Sculptwerks

So far.... so good.

2011-10-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

I've been admitedly lazy about this illustration. I'm trying to keep the rigorous schedule up that I had for The Last Breakfast, but Batman: Arkham City and Infamous 2 keep getting in my way.

Anywhoo... I AM sculpting slowly, but surely. I finished the three polar bears tonight and I'm pretty happy with them. I really like the one lying on the floor with his tongue sticking out. The main snow monster stands at 12 inches tall at the moment.

Ice Cave: Preparation

2011-10-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

Here's the first resin test. I coated it multiple times to build up the ice. It maintains the detail fine, but I don't like the idea of them all in a thin amount of ice. It implies they stood still for 20 years while water dripped and froze on them slowly. I want this to look more like an instant frozen forever in ice.
This is the thickness of ice that I want. I only sanded a few small areas enough to confirm that you can still see all the detail inside. If you go at this with 80 grain sandpaper and work your way down to 600 grain, I'm relatively confident the detail will show through.

So now we move on. I've taken the computer off the table and moved everything in order to make space for the 15 inch tall sculpt.

2nd to last Illustration: "Ice Cave"

2011-09-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

So I've started work on the second to last illustration. I want this one to be an underground ice cave, most of it cast in clear resin. The sketch up above is still very loose and not a tight sketch at all, but I'm moving forward anyway. I'll deal with composition and pose when I sculpt it (not a good habit at all, but I'm tired of drawing and not sculpting).
I'm doing something I've never done before, but should have the whole time. I'm scuplting several maquettes to work out the main figure. I also need multiple maquettes to test the resin on. I need to know how the paint will be affected by resin. I need to see which technique will not warp the light so you can still see all the detail. You'll see what I mean when I start posting final test shots. The whole idea is this little eskimo kid and her dog stumble upon this violent frozen scene while exploring an ice cave. I thought it would be funny to have several polar bears attacking a snow-monster for his 'cola' . Now I could have them all frozen in one huge block of ice, but I think that would look a little too cartoony and cheap. That would be the easiest answer as I would only have to put them behind a piece of plexiglass and sculpt icicles around it. But I want to try having them coated in icicles themselves, hoping that they wouldn't be too distorted through the resin to see detail. Anyway! It will all be clear once I get on with this and start posting more photos.

Behold AVARICE!

2011-08-30T16:23:00.000-07:00

Yay! She's done! No, I'm not happy with this photo shoot. Now this is just a side project, certainly not portfolio material. If she's lucky I'll try to sell her on Etsy. I want good pictures for the archive though and I think she'd do well in real sunlight!

As you can see, the decals worked PERFECTLY. I'm very very impressed with Testors simple, easy to use package and I WILL be utilizing this new knowledge in the future.

Primer stage!

2011-08-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

Now she's ready to paint, and decal!

Custom water slide decals! Woo!

2011-08-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

I bought a Testors package of water slide decal paper for ink jet printers, so I can design and print my own decals! So here's the sheet I've got for Avarice. The eight dollar sign designs on the bottom are the hoof armor decorations. I threw in a few extra Sculptwerks logos because this stuff's expensive and I don't want to waste any space. I'm printing multiples of everything because I'm not sure how opaque my printer ink will end up being. I guess I'll just have to find out tomorrow! She's all together and sanded and primed. Tomorrow I can begin painting her! I'll post photos of her in the primer stage.

Hair!

2011-08-03T18:10:00.001-07:00

Not much to say here. I sculpted the hair. Maria critiqued it and I had to resculpt the entire back. Now it looks much better!
The Head does still move! This was important to me to make it still move. I want this to be as if Hasbro produced a very cynical real My Little Pony with major safety issues. The Wings will, of course, not allow the head to rotate all the way around, but that would just be creepy anyway!
The wings aren't permanently attached yet so I kept them off for these photos. The tail, however, has been attached, so it's one step closer!

Wings and Tail!

2011-08-01T18:46:00.001-07:00

The wings and tail are finished! The tail is a core of aluminum foil which I then cover in clay and sculpt. This reduced the amount of Apoxie Sculpt I have to use.

