Head progress

Here are some process photos of a head I was working on last week. I plan on casting this, which I haven't done for a long time. I'm having to learn the process all over again. Luckily, it's a pretty simple shape.

I am using a K'NEX piece that I cut down for a ball and socket joint. It starts with wire and foil to fill it out before the Super Sculpey is added. The eyes are just plastic beads.

The odd hairstyle is just an extra piece for the casting process and won't be visible in the final.

Joust Process

Here are some process photos of the Joust Bird

I almost always start with a foil and wire frame (not pictured, sorry) before adding the Super Sculpey. Here you can see that the structure was still taking shape. I hadn't quite worked out the beak shape and hadn't added the crest. The shape of the chest is still pretty flat. 

The sculpting is pretty close to done here. I regretfully used different colors of Sculpey just because I had them sitting around. It made it hard to see what everything would actually look like once painted.  My favorite piece of reference for this guy was the tongue. I came across photos of goose tongues which have teeth-like ridges on them. In the end the tongue got a bit obscured because I painted it black, but there's a lot of detail tucked in there. 

 I love adding little story bits in the designs. There is a little scar in the feathers on the chest where the  feathers never grew back. I imagined that surviving many joust battles in the sky would leave a lot of bumps, bruises, and cuts. The figure was baked around this point before adding the helmet.

 Here I just started to add the first layer of weathering for the paint job. You can see a wash of sepia ink around the eye and neck. The spike on the helmet was intended to be a cut off beak from a bested opponent, saved as a trophy.

The paint job was 90% done here. I added the nose ring which eventually got a bit of bronze paint and some rust added using pumice texture gel. It is basically acrylic gel medium with sand mixed in. There is a little on the helmet as well. 

The paint was acrylic applied with brushes. I used watercolors and ink here and there and Minwax Polycrylic to goop up the eyes, tongue, and mouth.

Puppet for M'aidez

I'm starting to work on a new section of the movie. It is going to have a different look (obviously). Hopefully everything will mesh together alright in the end.

Space Knife

Here is a little prop I made combining an old discarded clipper blade, a dummy credit card (I love getting those in the mail for just this purpose), and some reclaimed electronics screws. There is a piece of card on either side of the blade, so it does collapse into itself like a pocket knife. I will do a bit more detailing to it, but the basic shape is there.

Making messes

Deanna puts up with me sprawling all over the floor very well. It's hard to work at my desk when it's full of junk.

Back in the trenches

I got to jump back into my stop motion short today. I haven't spent time with it since early December. I think its going to take a day or two to readjust. I started off slow today with some pattern making.

 

Data gadgets

I've been working on a sculpture of Data from Goonies for the past month or so. It's just about wrapped up. Here are a couple details of some of the gadgets that will be strapped to him.

New sculpt update

Here are a few progress photos. Forgive me for the first face being horrifying.

New sculpt

I have been taking a break from my short film the past week or two to work on some other things. I just finished coloring a short comic project and I am working on a sculpture for a gallery show coming up. Here is the first stage of it. I'll update as it progresses.

Peace!

A candid behind the scenes shot of Lincoln on set; from the last batch of M'aidez shots.

8 Bit Devo

I did some artwork over the summer for an 8bit tribute album to the band Devo. The album, titled Crack that Chip, by 8-Bit Operators is set to be available around election time. Here is a promo video they made featuring some of my artwork and samples of the music.



I had a lot of fun working on this and really loved diving into Devo themed art. Here are a few progress photos from the sculpture.

Proceed with caution

the set is coming along...

M'aidez (long)

I am back working on M'aidez again after a bit of a break. I am launching back into the project to try to complete the entire original story I had planned for the short. This will fill in what happened before the first version, and what happens to our doomed hero next. I have been making my first real set for the last couple of months between all my other responsibilities. It has been a lot of planning and measuring. Also lots of cutting... lots and lots of cutting. Here's a look at what I've been up to. The next step is figuring out exactly what the floor and ceiling of my spaceship hallway will look like, then painting everything. Then lights!