SDCC Home Stretch

Just over two weeks left before I head out to San Diego. I’ve been getting all my work done on schedule, and I should be good to go with a little time to spare before I get on a plane on the 22nd (at 6:30am, much to my dismay!)

The Wolverine casts are coming along nicely! Unfortunately, the metal powder wasn’t working out and I don’t have the time/money to experiment with it right now. My husband has been casting these for me since I am super allergic to the casting resins when they are in liquid form. So that makes it even harder to experiment when I am shouting instructions from the other side of the house! Anyways, we went with plain resin and I’ve been painting them up to look like pewter. It is working out well. I’ll have some photos of the Wolverine army later on, haha. I have some photos of the unpainted casts too, they look so weird.

I printed out some test samples of the box packaging I did for these and that looks nice too. I should have a nice little package to give out when it’s all done! Today I finished up the last of my portfolios. I did 50 total, 5 of which I gave out to a few people already. The other 45 are coming with me to SDCC.

Yokaiden Madnessss!

Dimensions : 6.5″w x 11″h x 8.5″d

I have been working non-stop getting ready for comic-con. It’s just a few weeks away now. I head out on the 22nd. I just finished up the Yokaiden sculpture. Man, it was a lot of work! But I am happy with the result. This was SO far out of my style, and I really loved the challenge. Check out the original illustration that I based this sculpture on. Some things were tweaked, but I largely followed the drawing bit for bit.

For those of you that don’t know, Yokaiden is an awesome manga by buddy Nina Matsumoto. Pick up a copy today. You won’t be disappointed. Nina was very helpful and accommodating during the creation of this sculpture so many thanks to her!

If you are going to be attending Comic Con on Saturday, be sure to drop by the RandomHouse/Del Ray booth (1128) to get your copy of Yokaiden signed by Nina. You can also check out my sculpture in person at that same table. The signing will be from 3-3:30pm.

Also, I will be toting some postcards promoting this sculpture as well as Nina’s manga. Vistaprint.com is great for last second, small run postcards. Just ordered them up today on priority shipping.

Had a few snags with the Wolverine casts, but my husband and I are back to work on the tonight. Gonna go do that now!

Punk Raptor…Again!

Well, after texturing my raptor zBrush model over several months, I couldn’t come up with something I was happy with. I may revisit him later when I am more comfortable texturing, but for now I put a nice material on him and took some shots for my portfolio/website. I also had a lot of trouble with stretching when I was posing him. But this was my first model, and I learned a lot. It should make my next one that much better.

Dexter’s Done!!

My husband retook these photos 1000 times last night (at my request because I am annoying like that!) Getting skin tone to look “correct” in photos is very difficult. It’s hard enough to paint to begin with, but then the lighting adds a whole other pain.

The blood splatter turned out different than I had originally envisioned, but I like it alright! There are so many layers of paint that make up the skin tone I can’t even tell you. I would guess at least a few dozen thin layers. I learned a lot about painting true color rather than shadows/highlights. This is a must with skin tone.

I learned so much in this piece. It makes me want to do more busts so I can work more on likenesses. I think I will try to do one every few months, even if it isn’t quite this big. I’ve learned I really enjoy working on a larger scale because of all the detail I can fit into a piece….and I love how it forces me to pay attention to small details that I might have overlooked when doing a larger sculpture.

Wolverine is close to being finished too, just a few more adjustments.

The Cart Puller is Done…with a Name!

Dimensions: 5″ x 4.5″ x 11.5″

Dezzi the Elder is a retired cart worker. He spends his days traveling the world and teaching youngsters. Awww! Dezzi is a character I created for my sculpting book (currently on hold till after comic*con). I am including his step-by-step progression as a walk through. Hopefully, I can get my book done by this time next year.

I created a Twitter account last night. You can now follow my art updates through there too! Feel free to add me!

More Dexter in the next few days.

The Raptor Still Lives

I drew up this character sheet for my punk raptor a while ago. I want to have a complete package for him! I hadn’t colored in Photoshop for a while, so I was a little rusty. But he didn’t come out looking too bad!

I also have here a screen shot of my zBrush model. I haven’t touched this in well over a month, but I realized I haven’t posted progress on him in a while. I am not too keen on the painting tools in zBrush and I don’t know much about rendering yet. I want to get this guy posed and in a nice render before Comic*Con.

A Completed Roman

He’s finished, whew! I’ve been working on this guy all month. Like my Greek woman, he was a study in anatomy as well as garb. This is my first time doing full on armor; I did a lot of research for it. I used metallic paint on the armor. I used sand, rocks, and train set “turf” on the base.

He has a super sturdy armature with the wire running through the spear and tightly attached to each hand. I will be posting progress photos tomorrow to show how he started out. The spear and hands weren’t added till very last.

He stands about 14″ tall and is a mix of Super Sculpey and Sculpey Firm clays.

I worked on my Dexter bust most of the day today. He is slowly looking more and more accurate. Stay tuned!

New Sculpture Uploaded

I know, yet another long delay between uploads. This one took me a lot of research, redos, and just plain work. I picked a totally new subject matter of the female figure and drapery as well as a more classical look. This is my first complete female sculpture. I learned a lot about anatomy and feel like I will do even better on the next go.

My goal right now is to complete a portfolio ready sculpture every two months, so don’t expect frequent uploads. I am also trying to get things ready for comic con like a website overhaul, new business cards, a few promotional busts that i plan to hand out, as well as my portfolio packages.

I am also still learning zBrush on the side. It’s a lot to grasp, but I am catching on. I will have finished pieces posted eventually. Again, hopefully in time for comic con. My raptor zBrush model is pretty close to being done and I have a second one I’ve started. After comic con, I plan to start learning Maya too.

Thanks for watching!

New Sculpture Uploaded

FINALLY! This guy is done!! I know my sculptures seem few and far between these days, at least compared to how much I used to upload. But I am really trying to spend lots of time researching each project, learning a bunch of new things along the way, and putting in as much detail as possible. I really am trying to make each piece so much better than the last, and trying to make each one portfolio ready.

I love the contrasting textures on this fellow. All the textures were done by hand with a few tools, no stamps or shortcuts. And yes, I do make each feather individually when I do this sort of thing. The wing feathers are on wires for support. I can’t even begin to tell you how many layers of paint I used, especially on the skin. Nothing straight out of the bottle though, that’s for sure! I tried a new method of painting I learned in my zBrush class, and I am happy with the results I got from it.

I am now hoping to go back to my zBrush model and get it looking better now that I have a better idea of what direction I want this character to go in. Hopefully I can finish that up in the coming weeks. I have also been working on my book again, and it should be done in time for Comic*Con, hopefully earlier.

New Sculpture Uploaded

OK! I finally finished painting this guy. It was a long time in the making trying to get a color scheme down, but I think I am happy with the final result. It is a lot more fine detail than I am used to, so it was good practice for sure! The character was designed by my student work study, Eric Savino.

The wings were done in acetate, etched with a needle, and then pearl ex coated. It ended up working a lot better than I had initially anticipated.

Currently, I am sculpting the same raptor that I am creating in zBrush. Should be an interesting comparison when I am done.