The base of the tail and the base of the wings still need to be sculpted on, but I'm going to save that until I get the hair sculpted.

Of Avarice.

2011-07-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

You're probably wondering what ever happened to my side project "Avarice"! Well, I've been working on her, and she's coming along well! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about here's the breakdown: I needed specific electrical parts for the "Carbonite Doughtnut" and I found them in an eight inch Princess Celestia doll from "My little ponies, Friendship is Magic" ( a fantastic show by the way). Once I had gutted her of her circuits and LEDs I had a perfectly good princess to modify. I decided, being a cynical bastard, I would create a my little pony based on money and greed. And what better name for a pegacorn than "Avarice"! And with this, a side project was born!!!! Behold! The process so far!

Here she is as Princess Celestia once I put her back together. The circuits and lights were installed in "The Carbonite Doughnut". She was all ready to transform into Avarice!

First step was to fill the inside so that I could cut into her as deep as I wanted and still be able to sculpt the inner space. To achieve this, I filled her with "Great Stuff" expanding foam insulation and taped her up so she wouldn't expand apart, then dry.

Here she is after the first day of sculpting. I expanded and sharpened the horn and ears. I also lengthened the muzzle and added a smile. The hind hooves were enlarged slightly and all seams and holes were filled in.

The next day I drilled holes for the tail and wings and set the wire in so that the clay would cure to the right size hole. I also added the eyebrows and bags under her eyes. This immediately made the smile on the muzzle fit! Now she's evil! Yay!!!

A close up of the evil face. I've ordered water slide inkjet decal paper for the eyes themselves. This will be the first time I've ever made my own decals and I'm excited at the prospect! I'm also going to use the decals for the 'cutie mark' on her ass and the detailing of the armor on her legs. Tonight I'm sculpting the wings. I'll post those photos tommorow!

Thanks for looking!!!

Mr. Badger process photos.

2011-06-15T19:09:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are some process photos. Above is the tight sketch Maria gave me to go off of. Above that, you'll see the whole set up on my table. This will give you a good idea of how big the whole thing is. Above that is a shot of Maria testing placement during the painting stage. Last but not least, above that, a photo of the badger just before I cooked him to make doubly sure he was the right size. You can see from the tight sketch that I took some liberties here and there. But I think I did a good job capturing the overall image.

Mr. Badger's New Book.

2011-06-13T18:59:00.001-07:00

And here it is! The collaboration project I promised oh so long ago. Maria and I concepted it. She suggested I do a simple children's book illustration and I stipulated that it must take place underground in a burrow. She did all the character design and drew the tight sketch. I sculpted and built it. Maria helped a little bit on painting it, and was very very helpful during the photo shoot. Together we chose which photo (out of about 80) was the best, narrowing the list slowly down. We also each did a bit of photoshop adjustment on it. Nothing much, mind you. Just color adjustment and I darkened the fireplace innards to let you see the rockwork a bit more. And last but not least, Maria named the piece. I'll post process photos soon. Not now though, it's very late....

Doughnut In Carbonite

2011-04-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

Behold the Doughnut in Carbonite! This is one of many stupid projects I create and mail off to my best friend in California. It was mailed with this letter attached:

Dear Max Lawson,

My name is Boba Fett. I’m a freelance bounty hunter working out of the Mandilorian system. Currently my client is Jabba the Hutt, from Tatooine but I suspect his activities are funded by the Empire. None of this, however, is why I’m writing you. I recently came across a Dunkin’ Donuts on Courscant. Now you know how hard it is to find a Dunkin’ Donuts, especially way out on the westward end of the galaxy. I had heard Dunkin’ Donuts simply didn’t exist out west, but low and behold I managed to find one. Now I can’t tell you where it is. I like having my secrets and this is one I intend to take with me to the grave. I guess that’s part of my bounty hunter nature. So of course I had to get a dozen doughnuts. You don’t just come across a find like that and not go all the way. I tried to get one of every kind: jelly, boston creme, frosted glaze, man they even had MAPLE!! I got two of those. I skipped plain because what the hell’s the point. You don’t show up to a brothel and say “I’ll take the protocol droid!” Anyway, along with all these doughnuts I finish with two chocolate frosted because they’re just so classic.

