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Tag: sculpting

2019 Sculptures : And a shout out to Olympus built cameras

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All ten bust sculpts from 2019. Some are done in Super Sculpey and some are done in Chavant NSP Hard, and Monster Clay Hard.

I finally got around to putting together a single page spread of last years sculptures, with all of them together, the good, the bad, and the indifferent. I completed less than half as many as I did the year before, but I chose to work the bulk of the years items in super sculpey, so that they could be baked and painted, which is different than the Chavant stuff, which are used to cast and mould items for larger production. I have yet to step into that ring, mainly because it is expensive, smelly and requires knowledge I do not yet have a firm grasp of. Plus I’m not a house hold name, and I’d hate to end up sitting on twenty five pieces of my own artwork for no reason other than hubris, thinking others would like my stuff even half as much as I do in some instances. I chose to add in the crappy sculpts too, because, Hey!, a good portion of creating is putting out garbage until you refine your skills enough to do something you are somewhat proud of. I haven’t put any new clay down yet so far this year, I do have an armature bulked out ready to go, but I’ve been focused on writing, reading, and drinking water until I can’t stand myself any more. I have a couple of ideas for what I will do, I’m just not ready to commit to it yet. I tend to see so many great things over on the Shiflett brothers sculpting forum on facebook, and on instagram, and I squirrel those images and ideas away until I can really get my head around it.

Also I wanted to give a shout out to my Olympus SP-500UZ which I bought in 2006, which is still going strong to this day. I came to turn it on today to get my collage done and it was dark, but with some new batteries, she is up and running and just a great as the day I got it. Although if I’d have had the money, a Pentax film camera would have been my go to, but just out of College/University I chose a point and shoot that had several more options and capabilities. This is pre digital SLR being ubiquitous and cost effective for noobs to own. Although the camera on my phone is really good for this sort of thing too.

One goal I am going to accomplish this year, if to do a full figure again. I started out doing whole people, and then couldn’t do faces and hands and feet. Spent some time with the Ninja Turtles as my muse and could do a passable three fingered hand, and two toed feet and then went to busts to really get to know a face; the eyes, ears, mouths and noses. I have yet to master any other those elements, but I can at least make things look human, or depict the essence of my subject. I think i got fairly close in 2018 with my Thanos, Yondu & Thor busts. Also a big reason I’ve calmed down on my output is that I have limited space in my office/studio for storage, and don’t want to have my rough work scattered throughout the house, or in the basement. We have Nerf® gun fights, and rough house down stairs and I’d get mad if my stuff got injured in the course of us having a family fun Nerf® gun fight. An errant bullet deforming an oil based clay sculpture would not be my favourite thing.

Oh, and another thing, the reason I did 60% of last years sculpting work in Sculpey was because I had ideas about painting them all, and taking the best paint job / best sculpted item to the Markham Fair. You see they don’t really have a sculpting category, but you can enter painted ceramics. Sculpey is ceramic like, but not ceramic. So I can enter to get people to see my work, but it doesn’t qualify for judging or prizing. Just eyeballs, and a chance to show friends and family my work out in public. Which is fun, so I have that going for me.

Recent bust sculpting

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As we near the end of the year I’d like to look at the last two or three sculpts that I have put together.  I managed to build 22 pieces in this calendar year, which felt really, really good. I covered some full figures, like Skeletor and some Ninja Turtles, and then transitioned into busts and portraits. I was fortunate enough to complete my first sculpting commission this year, of a Guild Wars II customized avatar. The last four pieces have really focused on the face and likeness of celebrities and family members alike. I think Yondu and Penguin captured the essence if not the complete likeness of the characters I was attempting to build. (As seen below)

Patton Oswalt “Penguin” from Badman
Marvel’s Gotg Yondu

The Guild Wars character is by far the closest I’ve come in respect to likeness. I was not as happy with the portrait sculpt of my youngest daughter Hannah, but it taught me a lot, and really helped to pin point where I still need to focus my attention. (Note to self : don’t use a glossy primer on polymer clay!)

Guild Wars II Customized Avatar (Unpainted and painted).

 

For now I am going to go back to Fantasy characters, such as those drawn by the likes of Adrian Smith. I will continue to hone my skills by doing sight copies of pieces done by sculptors I admire. It has been a real pleasure to cut out my own bases, from a tree that I cut into slabs, and round them off, sand them down, clear coat them, add cork feet, and build a sculpture on top. I think I will also try to add more wood working to the mix. I have a really great lathe sitting in pieces in my shop, so next year I’ll have to build a sturdy table, and then I can make more intricate bases. I’d like to find some exotic woods, and some nice stains, and if I manage to pull something really exciting out of my studio then perhaps a little brass plaque with finishing screws to name it and cap it off nicely. You know, like the pros do.

