Pop Sculpture: How to Sculpt Action Figures and Statues

A Monster, in Miniature

2012-01-30T19:47:00.000-08:00

If you've admired Tim Bruckner's model kits from afar, but never felt you had the space or money to get one, there's a new reason for you to visit the Tim Bruckner Shop. Hot on the heels of his "Ode to Joy" miniaturization, Tim has shrunk down yet another of his kits to make it more affordable and less voluminous. The original Monster kit, inspired by the Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein, stands 12.5 inches tall with its base, but the new mini Monster kit stands only 5.75 inches tall, with all of the same detail! Additionally, Tim has made a slight modification to the sculpt, wrenching free one of the Monster's neck bolts and leaving behind a knot of twisted wires. So whether you'll be painting it or simply admiring the sculpt au naturel, head on over to TimBrucknerShop.com to get one today!

It's Ludwig Van!

2011-12-27T06:23:00.000-08:00

Tim has proven time and time again that he is a master of the fantastic. But he's also a master of the naturalistic, as anyone who's seen his portraits can attest. One of his portraits, "Ode to Joy" -- his rendering of a laughing Ludwig Van Beethoven -- has been offered as a limited edition, but it is now available in model kit form, and much smaller, to boot. Standing only 5.75 inches tall with its base, this new kit is now available over in the Tim Bruckner Shop (www.timbrucknershop.com), and at $50 is an affordable way to show your love of the composer (or the movie "A Clockwork Orange").

Mr. B's Bookkeeper: Introducing the First Model Kit with Modular Expression

2011-12-23T09:54:00.000-08:00

In recent months, Tim (Bruckner, Pop Sculpture co-author) has immersed himself in the world of garage kits, a category he's dabbled in in the past, but one he is now exploring fully through his online store, timbrucknershop.com. His latest kit, Mr. B's Bookkeeper, features a new innovation that hasn't been seen in kits before -- ME (modular expression) busts. With six different eye pieces (three left, three right) and six different mouth pieces (three top, three bottom), the bust can be assembled 81 different ways, which has to be some kind of a record. Pick yours up in the shop, and check out all of the different ways it can be assembled below!

The Auction of Athena: Our Pop Sculpture Cover Girl Goes on the Block

2011-11-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

In the year-plus since "Pop Sculpture" has come out, we have been deluged with words of thanks from folks who find the book to be an indispensable guide to the art of sculpture. And we have nothing but thanks for all of you who have been so supportive of the book -- we hope it will serve you well in the years to come. But now that a year has passed, we're moving on to new projects, and we've got to make room in the studio.

Our cover girl, Athena, is almost two feet tall with her spear, and it's time she moved out on her own, so we're putting her up for auction in Tim's eBay store, at TimBrucknerShop.com. She's a one-of-a-kind piece -- a complete set of molds does NOT exist, so this is the only way to get her. Ever. Look for the auction to post sometime on Sunday, November 27, and expect it to run for ten days; a portion of the proceeds will go to the Arnell Memorial Humane Society of Wisconsin. Keep track of it over at our Facebook page, and enjoy some more photos of Athena below!

Official Tim Bruckner Shop Officially Open!

2011-07-15T00:20:00.000-07:00

If you've enjoyed reading Pop Sculpture, then you've probably enjoyed seeing the various sculptures of co-author Tim Bruckner. Not only has he been incredibly prolific in his professional career as a sculptor, he's just as productive in his spare time, creating nearly as many personal pieces as he has commercially available products. Now, for the first time, both are available in one place! The official Tim Bruckner Shop carries many of Tim's most popular pieces from DC Direct, Dark Horse and others, but it also offers some of his personal work as both unpainted model kits and painted limited editions. So if you're looking to pick up a garage kit of Tim's take on Frankenstein's monster, or a finished rendering of Cyrano de Bergerac, head on over to eBay and check it out.

Hot Wax Weekend! Giles + Pop Sculpture = Savings

2011-04-02T17:58:00.000-07:00

By now, readers of Pop Sculpture know that Tim Bruckner uses the Giles Precision Waxer for all of his wax work. And since we were kind enough to plug their product throughout the book, Giles Studio wants to repay the favor!

Giles is offering Pop Sculpture fans an unprecedented 30% discount on their waxers. Mention "Sculp-Tor" (the Pop Sculpture mascot) and you can get the standard unit that Tim uses in the book for only $94.40. And the industrial version (with no switch on the pen) is only $92.40. Each version comes with three different tips, but you can also order a special "Pop Sculpture Set" of five bonus tips, which we've been told are perfect for sculpting action figures, for only $40 extra.

UPS shipping runs from $6 to 9, so e-mail your order to Giles.Studio.Inc@gmail.com and they'll hit you back with your total. This offer is only good until November 11, 2011!

UPDATE: International orders need a 220-volt version, which costs a little extra: $115. You should also expect to pay a little bit more in shipping.

JOKER:DC DYNAMICS

2010-12-23T07:34:00.000-08:00

I vowed never again to sculpt smoke. But the Joker is such a persuasive fellow, I had to give in just this one last time. Eighth in the DC Dynamics collection and the most fun. I want to thank everyone who has supported our efforts over this past year. There’s a real sense of community and we very much appreciate it. As 2011 looms large, we hope that you’ll continue to join us in our quest to bring the art of pop sculpture to a larger audience. Keep up the good work, all. See you on the other side… of 2010.

TIS THE SEASON

2010-12-21T09:06:00.001-08:00

"And it was a very uncommon kind of torch, for once or twice when there were angry words between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each other, he shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their good humor was restored directly. For they said, it was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas Day. And so it was! God love it, so it was!"- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Status Update: Where The Pop Sculpture Authors Are Now, Part 2

2010-12-12T00:26:00.000-08:00

I promised this a few months ago, when I spotlighted Tim Bruckner's upcoming projects, but I wanted to shine the spotlight on a couple of my other co-author Rubén Procopio's in-the-works works! The former Disney animator (and provider of Pop Sculpture's bottomless supply of illustrations) has some beautiful items coming out that showcase both his traditional and digital sculpting, and it was seeing Tron: Legacy and a kick-ass new trailer for Green Hornet that finally inspired me to get off my duff and write something.

Rubén does work for several companies, but I first became a fan of his work through Electric Tiki. He handles much of the creative duties on their Classic Heroes line, and now that the company has the Disney license, the line is firing on all cylinders. His glow-in-the-dark statue of Tron from the original Tron from the original movie (created digitally, of course) should hit stores early next year, as well as the statue of Woody from Toy Story that he created from the original digital files.

I'm psyched for both of those, having really enjoyed Tron: Legacy and Toy Story 3, but I'm also looking forward to Rubén's Classic Heroes take on Doc Savage. Despite having only read a couple of Doc Savage books and a handful of comics, I've still got a weird love of this character, and have been meaning to go back and watch the movie they made about him. This piece looks great, although I kinda wish Rubén had gone with his other concept sketch, of Doc riding a shark, because that's just insane.

Rubén must really be feeling the Tron nowadays, because he's also creative director of Grand Jester's line of Disney busts, which has just added that movie's Flynn, complete with jai-alai hand, to their line-up, along with Prince Dastan from Prince of Persia.

Flynn is based on Rubén's design but sculpted by Dave Cortes, but Rubén handled design and sculpting duties on Dastan. Both should be coming out next year.

Rubén also worked on the digital sculpts for Factory Entertainment's classically styled Green Hornet and Kato action figures, which will act as companions to their toys based on the new Seth Rogen movie, which hits next year. Can't wait -- for the movie and these toys!

Another Electric Tiki piece, this sexy Tinkerbell (designed by Tracy Mark Lee, but sculpted by Rubén), is part of a line of sexy animated Disney leading ladies, including the Little Mermaid, Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas and Minnie Mouse. That's right, a sexy Minnie Mouse.

And finally, I can't believe this isn't out yet, but Rubén handled sculpting chores on this awesome animated-style maquette of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With vamp and non-vamp heads! I love that Electric Tiki is doing this line, and I hope it continues. With Rubén on sculpts!

Most of these pieces are available through Sideshow Collectibles.