Later, I’m at home finishing up a marathon of Jawa Shore and I’m getting down to the very last doughnut. It’s getting tough because eleven doughnuts is a hell of a lot even for a bad ass like me and I’m just not sure I can do it. I totally have to force the very last bite of number eleven down and I pick up the last doughnut. I take one bite and all of a sudden it’s like I’ve never eaten before. It’s like all my life I’ve been outside myself letting my physical body eat simply to sustain some kind of crude existance. All this hits me at once. It’s an epiphany. I wake up. This little Dunkin’ Donuts chocolate frosted doughnut is the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. I don’t know how long I sat there with that thing in my hand. Jawa Shore was over and I must have not even noticed. I just stared into the middle distance with that blessed doughnut perched an inch from my face. When I finally came to, I knew this was a sacred object. The universe is full of unexplainable things. Throughout my career I’ve seen and hunted just about everything you can imagine. But of all those things, nothing comes close to the taste of this doughnut. No, that’s not right. Nothing comes close to the experience of this doughtnut.

I put the doughnut down and had to take a walk. You see, I re-examined a lot that day. My whole life I’ve been running away from the pain. You can probably guess, like everyone else in this galaxy, my father was murdered when I was nine years old. Whose wasn’t? Am I right? Anyway I figured if the experience of food had eluded me all these years, what else had I been blind to? Five or so months ago IG-88 and I had to fight our way out of a Rancor cave. I’m talking a dozen or so Rancors. And we’re there crushing them with rocks by firing into the walls and blasting inside their mouths to shoot their brains. But it occurred to me I’ve never looked a Rancor in the eyes. Is there a soul? They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. What if I murdered the fathers of a bunch of little Rancor pups? What if they have to be sent to some kind of foster Rancor home like me when I was a kid? And what about love? Maybe there’s more to love than visiting the Gungan home world every few months and just raping the hell out of the local population. It’s fun, that’s for sure. And man it feels good! But what then? What do I have to show for it? Just a closet full of Gungan skulls. And I never get a chance to show that closet off anyway. So I’m just not sure about anything anymore...

I got a communication from Jabba the Hutt. He’s throwing a party in a few days on his barge. I don’t know if he’s unfrozen Solo or what, but I’m thinking this party might be a good opportunity to clear my mind. It might be good to be around some people. The day before I wrote this I decided to take the doughnut to Cloud City. The Ugnaught carbonite workers were nice enough to freeze the doughnut for me. It should be in good condition for when I get back. I’m sending the doughnut to you Max. Take good care of it till I get back. Maybe you can help me sort some things out when I return.

Thanks again fellow bounty brother.

Boba Fett

P.S. Did you know if you press the grey button on the side of the Carbonite chamber you can hear what the doughnut is thinking? It’s weird.

Rolling right along....

2011-03-23T18:55:00.001-07:00

For my next illustration, I'm doing a collaborative piece with Maria Clapsis, of Disney Vinylmation fame! We've decided that a simple children's book-esque illustration would be fun to do! I've recently learned an awesome sculpting technique for doing quick underground scenes, so my only stipulation is that the scene take place in a burrow. We've come up with a badger, reading by the fire in his den. Simple, yet full of visual potential! Above are the first rough character sketches that Maria did.

The Last Breakfast now for sale!

2011-02-25T18:56:00.000-08:00

Get your 8x18" print of The Last Breakfast on Etsy here:

The Last Breakfast

Only $30.00

How it was done.

2011-02-21T18:54:00.000-08:00

Here's the original tight sketch for the whole illustration.

Once I was happy with the sketch, the next step was to set up a cardboard mock up of the room to get the forced perspective worked out, as well as the size and spacing of the characters.
This was the angle I wanted the final piece to be.

