other detail. I didn’t want thick paint layers to cover up the original string decals, as I needed to use them as guidelines for the new strings!
Day 4: After lightly painting over the string decals, I VERY CAREFULLY placed 3 tiny strips of metallic silver striping tape on each of the guitars with a super-small pair of tweezers. I felt like I finally understood how one of the artisans of Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museums must feel when individually placing human hairs into the hollow wax casting of a celebrity’s likeness. Granted, the strings didn’t take anywhere near as long to place as a full head of hair, but it gave me a glimpse.
NOTE: Speaking of “hair,” I was only able to find four of the nine hair pieces I needed in-person at Tysons Corner — even with the help of my mom, Denise, as well as a couple of amazing LEGO associates whose names unfortunately escape me! — I ordered the rest from a seller on a third-party site called MyBrickLink, which was recommended to me by the LEGO Store associates. The rest of the hair pieces arrived at my house by the end of Day 4!
Day 5: Finally, the day came where I had to add the most important and distinct detail of them all: the red “DAMMIT” lettering on the torso. Much like the Bat Signal, the word “DAMMIT” has become the most recognizable part of Todd’s entire stage persona. Luckily, with the relief of finishing the tiny details on all nine (plus one “back-up”) guitar, I dove in with confidence. Hours later, I finished all ten torsos, added gold paint to the knobs of the guitars, and even added a “belt” design to the legs (as well as my initials!). With all of that, the painted parts were ready to be finished!
Day 6: The home stretch began as I started to design and craft the gift boxes for each figure, as well as the process of coating the painted pieces with numerous thin layers of acrylic gloss spray. (It was the only part of the job that, if it had been mishandled, could actually set the “world on fire,” literally. As in, for example, my house. Yikes!) Of course, nothing became a fire hazard, as the concrete of the front porch acted as my work area.
While waiting for each coat of the gloss spray to dry, I worked on the gift boxes. I found the template I made for the “proto-Dammit” box back in May, opened it in Adobe Illustrator, and used it as the basis for the new design. Packaging is one of my favorite things to design, especially for music-related items, so composing the look of the box came almost by instinct. After adding all of the essential “DAMMIT” graphics (i.e.: the “anti-star” on the back) and text copy, I immediately put the finished template design into Adobe InDesign and made it ready-to-print! All ten templates were printed with my favorite printer onto my favorite trade-secret paper, and were left to dry overnight.
Day 7: The final day of work began by spraying the last few coats of gloss coating onto the painted pieces, as I finally started scoring and cutting down each printed box design individually. (Many X-ACTO knife blades were lost and destroyed to deliver you this message today.) To trim the semi-circle cut-outs at the top of the front side of each box, I lightly traced a flat-ended round pencil to mimic the effect of a smooth, die-cut opening to the best of my ability. When all ten were FINALLY free from the confines of their paper templates, I folded each one up, secured each box’s glue tab, and used a water-based paint marker to add black pigment to any blank and exposed paper edges.
After seven days, the Dammits were done! While the “safety” LEGO Dammit stayed behind to become a still-life supermodel (as shown in the featured photoset), the rest of the figures were placed into their boxes and shipped off, to be distributed at TK USA HQ. While I just happy to see the fans’ reaction to receiving each of their own figures over the days and weeks that followed, one reaction in particular became my favorite unboxing video of all time. Todd Kerns finally met LEGO Todd Kerns:
And the rest was history! Special thanks to Janette Martin and the “TK Army” of the Todd Kerns USA fanpage, Denise Owens, Cathy Owens, Billy & Alan Owens (for actually placing them in the mail!), the associates of the LEGO Store at Tysons Corner Center, and, of course, to Todd “Dammit” Kerns. Thank you all!
(Oh, and for those of you who are curious, because I know you are: I am completely open to the prospect of painting more LEGO minifigures in the near future of multiple subjects. I’m not ready to say or do anything more than that at this very moment, so sit tight and stay tuned…!)