MAKING MARLEY: PART 5

2010-11-27T09:16:00.000-08:00

Paint Master: I’d originally considered casting Marley in a translucent resin. The more I thought about it, the more problems presented themselves. I’d always intended to have the line produced as cold-cast collectibles, and so many of my decisions regards engineering and paint applications were governed by that. It would have been possible to do a one-off or a two- zee, with a translucent casting, applying a series of air brushed clear glazes with some opaque touches, but as a production piece, it would have been unmanageable. The same consideration went into the chains. I think it would have been cool if they were all rusty and corroded, but hard to keep consistently in production. I laid out a template for the length of chain sections, where they linked and how they were to be arranged on the figure. I don’t know what a “glowing lobster” looks like, and I don’t know that it would have changed my mind in Marley’s color. The color scheme for his costume is bland, dull and washed out, keeping the focus of the piece on his portrait. There was a good deal of dry-brushing and washes in painting him up. The only gloss touches were the eyes and glasses on the bound head and the eyes and interior of the mouth on the unbound head. The locks, keys and ledgers were painting in a buffable gunmetal paint. With a little dark gray rub. The base too, was grayed out. I’d played with a few versions of a ringing bell but thought a cast shadow of the bell in a different position would get the idea across. That was the plan, anyway. I still hope, one day, to be able to bring these figures to market and complete the line. The future’s a big place. Body parts crossed for luck.

MAKING MARLEY: PART 4

2010-11-24T06:25:00.000-08:00

Resins: “Tis better to gate in abundance, than to labor over a faulty resin.” These days, I probably over gate. I’ve become less ambitious when it comes to casting and cleaning resins than I used to be. The trick to good gating is to think like resin. It’s not as easy as it sounds. I’ve been outsmarted by urethane more times than I’d like to admit. The torso was a direct pour, cast with the neck pin in place. The base, too, was a direct pour, with the pivot pin cast in place. Both were swapped out with a steel peg. I ran a lot of little gates for the hair on both heads, pins cast in place. Both hands were loaded molds and then tapped to dislodge trapped air. For Marley’s props, I sculpted two locks, to keys and one ledger. The larger lock has my initials on one side and my wife’s on the reverse. The smaller lock has my son and daughter’s initials. I had intended to have these figures produced as cold cast collectibles and so needed to keep the props down to a manageable assortment, otherwise, I would have probably done a couple more keys and locks and a smaller ledger. His glasses were cast in clear and the frames painted in. I used the same ponytail for both heads. PART 5 - PAINT MASTER, wil be posted on Friday. Happy Thanksgiving, all!

MAKING MARLEY: PART 3

2010-11-23T14:53:00.000-08:00

Wax: With a set of wax castings, I started the finish work. I needed a resin head to make sure of a good fit into the body and so finished the head first. Next, I worked the hands and created temporary keys into the sleeves. With a resin of the head and hands, I concentrated on finishing the body. One of the beauties of wax is being able to work individual parts to finish and then wax-weld them into place. I don’t think I could have gotten the kind of movement and finish on the torso if I would have had to work around the arms. With the arms and torso done, I reassembled the figure, finished out the seams and was ready for molds. The bandaged head of Marley became the gape jawed Marley. I wanted to keep as much consistency between the two heads as possible, and so used the original head as the base for the alternate head. Having resin parts to work to a wax makes keying parts much easier. The head, hands, and ponytail were all resin parts keyed to a wax.

MAKING MARLEY: PART 2

2010-11-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

Every figure in this series began life in clay. We’ve discussed in the Pop Sculpture, the importance of working out the various issues posed by a sculpture by working them out in clay. After taking a series of pictures of myself as Marley, reciting his lines as I did so, I found a pose I thought worked well. (I won’t share those pictures of me as some of may have just eaten) I sent a set of pix of the rough clay to my friend and Master Sculptor, Tony Cipriano, who suggested turning his left hand, palm up, instead of the palm down version I had. A subtle difference, but an important change that helped balance an accusing finger with a open gesture of generosity. With the clay done, I made a series of waste molds, cast waxes and started the finish work.

MAKING MARLEY: PART 1

2010-11-21T07:48:00.000-08:00

I’ve read A Christmas Carol nearly every Christmas season since I was seventeen. The book has grown with me as I’ve grown. That, to me, is the test of a timeless tale, one whose relevance keeps apace with the view of the world in which we live. Late in 2007, I started work on what I’d hoped would be an eight figure series of busts based on Dickens’s Christmas classic. The last figure of the four I completed was the Ghost of Jacob Marley. I started by rereading all the passages relating to Marley and researched the various incarnations of him that have appeared over the years. By imagining who this man was, “in life”, I looked ahead to whom he had become. (The picture in the upper left hand corner is my first attempt at a Marley sculpt done in 1983)

Design: I wanted the various characters to be able to interact with each other while maintaining a base-front display. I pitched the pivot idea to DCD years ago for a series of mini busts. The figures were to pivot within an iconic rock structure with a Justice League logo carved into the front. At the last minute, the idea was scraped, as was the logo. What resulted was a series of figures stuck on a rock, which made no sense. The next opportunity to try the pivot was on a series of Hellboy busts I did for Dark Horse followed by a series of Elfquest busts with the pivot feature. What a designer considers the money shot isn’t always shared by the collector. The pivot allows the collector to position the figure the way they want. Not a world shaker, granted, but anything that gives the collector a little more influence over his/her purchase is a plus.

So, the figures of the Christmas Carol Collection would pivot. I also wanted to tie the figures to the book as literally as I could. I researched what the first edition of the book looked like and recreated art to reflect that design. The book evolved into a removable ornament with text from the book relating to that particular character. That, in turn, led to the creation of an alternate base front. Scrooge’s bed curtains play an important role in the story. The alternate base front uses the parted bed curtains to reveal a low relief sculpture directly related to that character and their place in the story. With Scrooge, its Marley’s head as the door knocker (shown). Tiny Time is his crutch and leg brace. The Ghost or Christmas Present is the boy and girl who represent Ignorance and Want. For Marley, I used a bell, as the bells ring throughout Scrooge’s house announcing Marley’s appearance, without moving. The pivot feature is easiest to accomplish using the casting-the-peg-in-place method, described in Pop Sculpture..

Making Marley

2010-11-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

Next week, in celebration of the Season, we'll be running a multi-part post of the making of Jacob Marley. From clay studies, to wax, molds, casts and paint master, we'll cover, in detail, the creation of the last figure in Tim's Christmas Carol Collection. Stay Tuned!

Jim McPherson: A Digital Interview About Digital Sculpting

2010-11-09T21:54:00.000-08:00

When putting together Pop Sculpture, we knew we wanted to touch on digital sculpting in some way. Luckily, Rubén knew Jim McPherson, 3D Art Director and one of the lead sculptors at Gentle Giant Studio, and he was willing to share some info about the process. While his insight is included in the book, we didn’t get a chance to get into his prolific career, which includes makeup design with the legendary Rick Baker, as well as iconic pieces for DC Direct, Electric Tiki and more. Read on for the complete interview!

What made you want to become a sculptor? How did you get into the business?

Jim McPherson: I was really inspired by the early toys from Ideal, Captain Action and especially the Justice League/Batman Playset. I'm not sure how many people sculpted on these, or if it was mainly one really talented guy. The figures are very naturalistic, but also it seems to me that the comics the characters came from were looked at very carefully. I'm guessing they pulled a Wonder Woman comic, an Aquaman, a Justice League of America and a Dick Sprang Batman Annual among others. There's a perfect Dick Sprang-style Joker in the set, for instance. Captain Action's Captain America Mask looks a bit like Jack Kirby's design, and the Aquaman looks like Nick Cardy's. It's sort of the early version of now, when Tim Bruckner does dead-on Alex Ross figures. I was really impressed by that.

I loved The Munsters, which got me interested in makeup. I loved the Adventures of Superman and Batman TV shows, which got me interested in toys and comic art. I wanted to be a comic book artist, but I had always done sculptures. In college, I decided I liked sculpting a lot more. I actually walked into a company called the Puppet Workshop and got a job sculpting puppets and walkaround costumes and performing in the puppet show(!).

I moved to New York, sculpted on music videos and commercials and Broadway shows and then moved to California, showed my portfolio and got work helping out on Howard the Duck ( the makeup on Jeffrey Jones, not the Duck). Eventually I got hired at Rick Baker's and did a lot of behind-the-scenes character design work, which is really my favorite thing to do. Rick mainly sculpted his character designs in clay. Sometimes he did airbrush paintings. I do a lot of character design and visual development now, and use much of what I've learned from Rick and the other great artists who worked for him.

I saw on your Website that you sculpted the stretchy-face Ash prosthetic from Army of Darkness?

McPherson: Yes, he was Plastic Man and didn't know it! Plus, stage one was made to look like Fred Gwynne (of The Munsters), but I never told anyone until after it was on film.

What material did you work in before you went to digital?

McPherson: I worked in Plasticine (oil-based) and WED (water-based) clay on all the film sculptures, and Sculpey for toys. I wish I had used wax, but I didn't want to make any more molds, so I spent weeks sanding the Electric Tiki sculpts until every scratch was gone. Maybe I should have suffered with a few more molds and some wax burns.

