Rolling right along....

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.

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The Last Breakfast

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How it was done.

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!

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

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!

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

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.