The table was going to be one of the largest and most difficult pieces, so I started sculpting that first. Not only did it dictate the position of everyone, it also had to hold the weight of all the food and three of the characters standing on it.

This was the first attempt with the room. All the walls are cardboard with a thin layer of sanded bondo to make them perfect. The Florida air quickly turned them into a warped mess, so I had to redo it all with another material.

I found that masonite was very sturdy, easy to work with and within my budget. This is the same room completely rebuilt.

I then started sculpting the figures based on the sizes of the cardboard mock ups. I of course had to start with the Cap'n!

Here's one of the first lighting setups we did. The paper in the foreground is to reflect a little light up to the front of the setup. We ended up doing a three light set up: one light directly above the center, one fill light on the right side, and one light to light up the background outside the windows.

Normally, I do two extra angles in addition to the main portfolio angle. These extra angles would have been the 3D stereographic angles..... but I FORGOT!!!!!

Behold!

2011-02-19T14:56:00.001-08:00

A little less than four months ago, I started a piece I call "The Last Breakfast". Here it is, unveiled in all it's glory, just for you.

Lighting

2010-11-11T14:59:00.001-08:00

I'm currently setting up the photo shoot for the pirate box for my website and I thought I'd show you how I'm going to light this.

I like to keep lighting simple. I'm using my brightest light overhead and I've got a less powerful light on the left side to fill in any shadows. As you can see, I've rigged up some ghetto soft boxes for both lights.

A soft box softens the light making the shadows softer and much less ugly. Though you can buy them for hundreds of dollars a piece, you can also make them for free using a plastic bag, tape, and some cardboard to keep them away from the bulbs (you don't want to start fires).

This black board will be held up by my lovely assistant to darken the background and provide more depth to the photos. You're pretty much trying to do two things in a photo: provide adequate light and not flatten out the piece with that light. There are a thousand million rules beyond that, but that is what the real objectives are.

That worked well!

2010-11-07T12:58:00.001-08:00

Here's the top relief sculpt all done! I've given it a copper patinia. Now I just need to put a frame around it to clean up the edges. It's 3/8th inch thick at it's thickest point (the coins). I've also finally purchased a handle that will be given the same patina and attached today.

Sculpt tight sketch

2010-10-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

Here's the tight sketch for the relief sculpt that will adorn the top of my Pirates Box. The actual sculpt for this is finished, but I'll post those pictures another day. There will be negative space cut out for the lettering on the flag that will, of course, say "Pirates" in the Windlass font.

containers and such.

2010-10-05T17:14:00.000-07:00

So I've got a lot of stuff here for my box. First of all, I'm working out the new instruments players will use to measure distances for their fleets. As you can see from the first image, it's just in it's template stage. In the second image you can see I've completed the treasure chest for coins, the terrain box for all islands and terrain, and the dice rolling box to help roll little and normal size dice (without it rolling off the table, or knocking over ships and things). I've also purchased a glass bottle for the dozens of little dice I have. I have to confess the treasure chest was purchased. I DID sand, stain and shellack the chest. I've also lined the bottom with felt. But, yeah, I didn't build it. The dice box and terrain box are completely made from scratch. The latch and hinges are lifted from cheap boxes from Micheals.

Stained, clothed, divided!

2010-10-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

I've stained my box with a Mahogany Red and then shellaced with an amber tinted shellac. This worked extremely well and produced the results I wanted! I then lined the inside with red felt and created dividers for my cards. These too were stained and shellaced.

Pirates box update: sanded

2010-09-21T17:57:00.000-07:00

Sanding is completely done! It took so much longer than I thought it would! I guess 74 hour work weeks don't help.

Quick drawing for my nephew

2010-09-11T17:15:00.000-07:00

A quick drawing for my three year old nephew who loves all these things. ... don't we all though...

Pirates Box

2010-08-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

As a new side project, I'm going to turn this ugly art paints box into a storage box for my pirates cards (a game my friends and I play from time to time). I've already taken out the inner wooden dividers. The next step is to sand all surfaces down to the wood.