When did you first go to digital? Did a specific project prompt the move?

McPherson: A friend, Chris Bailey, was developing his own short called "Major Damage." I did Sculpey maquettes for Major Damage himself. I asked if I could learn how to build digital models, too, and he got some sponsorships from Maya and Hewlett-Packard, so I was able to work on the computers those companies lent to the project. I ended up modeling the Giant Stone Tikis that are in the short.

What program do you use?

McPherson: I use Zbrush, but any high-poly sculpting program will work. I like the advantage of painting my sculptures while I'm sculpting them. The client and the artist have a much better idea of what the final painted product will look like, in my opinion.

What are the benefits of working with a digital program over traditional sculpting?

McPherson: A large part of what I do is character design, and I used to design film characters as clay maquettes. Doing them in the computer is a lot faster, and often directors and Visual Effects Supervisors sit with me, and we collaborate on the designs. I can actually save many versions in the same file, so that I can easily flip through them and see which ones I like best.

I did a sculpture of a walking, crouched dragon for Reign of Fire traditionally, It had armatured wings which had clay on both sides, and I was constantly grinding away the armature to get the sculpture to look thin enough. Years later, I designed my own dragon digitally. I have a printout of it at my desk and a casting of the Reign of Fire dragon, also. Rick Baker came by one day and said "the digital one is way better." I can see a big difference in just the sculptural quality. On the traditional piece, at a point I could no longer change the armature without having to re-sculpt something that had already taken many hours to do. I was stuck with things I didn't like and had to give up on improvements. Digitally, I could change the pose and proportions all the way up until I was done. I have no more problems with "make the head 10 percent smaller" critiques from a client. In traditional sculpting that's an unpaid "do over."

Does traditional sculpting experience help you as a digital sculptor?

McPherson: Of course. I think about everything the exact same way I always did. I still have to pick up tools off a table and add or subtract clay to try to achieve what I think is good sculpture. Except now I pick my tool up off a menu on a computer screen. I've done a 7-foot figure and a 12-foot cartoon shark back in the day; now we're milling figures larger than this, which are sculpted digitally. Learning about how form creates character applies to all three-dimensional work.

Do you still send physical prototypes to the factory for tooling? If so, do you output and prep them yourself, or send the digital files directly to the client?

McPherson: We have printers at Gentle Giant. One of the printers we use mostly for small action figure parts, as it leaves no artifacts to be cleaned up. But we do whatever output and prep that is necessary in-house. We do send digital character files out for films and sometimes don't print a physical copy.

What are some pieces you've sculpted the traditional way, and what are some you've sculpted digitally?

McPherson: Actual traditional sculpted products include the early Spumco Dolls and Pencil toppers -- Jimmy, George Liquor and Sody Pop -- and nine of the earliest figures for Tracy Lee's Electric Tiki design. These were all done in Super Sculpey. Digitally, I've sculpted a Will Eisner Spirit PVC for Dark Horse, the Batman Year One Statue designed by David Mazzucchelli, and two Superman action figures for the Superman vs. Doomsday animated line. I also do a large number of likenesses for actors and sports action figures digitally.

What is your favorite traditionally sculpted piece of your own?

McPherson: A seven-foot Zeus sculpture for Jekyll & Hyde's Restaurant in New York City that I sculpted at Creative Character Engineering. My favorite makeup is the Planet of the Apes orangutan makeup test, and my favorite digital piece is my Atomic Dragon...

Book Release and Sculpting Contest!

2010-10-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

We probably should have posted something yesterday, but Pop Sculpture officially came out on October 19th, which means you no longer have to pre-order the book -- you can simply order it! Here's a variety of American outlets you can order it from, although we're still trying to resolve a glitch at Amazon. Amazon U.K. has it listed just fine... buuuut it doesn't officially come out in the U.K. until December. (Amazon Japan, on the other hand, has it now!)

Anyway, we've been sending it out to people we respect in this industry, and we've gotten mentions from Topless Robot, Agent_M, Michael Crawford, I Heart Chaos, and ToyFare magazine! Plus, Spectrum has done a full flip-through that will give you a thumbnail view of the whole shebang:

But the big news is that, to tie in to the release of the book, Tim and I will be acting as judges in the Comiquette Challenge sculpting competition at Conceptart.org! It's a comic book-centric challenge, open to sculptors of any age and skill level, and the prizes are signed copies of Pop Sculpture! Sign up now and start sculpting! Unless you need the book to do that, in which case buy the book, start sculpting, win another copy and give it to a friend! It's just that easy!

HE WHO LAUGHS LAST

2010-10-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is third version of He Who Laughs Last. The first one was completed in the early 90's, the second in 2001 and this one finished on 10/15/10. Sometimes it takes awhile to understand what you're trying to do with a piece. After a couple of decades, I think I finally get this one.

TOO WEIRD FOR THE ROOM

2010-10-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

Some years ago, I did a poster of Spectrum, "Call for Entries". I asked Arnie Fenner if I could have another go at one for this year's poster. I've always been a big fan of early black and white animation and thought it would be cool to create a poster as if it were a playbill for a old-time cartoon. This is what I came up with. With the delicacy of thistle down, Arnie let me know that it was a little too outside of the box and maybe I should have another go at next year's poster. He's right, its too weird for the room, unless the room is padded. Check out the wonderful book review Spectrum gave us. Thanks Arnie, Kathy and Arlo!

http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/

NYCC Wrap-Up and Our First Review!

2010-10-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

The signing at New York Comic-Con was a great success! I signed a dozen or so books on Saturday, and I know people bought more, because I sent one guy to the shop across the aisle to get one and he never came back for me to sign it! The Watson-Guptill/Random House people were so nice, and I picked up a couple of Max Collins' zombie books while I was at the booth. The basket of pins I put out during the signing was almost completely tapped by the end, so check the lapels and satchels of any attendees you run into! I signed a few extra copies at the show, and if they didn't sell on Sunday, they'll end up back at the store that handled the sales, Word in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Look for them there! And, of course, unsigned copies are available for pre-order at a bunch of places, although they won't ship until the 19th.

Also, we've gotten our first official review! Master toy reviewer Michael Crawford has reviewed the book and given it four stars! It must be because of our 238 points of articulation.

We Have a Winnah!

2010-09-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

A month or so back, we came up with a contest -- okay, a method of psychological torture -- that required entrants to identify ten different sculptures by ten different sculptors. After a couple of weeks, and a whole bunch of hints, we have three winners! Aaron Coulter of Ontario and Marty Henley of Tennessee are our runners-up, and they both win posters of Pop Sculpture co-author Tim Bruckner's favorite sculpted faces. But the grand-prize winner is Elton Chu of Illinois! He wins the Tim-sculpted statue of The Flash and Gorilla Grodd, designed by the late Michael Turner! Hooray! We'll get those right out to you, guys. And in case the rest of you are curious, here are the answers:

1. Jack Mathews - Black Canary, DC Direct

2. Tony Cipriano - Kull, Dark Horse Deluxe

3. The Four Horsemen - Beast-Man, Mattel

4. Karen Palinko - Aquaman (Kingdom Come), DC Direct

5. William Paquet - Marv, Sin City, Dynamic Forces

6. Alterton Bizarre - Drakkar, Alterton Bizarre Sculpting Studio

7. Ruben Procopio - Prince Valiant, Electric Tiki/Sideshow Collectibles

8. Jonathan Matthews - Illidan Stormrage, DC Unlimited

9. Kyle Windrix - Jason Voorhees, NECA

10. Tim Bruckner - Moon Maid, ReelArt/Dark Horse Deluxe

Pop Sculpture to Debut at New York Comic-Con!

2010-09-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

Hi, all! The wait for Pop Sculpture is almost over -- in fact, it just got a lot shorter. While the book will be out in stores on October 19, interested parties attending New York Comic-Con on October 8-10 will be able to buy their own copy at the Random House booth, #2222! Even better, co-author Zach Oat will be signing copies of the book from 3-4 pm on Saturday! (He'll also sign any copies of Twisted ToyFare Theatre you guys bring along.) And the first 100 customers will get a free Pop Sculpture pin, one of two Bruckner-tastic designs shown below! Plus, Zach will be sitting in on a panel on Friday night at 6pm in room 1A21 titled Toys Are Us! How Your Favorite Toys Are Made. Todd McFarlane, Jesse Falcon, Shawn Smith and David Scroggy will also be on stage, and ToyFare writer Tracey John will be moderating! That's a lot of know-how in one room!