Not this year coming, but maybe the year after I’d like to try casting up some resin copies of my works. That’ll be a learning process in and of itself. Making a silicon mould, mixing the resin, getting the pours down properly, and then pulling them out correctly, and taking care of seam lines, and perhaps painting one up. It was actually kind of fun to bust out the paints to finish off my commission. I’m not a painter by any stretch so that was new and exciting. I think I’ll try to work more in Super Sculpey® so that I can bake and paint them if need be. Although to be honest I’m a huge fan of the Chavant NSP Hard oil based clay. I’m sure doing 30 some odd pieces in that medium might have something to do with that. I don’t think I’ll be able to do 22 items next year, but I aim to keep on getting better and better.

Until the new year, have a safe and happy holiday.

Mark

 

Sculptures of 2017

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As promised, here is the updated group shot of all of this years sculptures. Some good, some bad, a couple that test out new substrates (Super Sculpey®). Mixed media used in a couple, with fabric, and wooden dowels, wire and such. More than double the amount of work than I have ever put out in a single calendar year. Moving along nicely. All but one of these are copies of other amazing artists work, so you should go check out, Sideshow Toys, Cyril Roquelaine, Giorgos Tsougkouzidis, David Lemon & Julian Khor.

All ten sculptures that I have completed this calendar year.

Maintaining a love for the arts

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Yes, so here I am back again after a brief respite. I have been having a bit of an issue with all things art, and I have been trying desperately to rekindle a lost sense of joy and wonder with art in general. Not to say that i will not continue to draw and paint (I have a few items in the works for my wife and my nephews for the new year). But I have been trying to combat a sense of ennui that I couldn’t seem to shake. It isn’t full scale depression, nothing that serious. I think my main issue was that rather than doing something for the sheer joy of it I was always concerned about the final product, was it going to be awful, would it be a waste of time or a half hearted effort if it didn’t immediately click or work as an art piece. Recently I’ve really had to push myself to just do something, anything, to get back into the swing of things. Perhaps because my day job is producing commercial art for other people, based on their wants and needs rather than as my own artful expression (sounds artsy fartsy I know). This fear of doing something crappy, or not “up-to snuff” has left in its wake a fair few projects over the last year or two ( too many to mention) although my awesome room is littered with half started, partially finished items in a wide range of mediums. Pencils, inks, acrylics, pastels the list goes on.

However, during the summer I stumbled across this website called “Side Show Collectibles” and all of the amazing items on their just got me so excited, but they are also not cheap, so how do you get all of those fantastic items, without paying the $$$$$$? Easy, teach yourself to sculpt free standing figures, and make your own custom version of the pieces you just can’t get out of your head. Sounds like fun, and IT IS!, Although I am so not a sculptor by trade, training or inclination. But I just love the feeling of getting my hands dirty, and working with the clay in my hands. I like this because I work in a digital medium all week long, and as much fun as I have putting together very colourful 2D and even 3D displays, print ads and apparel, it is really something to see a creation come together in real time, in real space, with the work of your own two hands. Not that Graphic Design isn’t a major love in my life, believe it is. I wouldn’t do it 40 hours a week, plus evenings and weekends, reading and researching and refining my technique constantly. I’m far from finished learning about the many facets of digital & print design.

But with private art works i can really open up and tackle things I wouldn’t normally do at work, and that can be very freeing, and invigorating. Which is the point! To be inspired, and excited and to really get zoned in and not realize how many hours are just whizzing by. That is a tremendous feeling, and one that I have been trying to recapture since my days of drawing comic books and when I really got hooked on Photoshop compositing.

A really great sculptor at Stand Winston Studios named Steve Wang said “Art is a lonely life, so if you don’t love it, why would you spend you life doing it?”. I may have paraphrased that a little bit, but it is true. Art, whether digital or hand crafted usually isn’t a team activity, it is just you and the project for hours on end. If you don’t love it, why spend your life alone doing it? So there I was, working day in and day out, being very technically proficient, but not getting that rush, or feeling a zeal for it. You know what makes art more fresh and appealing, tackling new art in a format you are super unfamiliar with, that pushes you to try new things and get out of your comfort zone or “rut”. Now the lessons I am learning about proportion, and posing, and light and shape and form is really adding a new dimension to my design work. All I had to do was reawaken that love & lust for life that had been slowly leaking out of the every day experience. Does that make sense?

So the first three items that I tackled were : a generic super cop (sans head and hands), a Tinkerbell inspired fairy for my wife, and an as of yet uncompleted Ariel from the Little Mermaid®

They are far from perfect, and in most cases they are about capturing the essence of a personality and the pose rather than being show pieces with crazy detail. I only started doing these about 3 weeks ago, so I hope that in another 3 week I will progress a bit more, and maybe just maybe i’ll get to the point where I will use super sculpey and then bake & carve out a finished piece that I can sand & paint and display. Until then i will just continue to indulge my artsy side, and continue to hope that my zest for art will work its way further into my daily projects.

If anyone has any sculpting tips or tricks they’d like to fill me in on then just leave a comment.

Cheers!

-M