A New Clay!

2010-08-08T16:52:00.000-07:00

At the Senic Shop, I've finally gotten a chance to use "Plastilina" clay. It's an oil-based clay. The cool thing, and this is why I'm posting about it, is that it's the professional standard of clay. It's a formula that has remained the same for over 100 years! I like expanding my repertoire of different sculpting medium I've used. Each one makes me feel a little less like a college student who got lucky.

So now I've used polymer based clays such as "Sculpey" (my favorite), oil-based clays like, "Roma Plastilina" and "Chavant" clay, and awesome two part apoxie clays like "Magic Sculpt" and "Apoxie Sculpt", both very good clays.

It's also nice having the experience of learning about different interior forms to sculpt off of. I started out in college (and still do at home) using aluminum foil, a nice space filler, and it has no problem being in the oven. And the Scenic Shop has taught me about alternatives like carving urethane foam blocks (very dangerous, use a dust mask and tyvek suit!), using Hilti spray foam, and even using the expanding insulation foam stuff you can buy at Home Depot and Lowes!

Scenic Shop memories: Part 1

2010-07-10T06:42:00.000-07:00

Almost two years ago I walked into the Hollywood studios Scenic Shop and did work on their Fairies meet and greet. The very first thing I sculpted were the two smaller mushrooms in the first
image at the top. After that, the third taller mushroom, the snail and the lady bug. Since then I've done work in three of the four parks, sculpted full size parts for ride vehicles, painted 50 feet in the air, sculpted for projects for other parts of the world, and seen things the average guest will never see. The Fairies Meet and Greet at the Magic Kingdom started it all. It was the beginning of the best job I've ever had. A job that, as a freelancer, I could be layed off of any day. All the more reason to savor every day I get to go in and work for Walt Disney.

DONE!

2010-06-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

Finally! It took six months, but I finished my latest illustration! I hope you like it.

Ever Closer

2010-05-02T05:13:00.001-07:00

The first background group of onlookers is finally sculpted. I've been working 65 hour work weeks at the scenic shop and at petsmart, so progress is extremely slow. I've only got two things left to sculpt, the second and final group of characters, and the floor of this scene. THEN I can finally paint and light and photograph. Ahhhh!

One thing that's really nice is that I haven't lost interest in this illustration yet. Usually, if I work on a project and it takes over three months to do, I lose interest and move on to other things. But I'm staying the course!

The Swan Queen

2010-04-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

I've finally finished the Swan Queen. This is photographed in roughly the same lighting she'll have in the final illustration. Her paint scheme will be fairly complicated so I can't wait to do that! First, however, I need to scupt the background people. I want to paint everyone at the same time.

Scuptwerks Car

2010-04-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

I've finally gotten up the courage to put vinyl logos on my car. I've always been one for very tasteful car decoration, the kind of stuff you don't notice till you're really looking at the car. But you can't do that with logos. The whole point is to stick out. I've attached two pin stripings on the front fenders and a larger 5 inch logo on the back left side window.

The first mold experiment.

2010-03-29T06:14:00.000-07:00

I've just finished making my first mold! I bought a 1 lb. silicone rubber mold kit and a bucket of 'super strong' plaster of paris. I've made a bout 6 Gummie medallions so far.

Chicken Knight

2010-03-11T06:17:00.000-08:00

Sculpting on the Chicken Knight is complete! He's made out of coathanger wire, aluminum foil, thin wire, Sculpey and Apoxy sculpt. I'm very pleased with how he came out! Next is the Swan Queen. I've got the wire maquette half finished and as soon as I get more aluminum foil, I can start putting clay on.

Castle Walls

2010-03-08T12:29:00.000-08:00

I've finished the castle walls and tapestries that will decorate them. Of course, the stained glass still needs to be installed, but that will come later. I've started sculpting the chicken knight too. My apologies for not posting in a while, but with two jobs and an Arizona vacation trip, it's been hard to do anything else. If you'd like a sense of scale, these walls are roughly 2ft. x 2ft. The chicken knight is being sculpted at about six inches tall.