2010-09-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

I've known Alterton Bizarre for a few years. He is one of a kind. I've never known anyone with such a love for the art of sculpture. His was the first site (http://www.thesculptorscorner.com/Alterton.htm ) I posted some of my work to. He works in a very difficult and unforgiving material, but through sheer force of will, dedication and a unwavering passion, he's mastered epoxy to become one of the most gifted sculptors in the business. Ladies and gents... Alterton Bizarre!
-TB

Ok my amigos; this is a funny tutorial I used to have at my old site. Why funny? Well because seeing it from today, the technique I used was ridiculous!!! But give me some credit, cause it is not easy to be a commercial sculptor when you are living right down in the ass of the world, right at the point where the wind and the sea collapse under the singing of the whales! Well, I live south of that, and a right turn from there!

When you are starting to sculpt from nowhere, from scratch… without an artistic background and living in a place where these things are not common. Polymer clay? Toy Wax? They do no exist down here, anywhere? And to get them from the States is a real pain in the neck. Not only because of the expensive shipping costs but also because... you might never get them!!! I have been there, and it is frustrating! And expensive!! Stupid mail service!

I remember when I was working for Art asylum, they gave me their precious wax formula, it came with all the ingredients and the grams to be used; well, I still can’t understand what in the name of God is toilette wax. And most of the ingredients were a big mystery to me. So I had to figure it out how to do what I like to do with the things available to me at the local stores.

Now, with all the excuses said, this was my first attempt to get my hands into this wonderful (and sometimes frustrating) commercial sculpture world!

1: These are the tools I use most often; mostly dental tools, also a knife, compass and the magic tool Ralph Cordero gave me.

2: I used human skeleton as reference and a sketch from Chuck Needham's site to build the wire armature. Once I had the wire armature, I covered it with the 10 minute (set time) epoxy, except the joints so I could give the pose to the armature. Once the pose was set, I covered the joints with the 10 min. epoxy putty too and positioned the armature in a homemade stand to secure the piece and to be able to sculpt from here . So far, there is nothing funny all right? Pretty similar first steps in all techniques.

But here comes the funny thing, I used regular plastilina, the one children use at school, like the Play-Doh putty that never drays or sets or gets hard. So with this unusual material I did the anatomy to give shape and volume to the figure covering the armature.

3:. The trick; the most valuable secret to continue with this process of sculpting the ultimate figure was to put the Play-Doh piece a couple of minutes in the freezer

4: That step allowed to preserve the plastilina figure shape and to have a firm base for the next step.

5: Meanwhile I was “preserving” the piece in the freeze, I rolled out a thin layer of standard epoxy putty (the ones that gets hard in and hour and a half) and let it rest for about 20 minutes Why regular "school" plastilina you might ask? Because… well… without polymer clay for the base, the Play-Doh like material allowed me to study the pose and the thickness of the figure, and modify it as I needed to.

6: Once the palstilina was frozen and the layer of epoxy had some body, I re-repositioned the figure on the stand and started to cover it by parts according to the places the pose and volume allowed me to. As you can see, some plastilina parts were not covered with epoxy. I waited the epoxy to set up and put the figure back into the freezer,

7: Another thin layer of epoxy to cover the uncovered plastilina parts, repositioned on the stand and voile! The entire figure covered with epoxy!

8: For the head, I used the same skeleton sketch because of proportions. An epoxy ball worked fine. As the head of this robot had an open mouth, I decided to do both jaws separately.

9: You can see how I shaped the upper jaw. Once it was hard I used a Dremel Tool to give the proper robot shape the design asked for.

10: For the lower jaw, I did a plastilina ball to keep and preserve the space between both jaws and to give shape to the lower one.

11: Once the epoxy was hard, I Dremeled it again, cutting and shaping, adding detail.

12: Here are the cut and keyed parts. For details, I worked in layers; sanded a lot, and added more layers and more sanding, etc. etc. etc. ( as shown in the GOW Boomer’s tutorial.)

13: Here’s a pic of the completed, unpainted sculpture.

14:The finished piece with a kick-ass paint job by Dan Cope!

Reading the old tutorial I wrote for my site, I thought the secrets of the Sculpture Universe had been revealed to me. But, hey, those were my first steps!!! It makes me laugh to read that early stuff. But, don’t you laugh, or I’ll have to kick you where the sun don’t shine!
I hope you liked it! See you soon.

Alterton

ToyFare #159 On Sale Now!

2010-09-18T22:45:00.000-07:00

When you have two famous toy sculptors like Tim and Ruben collaborating on a book of Pop Sculpture's caliber, America's number-one toy magazine is going to want to cover it. In the new issue, #159 (with the Halo: Reach cover) writer TJ Dietsch does a roundtable interview with all three of us about the process of writing the book and where we hope to take it in the future. Plus, as the magazine's former editor, I managed to land a guest appearance in "Inside the Monkeyhouse" alongside my friend, current ToyFare editor Justin Aclin! The issue is in comic shops now, and should hit newsstands on Tuesday (I think).

New Promo Video: Thor's Balls

2010-09-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

Hey, all! Tim's been playing around with his animation software and just made another promo video for the book, featuring Thor. I would describe it, but words do it no justice. (If you have trouble seeing all of it below, watch it on YouTube.)

Status Update: Where The Pop Sculpture Authors Are Now, Part 1

2010-09-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

Working on this book has been a dream come true for me in that I was able to see inside the brains of two men I admire -- Tim Bruckner and Rubén Procopio. I was a fan of both of them and their work before we started writing Pop Sculpture together, and the amazing thing is that since then, their work has gotten even more impressive. I thought I'd shine a light on some of their coolest recent work, based entirely on my biased views as an unabashed comic and movie geek, starting with Tim.

Tim has worked for literally dozens of manufacturers, but the pinnacle of his career has debatably been spent with DC Direct. His ability to accurately translate the work of 2-D artists has led to amazing toy lines based on Jim Lee's artwork for Batman: Hush as well as Alex Ross's painting style in Kingdom Come. (See Also: The Dark Knight Returns toys, plus statues based on the art of Gary Frank, Brian Bolland and Adam Hughes.) But the man has an amazing style of his own, which is why it's so great to see him creating superhero work that's not based on a specific artist's renderings.

One of the lines of statues Tim's working on now is called DC Dynamics, and it features his designs, as inspired by the paintings of early 20th century illustrator J.C. Leyendecker. Each of the characters leaves behind a trail of smoke, water or energy, which is cast in a translucent material, creating a sense of movement. They're almost... dynamic! Hence the name!. While the Wonder Woman and Superman pieces are my favorites, the fact that the line has expanded beyond the Big Seven to include Supergirl and Sinestro is pretty great. Still, imagine how this effect could be put to use to re-create the Flash's Speed Force, or the Martian Manhunter's speed and invisibility. And how about Dr. Fate? Or Hawkman? Just thinking out loud here.

The second line Tim's doing for DCD is called DC Chronicles -- basically, they're Tim's interpretations of what each of DC's most famous Justice Leaguers looked like back when they first appeared. But despite their old-fashioned styling, they're tough, gritty versions, and they're all pretty bad-ass -- well, except Aquaman, who is clearly enjoying himself at a cocktail party, or perhaps greeting a passing school of fish. Still, the sheer personality rolling off of ol' Arthur Curry more than makes up for him not bending a machine gun like Superman. In my opinion, this line might be a good place to mix in some other older characters who could stand to be made bad-ass -- Metamorpho, Shazam, Adam Strange...

The newest series Tim's working on is called Ultimate Showdown, and it features the classic hero/villain rivals facing off in statue pairs. Green Lantern fights Sinestro in the first set, followed by Superman/Bizarro and Batman/Joker, and I can't wait to see which pairs Tim tackles next. Flash/Zoom? Wonder Woman/Cheetah? Shazam/Adam? Aquaman/Manta??? I'm all a-tingle!

Next week: Rubén Procopio's latest, gushed over by a formerly professional toy nerd.

SO LONG SUMMER

2010-09-03T06:28:00.001-07:00

Who better than to say goodbye to the days of surf and sand than the Dogtown Dudes of summer, The Beach Boyz? They've hung ten and hang tough. So, while they honor Labor Day by doing as little as possible, they're planning one of the biggest, most exciting Updates in Pop Sculpture history. Cowabunga, everybody!

Still Time to Enter the Name That Sculptor Contest!

2010-08-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

No entries so far for the "Name That Sculptor" Contest, so we thought we'd give you guys another chance... and another hint! Because this Flash vs. Grodd statue is taking up a lot of room in Tim's studio, and he's been using it as a paperweight, but he'd rather send it to someone who knows their stuff.

