Thursday, March 25, 2010

FRAZETTA'S GHOUL QUEEN

There's nothing coy or retiring about a Frazetta woman. Even simply standing with a pike, her hand on her hip, being admired by one of the undead, she announces her presence with every sensuous curve of her body.


Ghoul Queen is one of the few published Frazetta drawings that is so clearly rendered. It's like a blueprint for a Frazetta woman and an obvious choice for a sculptural interpretation. It was important to pare down the composition to its essentials. And having to decide what some of the ghoul pairs were doing behind her was something best left to the imagination.



As familiar as I was with Frank's work and this illustration in particular, it took a while for me to get out of my own way in order to see it Frank's way. I just couldn't seem to pull her proportions together. Then I realized -- it's the tummy. That's what makes the top and bottom halves of her work as a whole. I kept trying to slim her down. But once I gave into the belly, I knew I was on the right track.


The back view was all guess work. But if you look at a lot of Frazetta's work, you start to see certain patterns and motifs that appear repeatedly in his designs. The exposed spinal column on the skele-ghoul was just a little something to make the back view more interesting. (Not that her back view isn't interesting all by itself, mind you.) This piece really helped when it came time to sculpt my next Frazetta statue, Moon Maid.

Monday, March 22, 2010

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Over the next few weeks and months we'll be spotlighting our contributors. Each of them were generous with their time and experience. They also happen to be some of the most talented and down right nicest people we've ever met. Due to the constraints of limited pages, we had to leave some of their insights and advice on our editor's paragraph splattered floor. But here, on our blog, we'll be able to share some of those unset gems with you. So, stayed tuned. Hopefully, you'll be glad you did.

Friday, March 19, 2010

CONCEPT DESIGNS


Almost all statues and action figures start out the same way, with concept designs. Its 2D brainstorming, and nobody does it better than Ruben. Here are just a few of his concept designs for our Thor action figure. We narrowed our choices in considering the aesthetic and practical elements in bringing Thor into the 3D world.