The Swan Throne

2009-12-21T05:37:00.000-08:00

I finished sculpting the Swan Queen's throne. I've also got the corinthian style column for the virgin bird and the window frame for the rooster stained glass window.

Illustration update.

2009-12-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

I've been working Petsmart and the Scenic shop these last few weeks, so I've gotten very little done on the illustration. I sculpted the corinthian style column for the virgin bird, and finished the swan queen's throne. But I think I'm going to wait till after the 2nd of January to really come back to this and work full throttle again.

Happy holidays Everyone!!!

The Virgin Bird

2009-12-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

Today was the first day of sculpting on the new illustration! This is one of the statues that will top a column in the corner of the room.

Size test.

2009-12-01T17:02:00.000-08:00

It's a crappy photo, but I made a rough set up of the next illustration with cardboard to get all the size issues figured out. The queen is going to be sculpted at 10" tall. The back walls are going to be 2' tall.

The Next illustration

2009-11-22T17:14:00.001-08:00

Here's the value study for my next illustration. I just wanted to do a bird themed knighting for some reason. You may remember the bird themed stained glass windows I designed a few months back? This is what they're waiting for.

A gummie medallion

2009-11-14T19:25:00.000-08:00

I sculpted a full size Gummie Medallion and took photos of it at the Magic Kingdom! Complete with purple ribbon! Now I just need to make the great book of Gummie.

The legend of the Gummie Medallion.

2009-11-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

You receive a package one day. It's contents are three mysterious envelopes and a letter from a lawyer claiming you have inherited a very important part of his clients' estate. The manila envelopes have been in a safe deposit box in the Bank of England for the past 20 years. Inside rests an inexhaustible and ancient power.

More Work from Disney!

2009-11-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

The last project I did at the Scenic Shop was putting on vinyl artwork onto giant plexiglass sheets that eventually became the film reels around the Hollywood Studios Christmas tree. We had 8' sheets of white translucent plexiglass then cut out and attached the black film framing on all 20 or so sheets. Then we attached the vinyl artwork individually to each frame, making sure they were clean and centered. It was a lot of fun and it turned out looking great!!

Penny website.

2009-09-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

In expanding my 'average man' portfolio, I've remembered that I have another website that still exists. It's a website dedicated to the penny. Visit it! There, you can burn, slice, freeze or even canadianize a penny. Also check out the documentary video I made about pennies in the wild. It's a crazy ride, so hold on!

Click here for penny site

Sand! For only $34.95

2009-09-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at packaging design. Why? you ask. Well, I have advice for those of you out there with only one portfolio. Make a portfolio for the average man!
When you make a professional portfolio there are a thousand rules to follow; only show the employer 10-12 pieces, customize each portfolio to the style of each company, always include life sketches, have a customized cover letter, the resume must always only be one page long... etc. etc. I have learned that when you show your portfolio to normal people from everyday life (not art directors or HR people), very few of those rules apply. Most people are embarrassed by nude figure drawings, so I've completely gotten rid of them. Also, show a wide range of skills. I'm dividing my portfolio into 4 sections: Sculpture, 2d (paintings), graphic design, and photography. I'm also not holding back on the number of pieces. I've noticed people will flip through and seem to want more than 12. So I'm giving each section 12 pieces. Like four portfolios jammed into one! Of course the cover letter is gone, no one wants to read anyway. I'm keeping the resume, and I've cut slits in the inner sleeve to hold three business cards instead of one. Average people seem to be impressed with business cards. Process work is gone too. I've never seen anyone look at my portfolio and comment on how they like seeing my thought process. HR people and art directors like that, but not John Q. Driveway. Another bit of advice is to keep the thing in your car. I've had tons of instances when my artwork comes up and someone says "oh, you should show me sometime" and it's great when you can say "I've got my portfolio in the car"! I'm also going to carry two in the car, one for the average man, and a professional 12 piece one on the off chance I run into someone who could hire me for a job.
So there you go. This is my first piece into graphic design. A whole realm of art I have NO business being in. But the average person won't know. If they flip by it and aren't impressed maybe something in the other 47 pieces will catch them.