Now, we'll admit that this may have been a hard contest. Ten tiny details to identify ten sculptures and the ten sculptors who sculpted them? Unfair! Well, we aren't going to give you any artist names, but we'll give you another full picture:

We'll also tell you that one of the pieces was not a mainstream release, but was only offered through the sculptor's Website. It's certainly a weird one. Really strange, you know? We can say no more. Or can we?

FUN WITH FUNNEL CASTING!

2010-08-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

So, you’re gleefully casting away. Things are going great. You’re a casting machine! And then it happens. The resin cast comes out of the mold missing the top third. What the heck! You try again. Same thing. And again, same bloody same. Maybe this is a loaded, or pre-filled mold? You didn’t think it was, but molds have a mind of their own. You try butterflying open the top at the pour hole, close it up and hope… maybe even send up a prayer or two. The cast is missing the top of the part again! Enter, FUNNEL CASTING! Sometimes, the configuration of the part results in a slow fill. The mold tops off with resin okay, but cranking up the pressure removes the air and compressed the resin and, in these instances, the result in an under-filled mold. Let’s walk through the process using my base for the Ultimate Showdown series as an example.

1: If I’m casting a part that needs to stay flat and true, I’ll create a foam core mother mold. Its important to spray the inside of the case with a good mold release before making the mold. This method works well if you have to cast up a bunch of parts. To date, I’ve probably cast thirty-some pieces.

2: When the RTV is cured, it’s a good idea to notch the top of the mold and case to orientate its placement later. Using a strong tape, the case is secured around the mold. You only need to tape the open side of the case. Start at the top, do the bottom and then the middle. Because I needed it to remain flat, I taped the top and bottom of each mold to prevent a possible bulge.

3: Using Krome Kote scraps, I made a couple of funnels. The bottom of the funnel should be just a little larger than the pour hole. And be careful not to let the tip of the funnel poke down too far to reach the actual part. Funnels done - give them a gentle twist to seat them.

4: I designed the disk part of the base to pivot in the hexagonal base. Both part of the base parts were cast in semi-clear resin. The disk was colored using an interference power so it would have depth, kind of like a semi-transparent stone. The hexagon part is mostly black, with a silver top. It was just easier, especially with the number of parts I’d have to cast, to cast it black and add the silver as a paint application.

5: Funnel in place, mold in the pressure pot, resin poured. Let the pressure casting begin!

6: When casting clear resin, its a good idea to let it fully cure before taking out of the mold. It has a tendency to go off more quickly than standard casting resin but takes longer to fully cure. De-molding the resin before its set up will often distort the part.

7: Fresh from the pot!

8-9: The finished two-part base. A clear acrylic spray brings out the opalescent quality of the disk. A spray of Dullcote on the hexagon, before the applying the silver, takes out all the sanding marks.
And there you have it. No more partially cast parts!

An Overdue Tribute, and an Overdue Hint

2010-08-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

I know we promised you a hint for our contest last week, but two passings had our minds elsewhere. The first was Tim's father, whom I unfortunately never got the chance to meet, but my sympathy goes out to Tim for his loss. The second was Eddie Wires, a prototype painter of the highest caliber and a heck of a nice guy, one I had the pleasure of getting to know during my tenure as editor of ToyFare.

I remember having breakfast with him one morning at the New York Toy Fair, along with the Palisades Toys crew -- Eddie painted most if not all of their Muppets prototypes, not to mention Ren & Stimpy, Invader Zim, Adult Swim, Alien, Predator and Transformers. He also painted hundreds of prototypes for Toy Biz, including many of the Marvel Legends, as well as work for DC Direct, Diamond Select and Hasbro. While I didn't know him as well as I would have liked, I know that he is truly missed by his colleagues and friends. And, having photographed and written about pretty much every prototype he ever painted, I think I can say with a fair degree of confidence that the man had a great talent. After all, if you just count the Muppets and Legends alone, his paint apps acted as guides for most of the action figures in my permanent collection. Here are just a few of his prototype paint jobs.

If any of you would still like a hint in order to complete your entry in the contest, here's one last picture for you. It wasn't painted by Eddie, but it is a full-body shot of the one piece that is probably giving you guys so much trouble. No name, no sculptor, but at least you've got a face. Or lack thereof.

NAME THAT SCULPTOR CONTEST!

2010-08-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun doing that last contest that we want to do it again! But this time there's an added twist. After all, we want you people to prove that you love action figures, statues and the talented people who sculpt them. So what we've done is gather ten details of ten images of ten pieces sculpted by ten different professional sculptors. You need to tell us the character, the company and the sculptor's name for each, and the first to get all 30 answers correct wins. Some may be easy, some may be hard, but we have faith in you.

The winner gets the Michael Turner-style Flash vs. Gorilla Grodd statue signed by co-sculptors Tim Bruckner and Tony Cipriano -- the only collaboration ever done between the Pop Sculpture author and contributor -- plus a poster of Tim's body of work (at left). Two runners-up will get posters, as well. Mail your guesses to popsculptcontest@gmail.com, and check back next week to maybe get a hint or two.

Below are the ten detail shots -- happy hunting!

DC DYNAMICS: SINESTRO!

2010-07-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

The DCD Dynamics line is one of the most gratifying of my career. I was able to explore an idea that began with my Prometheus statue from 2007. Being able to bend the style of the wonderful J.C. Leyendecker to iconic DC characters was almost too much fun. And adding little costume anomalies to a couple of them, felt like ditching school and getting away with it. I thought the line would be retired after the first six. But, I’m glad to say there’s a few more waiting in the wings. Sinestro, the first of the second wave of Dynamics, was previewed at San Diego Comic Con a couple of weeks ago. This was my fourth go at him and really enjoyed working on his character. “Fear will rise and Willpower gather…” Ladies and Gents, Sinestro!

1: This is the first pass at a Sinestro head. I’m trying to find something to hang his portrait on, something a little different from the what’s been done before. I’m trying things out on the right side of his face. When Georg reviews the pix and lets me know if I headed in the right direction, I’ll move the approved stuff to the rest of his face.

2: Here’s the Master Wax head. For me, it was all about the mouth, and what that particular gesture did to the rest of his face. Since he would be leaning down a little,
hooding his eyes would give me a more menacing expression. I probably spent too much time on the ears, trying to make them a little more organic. A guy’s got to take his fun where he can get it.

3:This is the first pass at the torso. Elongating his torso and arms would hopefully indicate his overall, long, slender body type. The open collar was too a little too far out of character, so we closed it up some a little later.

4: Here’s the second pass at his torso. Just tightening and cleaning. Hand is just a dummy for position.

5: This is where a great art director can help you pull you head out of your ass. It’s all about trust. Georg thought his lowered left hand felt a little too relaxed and didn’t convey enough power and tension. I always try and put more tension and muscle strain in the arm/hand that’s directing the action. I thought I’d done that. But I could have doubled the muscles in his left arm and it still wouldn’t have done what raising the arm and changing the position of the fist and wrist did (which I did later). Thank you, G.

6 :Pix of the Master Wax of Sinestro’s torso. I went in after these pix were taken and fanned down the fingers of his right hand and turned his left fist in and up a little which meant resculpting the forearm.

7: Once I had his sculpt approved, I made molds, cast a set re resins to build the base to. The character of his energy needed to be different than Green Lantern’s. There’s a lot more action and movement with Sinestro’s which would offset Green Lantern’s more majestic imagery.

8: Sinestro is broken down into six parts: The base, the energy ball (two parts) and both of his hands and Sinestro. These are pix of the resin Tool Parts.

Paint Master: This is s set of pix of the Paint Master. There’s a couple of nice little touches. Some of that stuff you just do for your own amusement. A good many of us in the business are pretty easily amused.

KAREN'S GOT GAME!

2010-07-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

Karen Palinko's got game! Animated characters? No problem. Superheroes? Bring it on! Portraits? Did that statue just wink at me? Not only does she sculpt, she molds, casts and paints her own stuff. A triple threat! In a business currently being driven by technology, Karen does it the old fashioned way; with hands, head and heart, an abundance of talent and the most basic tools of the trade. The result? He work is inventive, thoughtful and down right beautiful. As a true professional, her focus is on the work. Looking at a Palinko piece, its almost impossible to imagine adding
or taking anything away that wouldn't undermine the sculpt's integrity.
And that, my friends, is game!It's my pleasure to introduce, Ms. Karen Palinko. -THB.

One of the first challenges I faced sculpting this figure was figuring out how to make her look angry and attractive at the same time. Pushed too far, angry features can become so distorted that the face becomes ugly. It’s a fine line to walk—putting in enough facial lines and distortion to convey emotion, but not so much as to make the character look grotesque. What I decided on was an ‘up and down’ directional pull to the face rather than a ‘side to side’ one. Pulling the facial muscles outward to create a wide gaping mouth works well on male figures, but for an attractive woman, I wanted more of snarl than a grimace, to make the finished product look angry-sexy, not angry-ugly.