2nd favorite scenic shop job.

2009-09-17T13:56:00.001-07:00

I've just finished a project today with the scenic shop. For the last week I've sculpted the rear bumper to the Splash Mountain vehicles. I WISH I could post pictures, but I think I'm not allowed to post them on the internet (if such pictures existed... he he). I worked with an industrial oil based clay that's the same stuff they use to make concept cars out of. It was awesome!!! The clay becomes soft at 135 degrees. Once it cools, you can sculpt textures and details into it. It was probably one of my favorite projects I've had at the scenic shop. You know you have a good job when an 8 hour shift feels too short, four days in a row!

Finally added Text to my headquarters.

2009-09-14T09:06:00.001-07:00

It's finally a poster as it was intended to be. Maria and I searched and argued and debated the correct two fonts to use for about a half hour this morning. We both like what we ended up with.

Something old.

2009-08-27T18:55:00.001-07:00

Haven't done ANYTHING this month so here's a Halo helmet I did a while ago that I don't think I ever posted.

For a future illustration.

2009-08-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

I have this image in my head of a scrawny chicken being knighted by a swan queen in a church all themed to birds.... So I decided to design the windows for this church. I'm either going insane or I've got my next illustration.

Distance runners!

2009-07-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

So Maria and I were walking, and as usual I was pretending my hand was a spaceship flying around fences and bushes. It then occured to me if I had a matchbox car I would be doing the same thing, but I'd be rolling the car on any surface that was at a convenient height. Well, what if that matchbox car had a step counter inside it so you could see how far it's traveled? And hey! What a great thing for fathers and sons to do while walking somewhere boring?! And thus "Distance runners" was born. Click on the image for full size.

A fun first attempt.

2009-07-10T09:55:00.001-07:00

Well, here it is, my first attempt at stop motion animation. I'ts only 16 frames. I guess if it were the standard 24 fps it would look a little smoother. I put the whole thing together in photoshop. I'm going to try it in after effects to see if it looks any better there.

It is done!

2009-06-30T19:38:00.000-07:00

Finished! Welcome to the headquarters of the Sculptwerks empire. Here, work is paradise.

Done sculpting!

2009-06-27T15:55:00.001-07:00

All the sculpting and painting is done!!! Now I just need to light and photograph everything! In this photo you can see the final foreground hill. The cardboard shape on the floor is going to be the shade of the tree with little patches of light coming through.

In the near future...

2009-06-21T18:17:00.000-07:00

After the current illustration, and after the rocketeer sculpt, I'm going to do my first little claymation thing. It will be an animation of hemmingway running in the gear.

Almost there....

2009-06-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

I've been procrastinating for a while. I had the urge to completely redo my website since Max told me how to use the lightbox application. But now that it's all done, I'm back to sculpting. As you can see here, I've finished sculpting all the tree elements. The base is also constructed and covered with clay (it's not shown here). Tomorrow, I'm going to start sculpting the people. Honestly, it's the thing I've been holding off the most. I hope it all works out well.

Sculptwerks box

2009-06-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

I made a little box for a wedding present. The present goes in the box, it's not the box itself... that would be terrible. I found some awesome potato sack-like material to line the inside, and wal mart has tan shredded paper that looks like packing straw. And I finally found a perfect use for the sculptwerks logo stamp I made in college. I can't tell you what goes inside because the wedding hasn't happened yet. It's an awesome present though.

Hill 2 done!

2009-06-01T07:18:00.001-07:00

Hill 2 is done. I'm taking a small break for a few days and I'll start the last part of this illustration on wednesday. In the meantime, I'm updating the layout of my website a little bit.

The Start of hill 2

2009-05-20T07:00:00.001-07:00

I started 'hill 2' three days ago, and I'm very happy with how far I've come. I just need to sculpt one more tree and the jogger. And then it's just paint and GO!

1/3 Finished!

2009-05-16T07:14:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, it will have been a month since I started working on this (I'm counting the start from when I had a finished tight sketch with the composition worked out). I'm thinking this illustration will take three months to complete. I've got two more large sculpted sections left to sculpt. Luckily, I have all the time in the world. My prospects look non existent right now, and until the recession ends, I'm just biding my time, doing stuff like this for my portfolio and washing dogs at PetSmart.

So far, so good...

2009-05-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

Mountain is baked and painted. The assembly of the buildings is almost complete. Next step is installing the monorail.

The sculpting begins!

2009-05-01T11:55:00.001-07:00

The mountain that the sculptwerks headquarters rests on will be the largest sculpt I've ever done. I've spent all morning sculpting hundreds of tiny trees in what will become the forest covering the mountain. It's slow, tedious work, but it's fun!

Though it dosn't look it, the first image is all the architectural elements that will adorn the top of the mountain.

A new compostition

2009-04-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

I've completely re-worked the compostion and made a tight sketch. I've got a color study done as well, but I'm going to go ahead and start sculpting.

The Sculptwerks Headquarters

2009-03-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak peak at the next illustration. It's going to be an employee motivational poster for the sculptwerks headquarters.

Finished

2009-03-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

And there you have it! A finished Mr. Toad bobble head! He actually bobbles very well. The collar keeps his head from tilting too much and spring is loose enough to let his head go crazy.

Back on Track!

2009-03-07T11:18:00.000-08:00

As you can see the new head is far better than the old. It actually looks like Mr. Toad now. This is a good lesson in stopping when you know you've screwed up. There were so many times throughout college when I would feel something was wrong during a project, and I just ignored it. They would ALWAYS catch it during a critique.

Anyway, the base has been sanded, stained and the stone walkway that he's standing on has been sculpted.

Screwed up!

2009-03-02T10:05:00.000-08:00

Looks finished right? No. I've completely screwed up the head. Look at the sketch from the last post. Now notice that the head I've sculpted looks like he's screaming. The mouth needs to be smaller and far less open. And I haven't started the base yet. Back to the sculpey...

Power/Plant Arches: An idea

2009-02-25T07:03:00.000-08:00

I was walking to the bank and hated that the sidewalks had no shade. In Florida, shade is a precious commodity. As an environmentalist I dislike that on either side of the sidewalk, grass had lazily been the decision as filler between the sidewalk and the road. So I came up with this:

http://brianstuckeyart.com/Blog/sidewalk.jpg

It would cost a lot to set up, but if you have one of these every six feet on the side of the road, you'd have a veritable power plant. They could each connect directly to the grid and reduce the strain on the existing power plants. And if each one was individually hooked up into the grid, a car crash would'nt interrupt anything. Having three levels of plant boxes is a much better use of space. you could double the amount of vegitation per square foot. Grass isn't the best thing for the environment. It creates very little oxygen, retains very little water, and isn't drought tolerant. If you plant native grasses, flowers, and bushes they would survive better, and require less maintenance. But I don't want to put lawn mowers out of a job. I think you could use the very same people to maintain and repair these arches.

anyway.... just had to get that out there.

A little furthur

2009-02-24T08:54:00.000-08:00

Arms, head, collar and bow tie have been completed. The bobble spring is working okay so far, but I'm hoping I can improve it. The grey clay is sculpt apoxy, a wonderfull two part compound that dries super hard and dosn't need to be baked.

Original sketch

2009-02-22T06:38:00.000-08:00

Here's the original sketch for the bobble head.

Mr. Toad Bobble Head

2009-02-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

I'm starting a bobble head for my next project. It will be of Mr. Toad from "The adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad". As always, I'm using sculpey clay.

2009-02-14T09:08:00.000-08:00

For Maria's birthday, I sculpted a personalized mirror hanger for her car. She's got a Ford Taurus, so she call's her car "Ferdinand".

A small begining

2009-02-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

Looks like I fell in with the bandwagon. Here's my blog.