I’ve sculpted a lot of female characters, and one of my favorite parts is doing what I think of as "swishy" hair. A superheroine needs good, swishy hair. Hair does more than make the figure attractive---it’s a continuation of the action; and done right, it adds energy and dynamics to the figure. I also find it very relaxing to sculpt. To me, it feels like a swirly abstract sculpture within a sculpture. But while half of my brain is relaxing and sculpting it, the other half is keeping in mind that it has to be castable. I try to be careful to work the strands so that they feed into each other, or that gates can easily be positioned from one strand to the next so the whole thing can be pulled out of the mold easily.

Like Aquaman, Mera’s costume is composed of countless fish-like scales, which require painstaking effort to get right. Unfortunately, there’s no painless way to put all those scales in place. Each one had to sculpted on individually, using tiny dots of wax. I sculpt the figure first, laying in the musculature, and then apply the scales on top. I sculpted the Mera body underneath to be a little thinner than I would have usually, to allow for the added thickness of the scales. Sometimes this takes some trial and error to get it right, and I have on occasion had to strip the scales off a section to redo them if I thought a limb looked too thin or too heavy after applying the scales. Scales also take some planning ahead, since when applying them on a 3-D shape, the rows will have to contour around the curves of the body. I lay out etched guidelines on the figure to plan where the rows will fall.

Like many of the figures I’ve done over the years, this was a complicated figure involving multiple parts, all of which had to fit together like pieces of a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. Besides her scaly costume, she also had shoulder pads, spikes on her arms, fins on her legs, and a Red Lantern emblem on her costume. This called for careful handling, since the small delicate pieces would squash when they came in contact with each other. I did the joint sections last, as well as any pieces that would touch, and moved them in and out of the freezer to keep them cold while I worked on them.

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

2010-07-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

First, we want to thank everyone who participated in our contest. And not like a “oh, yeah, thanks” but a real “look you in the eye, shake your hand and offer to buy you a drink – thanks”.

On July 12, 2010, at 3:49 PM, Liza M. Martin was the first to send in correct guesses for all fifteen details. Some folks had a hard time identifying No. 11 and No. 12. Hell, if I didn’t sculpt them, I’d have hard time coming up with half of them.

Congratulations Liza! If you’ll send your address to popsculptcontest@gmail.com, we’ll send you an autographed copy of the book as soon as we have them available, mid-October.

I picked fifteen of pieces I have a real fondness for, for one reason or another.

1: Of all of the nine Jim Lee Hush figures I did, Catwoman was my favorite. I can’t tell you why. The sculpt just came together. And the goggles were a cool touch.

2: My wife and I went to Italy some years ago, and I rediscovered my love of Mannerism after seeing some of it in person. When we got home, I did this piece, The Dance of O, in homage to that weird and wonderful style. I’d planned to do four pieces, but like all best laid plans… I had to make some dough.

3: This was a fun piece to do, with his pivot stomach and articulated jaw. Seems money can buy your kid a membership in a very exclusive intergalactic club. G’Nort.

4: I enjoyed the hell out of doing this piece. Not the least of which was being able to translate Mr. Ross’s wonderful design for the Joker. This was the first figure I was able to use the inverted ball joint, with the ball being on the end of sculpted neck, as opposed to the head being mounted on a ball that is part of the body. The arm articulation was a challenge in trying to get him into the pose Alex wanted while being able to adopt alternate poses.

5: I did four of these Hellboy busts for Dark Horse. Kate turned out to be a favorite. I liked her expression. This was the first line I got to use the pivot feature and employed is again on the Elf Quest busts.

6: I love the work of George Petty. I was lucky enough to do an Elvgren with Gil’s son, Drake’s blessing. The Petty estate was having none of it. So, I wondered what George would do with one of his girls adventuring in Outer Space. Here she is. The name, Major Marjorie is in homage to Petty’s daughter Marjorie, who was his model and muse for many years.

7: McKay is, for all intents and purposes, a portrait of Alex’s dad. Not often you get to sculpt a guy in a cardigan with a pocket protector.

8: There’s a great scene in the book, just before the Ghost of Christmas Present takes his leave of Scrooge. Scrooge sees some movement under the Ghost’s robe. He reveals an emaciated pair of kids. The Ghost tells Scrooge that these kids belong to mankind. “The girl is want. The boy is ignorance. Beware of them both, but in particular the boy.”

9: There were so many interesting things about this piece. Lots of problem solving. My wife modeled for Promethea’s knees. Nice knees, eh?

10: This is my take on Quasimodo with an obvious nod to Mr. Lon Chaney. The first time I saw it was at a revival house with organ accompaniment. So, cool.

11: Translating Ed McGuinness’ style was fun and he was so great to work with. And you got to love that flashy blue suit.

12: I’m a huge Todd Schorr fan. Getting to work with him on this piece was a pure joy.
Under Autumn’s Tentacled Spell.

13: I really liked this character from Red Son. I got to design the base. It reminded me of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis for some reason.

14: I ain’t kidding when I say that working on this Amano piece was an honor. And, a pain in the behind. Details! Details! Details! The smoke base was fun. This was the beginning of my clear cast resin phase. Vampire D.

15: Adam Hughes is one of my favorite living pop culture artist. A great designer. He’s got that same enviable ability to tell a full story in one frame, just like the Amazing Rockwell.

Name the Statues, Win a Prize!

2010-07-08T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hey, kids! We're having a contest. That's right, the first-ever Pop Sculpture Contest Give-Away. And boy howdy, it's fun! Here's how you play: Simply identify which of Tim's sculptures these details belong to. The person who gets the most right with the earliest submission wins! What do they win? Heck-a-doodle, they win a free autographed copy of our book, Pop Sculpture, when it comes out on October 19. What could be simpler? Mail your guesses to: popsculptcontest@gmail.com Only one guess per household. The winner will be announced next Friday.

And here's another clue for you all (aside from the Walrus being Paul): All of these details come from pics at Tim's site (http://www.timbruckner.com). But I hear you asking, "Hey, isn't that just a shamefully blatant way to promote his site and increase traffic?" You bet it is! Ain't America great? Good luck, everyone!

La Belle et la Bete 2006

2010-07-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

I think I saw the 1946 La Belle et la Bete movie, by Jean Cocteau, on TV when I was eleven or twelve. Whenever I first saw it, it made a lasting impression. I’d never seen anything like it. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it highly. The lead characters' complex relationship is something I’ve been wanting to explore for many years. Early in 2006, I started nibbling away at it. As I worked on Belle, the rest of it came together. I knew who these characters were and how I wanted to present a relationship of interdependence, the lure and power of sexual attraction and the duality of appearance vs. content. What I hadn’t worked out then, was how to get her up in the air.

1: I worked Belle directly in wax but needed to do a few clay studies for Bete. He had to be physically imposing, a giant, but restrained, introspective and shy. My two main sources of inspiration were gorillas and Karloff.

2: After a set of waste molds, I poured a set of waxes and began finish work. The pix of this part has been tool toleranced toward a final rub finish.

3: Working the wax arms and legs to the body, making sure everything lined up and the balance was right.

4: Pix of Bete’s Master Wax head. I had to keep checking the tilt and eye direction so when it was all put together, his gaze was where it was supposed to be.

5: Pix of the Master Wax of Belle’s head. I was kind of proud of the finish of that head at a half an inch. But that’s before I saw some of the work by a few sculptors who specialize in miniatures I’d always felt, a good miniature never gives away its scale. Belle’s head looks like a small scale sculpt. Some of the stuff I’ve seen on the web lately is frighteningly good. You’d be hard pressed to guess just how big or small the sculpts are.

6: I needed to test my theory of support. Using the unfinished waxes, I hammered out a length or armature wire and wrinkled and bend it to look like heavy ribbon. It worked surprisingly well. I refined it a bit more, did a sag test, refined a bit more and went with it.

7: The first set of castings of the base and Bete, making sure things were still where they were supposed to be, before a final finish and priming for paint. Both arms had to come off to make it castable. I cut his left arm at a place I knew would be easy to patch. His right arm was a bit more tricky, so I used an arm band to mask the join. The shape of the band keyed the arm in the right position. For the base, I built a KromeKote circular dam and filled it with resin. Sanded, glazed the pin holes and gave it a good coat of primer then worked the rock formations on top of it. I wanted a kind of Frazetta texture for the rocks and so sculpted and finished them in clay. Then molded the whole damn thing.

8: It seemed right that a bat-winged woman would have prehensile feet. The glove was a design solution so I could use a large ring in scale with the ribbon.

The last three pix are of the Paint Master. I wanted to break up the texture of the piece, so used tufts of model grass to add some wispy, lighter elements.

Pop Sculpture: New Video Is Live!

2010-06-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

In case you're interested to know exactly what topics we'll be covering in the upcoming book Pop Sculpture (due out October 19, 2010), this video breaks down the contents for you, complete with some luscious imagery courtesy of sculptor and co-author Tim Bruckner. Tim also edited the video, and Zach narrated. Music by our man Beethoven.

THE JAILHOUSE: Behind the Scenes, Behind the Bars - PART 3

2010-06-17T17:12:00.000-07:00

Kat Sapene is one of the finest painters I’ve known. And that’s saying something. I’m a geezer, I’ve have been around a long time and have known many painters. She is one of the best. Aside from her chops, one of the things make makes her work so good is her focus on the needs of the sculpture. She never showboats. She never does more or less than what will make sculpture the best it can be. And speaking as a sculptor, ain’t nothing better than that. Take a good look at how she handled the Jailhouse; the rust on the bars, the cast light from the lantern, the wear on the stone work. And those stripes! Those stripes! No small feat that. So, ladies and gentlemen, its my pleasure to introduce, the Princess of Paint, the Queen of Color. The one. The only. Kat Sapene! - THB

This is one of my favorite pieces. With all the little details that Tim threw in, it was a real pleasure to paint this scene.

Luckily for me, the figures and the base were left as separate pieces. Something that isn’t always the case, but with a piece as large as this, it allowed me to tackle one section at a time. As with any project, I started by collecting all the reference I could find. The client was able to supply me with a number of images he had taken in a behind the scenes tour of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. And with all the Disney pieces I have painted I have been collecting Disney movies, shorts and odd snippets on DVD for a number of years now. (Disney also has a nasty habit of throwing movies in their “Vault”, so get ‘em while they’re out or the movies won’t be available when you need them!) In one of these collections of shorts I happen to have a copy of an old TV show where Walt Disney takes you on a tour through the Pirates ride. This was perfect for capturing the mood of the ride.

With all my reference at hand I started by painting the figures. I mixed all the colors I would need to paint the figures and the dog, making sure to keep all colors fairly muted and dingy. But the biggest obstacle with these pirates was all those stripes! In small areas, like the socks and bandanas, stripes are easier since there isn’t really enough space to mess up. But with a full shirt like the blonde pirate, plan ahead! If you’re really nervous about stripes, take a pencil and lightly sketch out your stripe placement. Then make sure to seal it with some dullcote, otherwise your pencil markings will smear all over the place. Use thin layers of color so as not to build up too much paint, and breathe gently. Another thing to keep in mind is how stripes change when they wrinkle, meet an edge, or are tied in a knot. Something as simple as creating a seam by slightly offsetting where your stripes meet can give your piece a nice touch of realism

Next, I painted the base. Even though I’ve painted stone a million and one times, I never try to just duplicate what I’ve done in the past. While the basic techniques may be the same, the colors vary depending on the setting. For this base, I made sure to add some browns and raw umber to my colors to keep in line with the dirt on the figures. This helps to unify the piece as a whole instead of having a base and figures that don’t look like they are in the same world. Adding drips and stains to the walls adds to the dirtiness of the jailhouse. The final touch on the base was to add a bit of glow from the lantern to the wall. This was achieved by taking the highlight color I used on the stone and mixing in the colors of the light. Then I did a simple dry brush of these new colors on the wall where the light would hit.

THE JAILHOUSE: Behind the scenes, Behind the bars. PART 2

2010-06-11T07:58:00.000-07:00

After the clays were approved, Tim made a series of waste molds and cast a set of wax copies to take to finish.

1: “The mutt is a breed my mom used to call Heinz 57, because he had a little bit of everything in him. The challenge with the dog was to balance the anthropomorphism. He is, after all, a Disney dog. The fur had to work in porcelain, so I went for a slightly sleeker pooch, with a wavy coat." -THB

2: “One of the great things about working on this project was, it came with a back story. All I had to do was supply details to amplify each pirate’s character. This guy had the bone, which was probably the remnants of their last meal. He’s got the worried look of a natural born pessimist. I added as many back view details as I could. The patch on his pants shows they’ve been mended at least twice, with whatever bit a scarp he could scrounge." - THB

3: “In better times, he was the cook. He’s the ‘bone pirate’s’ back up. The dog gets close enough and his job is to snare the mangy beast. He’s probably pretty good at it. His full figure testifies to his talent with a noose or a trap." - THB

4: “This guy hasn’t got all his oars in the water, so to speak. He’ll do his best to try and lure the dog within reach. Like his cell mates, he wants that key. But he hasn’t had a decent meal in a while. And he remembers hearing that dog tastes a lot like chicken.” - THB (Note: In the full body profile, you can see he has a peg leg. Its not visible from the front. Although pirates and peg legs go together like a Yo-Ho and Rum, it was decided to go with a more traditional two legged pirate for the final version.)

5: With all the figures approved, molded as cast, Tim made a mock up of the set out of foam core. The hands would have to be sculpted separately. The actual characters grip the bars in a full finger curl. These guys would need to be positioned after the set was manufactured, so their hands would need to be “C” hands to allow them to be slide onto the bars as opposed to the bars being slid through them.

6: Although not in the original design, Tim added a few props to help flesh out the story. A set of pewter plates, bowls, spoons and mugs gave the set a more lived-in look. Note how he constructed the water bucket with a separate clear resin water plug to add a little more realism. The mice just seemed like a natural addition. What’s a dungeon cell without a few mice? And we all know how fond mice are of drop or two a ale.

7/8: This is completed statue, fully assembled for a final approval. Next stop, the magic hands and talent of the Princess of Paint, The Queen of Color, the one, the only Kat Sapene!

NO MORE MR. STICKY FINGERS!

2010-06-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

Superglue! The Pop Sculptor's best friend! Well, maybe not a sculptor's best friend, but way up there. But it can be difficult now and then, like some best friends can be. Especially if you use a thin viscosity mercury adhesive. The thin stuff sets up quicker and can get into places the medium of thick stuff just can't. But the thin stuff has a mind of its own. You want it to go here and it wants to go anywhere but here or there. Before you know it, you've not only over glued your part but you've managed to glue yourself to the part as well. What the solution? Micro Teflon Tubing! Its available at most hobby stores and comes is a variety of gauges. And its cheap! You snip off a short piece, insert the tube into the pour spout of the glue bottle and you have the accuracy of William Tell. No more Mr. Sticky Fingers!

THE JAILHOUSE; Behind the scenes, Behind the bars - PART 1 of 3

2010-06-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

"As the flames spread throughout the city, pirates locked in the town jail are desperate to escape before their underground dungeon turns into an inferno. The local constabulary is nowhere to be seen. Only a mangy mutt is around to witness their plight, and he holds the keys to their cells in his mouth. The pirates try to lure the dog within their reach so they can grab the keys and attempt an escape. 'Here, give us the keys, ya scrawny little beast!'" – Ruben Procopio

The Jailhouse Scene statue, based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Walt Disney World, is unique in many ways, among them is the distinction of being the only statue to have employed the talents of three of Pop Sculpture's contributors: Ruben Procopio, Tim Bruckner and Kat Sapene. Ruben designed the piece, Tim sculpted it and Kat painted it. A trifecta!

Ruben faced some interesting challenges in crafting a design that encapsulated the Disney ride experience, as well as creating a backview the public had never seen. "I had to maintain the focus on the characters and their interaction while giving a sense of the mass of their surroundings without overwhelming them," Ruben noted. He succeeded beautifully.

Following Ruben’s designs, and over the course of several conversations, Tim began roughing out the figures in clay. "The original figures themselves are like life-sized puppets with limited expression and movements," Tim said. "The genius of the ride is the full-on experience of lighting, sound and motion that creates, for the viewer, a sensory impression that goes well beyond its component parts. My job was to try and sculpt figures that felt like the ride, not portraits of the audio-animatronics."

Once the scale of the figures was set, Tim built sculpture stands for each figure with a set of wooden dowels as stand-ins for the prison bars. "This was one of the most technically challenging pieces I've ever done," Tim said. "Given the size of the piece and the production material (porcelain), I had to make adjustments to allow the figures to be manufactured without comprising their look. Early on, Ruben and I understood that simple things, like the way the pirates held onto the bars, would have to be modified to work with the various materials used and to anticipate the slight variables that arise from combining porcelain with other materials.”

WHY WE OUGHTA...

2010-05-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hey, all! The three Pop Sculpture stooges here, wishing you a happy Memorial Day weekend. In honor of the stooges that have come before us, we'll be taking the weekend off from updates, but please peruse the site's nooks and crannies, and check out our Facebook page for more content! We'll be back next week with more knuckleheaded updates and previews!

POP GOES THE WARHOL

2010-05-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jami M. Lynn for the inspiration to create a pop poster in the style of the iconic pop artist, Andy Warhol for our book, Pop Sculpture.

DESIGN: DON'T LEAVE ANY IDEAS IN THE INKWELL

2010-05-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

As you'll see in our Pop Sculpture book, we first had to come up with a design for the Athena statue and the Thor action figure. I not only wanted to have fun with them, but also try out many variations. When I start a design, I tap into gut feelings and do plenty of research. Of course, we all have our own style, particular preferences, inspirations and design sense that we call our own and apply that to our art work as well. I have an animation background so you'll see that influence in my work.

When I sit down and start to draw, I have an expectation that the first concept that comes out will be the "one," as I tend to see the pose in my mind's eye. Well, in some instances your first instinct is best, but you'll soon find out that you'll want to explore more. Don't fall in love with the first thing you do, and don't give up after five minutes either, thinking "I can't do this." On the contrary, push yourself and keep going. When people ask me how do you do that, I usually say "Go to the hardware store and buy a bucket of patience!"

Allow yourself to warm up, half-hour to an hour or so. Soon, you'll find you're on a roll, like a well-oiled machine. One idea begets another, you start to have "aha" moments, and ideas will link one to another. Design elements will start to come together. Don't stop. You'll know at a certain point, when you've reached a comfort level, and realize you've done all you can. You've left no ideas in the inkwell!

Now, look at everything you've come up with, as you'll have quite a variety. Sift through and pick the best ones, say the top five or so --- you also don't want to overwhelm your client with too many options.

Here as an example are some samples for a Zorro statue I did for Electric Tiki's Classic Heroes. An interesting little back story: At the time, Alex Toth was still alive, and we had become good friends. If you've never heard of Alex Toth, please look up his work! He's been coined the Artist's Artist, a master of design and storytelling. He's one of the all time comic, animation and design masters! You ever seen Space Ghost? That's Alex' design.

Well, Alex also illustrated the classic Zorro comics back in the '50s. Who better than him to ask about Zorro? I had told him about my Zorro project and asked him if he had any ideas for a statue. One day, while I was visiting at his home he showed me some sketches he had come up with. One stood out: Zorro simply standing over a roof top, elegant, calm and very Zorro-like. I slapped my forehead and realized, that's the one! So we decided to go with that pose --- it didn't hurt to say that the pose was inspired by an Alex Toth sketch, either! Once our Pop Sculpture book is out, we hope to share many more designs that didn't make the cut, so stay tuned and remember... "Don't leave any ideas in the ink well! " - Rubén Procopio

POP SCULPTURE: THE VIDEO GAME?

2010-05-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, there is no such thing, but this new book promo video, animated by Tim Bruckner using music by Errol Bruckner, could have come straight out the Nintendo Entertainment System circa 1985. And wouldn't a Pop Sculpture video game be awesome? We don't know exactly how they'd capture the joy of sculpting in game form, but we imagine it would involve a combination of precision and repetitive motion, and Tim would be one of the level bosses. Aim for his knees! They're his weak spot.

Hear more of Errol's music at Reverb Nation.

TONY CIPRIANO: DUKE of DUST - PART 3

2010-05-14T06:40:00.000-07:00

Finally, here is everyone's favorite Cajun... all ready for his close-ups. (FIG. 20/21/22/23)

This piece was a hell of a lot of fun to finish up. I experimented with materials I don't normally use, like styrene & brass.

Both portraits were done in wax, as were the gloves, hair and boots. I carefully cut out a bunch of small rectangular shapes to add to his legs and arms. Tough to see in the images, but these little orange strips are textured. Even though the detailing of the arms will be completely obscured by his coat, I wanted to give this 100% and not cut corners. I cast a resin copy of his left hand, and added two different sets of playing cards. On the 'regular version', the hand will hold a single card. On the Sideshow Exclusive version, he will come with an extra hand, holding several splayed out cards which are being charged with his trademark kinetic energy. Both versions come with the interchangeable portraits. The little stripes on the 'classic' version's chest are also tiny strips of styrene for depth

And here's the final product. The Sideshow in-house team created this incredible trench coat for this figure. From my understanding, it has wire imbedded into the outer edges so that even the coat can be positioned ( blowing in the wind) !!!

I hope that this demo helps some of the youngins' out there. What I would not have given to have a book like this 20 years ago!!!!

Please support the efforts of Tim, Zach and Ruben on this book. I know my copy will be dog eared in no time & always within reach . This is going to be the toy industry sculpting bible, folks. Don't miss it. Hell...buy 2. Study it. Caress it. Don't set your coffee mug on it! Read it under your covers with a flashlight.... If it does well, maybe we can talk them into Volume 2!!!! HOOOOO HA!

Cheers!

TC

GILBERT and GEORGE DO POP SCULPTURE

2010-05-13T13:24:00.000-07:00

Well, its not exactly a Gilbert and George poster. But it does borrow liberally from their oeuvre. Or, in "art speak" this poster is an appropriation in homage to the artists' "Art for all" underlying message. In Pop Sculpture speak, we nicked it.

FRANK

2010-05-11T17:18:00.000-07:00

I remember walking from my parent’s house to the liquor store in town, It was only a couple of miles, but for a kid, it seemed like half way across the country. But the anticipation of buying the latest Creepy or Eerie magazine made the journey feel like an Atlantic crossing. If it had a Frazetta cover, I bought it. If not, it was an awfully long way home. His stuff hit you in the gut. There was no abstracting the impact. He created a world that was both frightening and enticing. And seductive. Definitely, seductive. Many years later, when statues began showing up of Frank’s work, I felt envy, jealousy and resentment. Why? I’d made no effort whatsoever to pursue the possibility. I was like the guy writing a song in his basement and being pissed off because he wasn’t nominated for a Grammy. I know, the irrational crap of a basement dweller, minus the basement. But, as luck would have it, sometime later, my friend, Arnie Fenner, presented me with the opportunity to do a Frazetta. It was Ghoul Queen. As far as I know, its the most linear rendition of Frazetta woman out there. A pen and ink, watercolor drawing that was clearly rendered, almost like a blueprint. As with most things, I was oblivious to the risk. I began the statue with enthusiasm and confidence and within a very short time found myself sinking into regret and doubt. I mean, what the hell? I knew Frank’s work! I grew up with him! I entered his world! Stymied, after hours of being smartly dressed in my hair shirt, I saw what I hadn’t been able to see before. Frank was a great designer… or more to the point, a great re-designer. He recreated humankind to conform to his image. A Frazetta woman could not and does not exist outside the world he created. But in that world, she’s very real. And to make sense of her three-dimensionally, I had to blind myself to my world and see Frank’s. He, inadvertently, taught me how to see. I never got to meet Frank. I had the chance but, selfishly, I wanted him to be the Frank of my imagination, and so passed on the opportunity. Honestly, I’m glad did and regret that didn’t. None the less, I knew him. And I’m eternally grateful for that relationship. Rest in peace, dear friend. Rest in peace.

POP SCULPTURE: THE POSTER WITH THE MOST... ER

2010-05-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Wisdom and War are just two of Athena's many, many assets. Another promotional poster by the incalculable Tim Bruckner.

TONY CIPRIANO: DUKE of DUST - PART 2

2010-05-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

Silver Surfer would also come with not 2, but 3 (!) different portrait heads. (FIG. 11) One for each of the Surfer's emotions. These are the clay heads, keyed, but not yet transferred into wax for detailing. Not stopping there, Sideshow has given the collector a second set of arm options. I cast the two arms in resin to insure the keys would fit snuggly, and added cosmic dust trails to a pair. In the image of the part breakdown, (FIG 10) you can see the male-female epoxy keys. Later, a 5th, clenched fist arm would be provided

Sideshow had given me both of these projects around the same time, so it was great to be able to jump back and forth between them. It kept my eyes fresh. After a few days on one, I'd bounce onto the other piece. When I would go back to the first one, I'd see it with a fresh pair of eyeballs.

Here is Gambit, slightly farther along. ( FIG. 12 ) The Photoshop notes you see on the photos (FIG. 13 and 14) are questions or notes I have for the client. It's a great system when you work with a company on the other coast!

Ok...wrapping up the Surfer now. I gave them a 5th arm, cast the three portraits into hard toy wax, and finished up the cosmic dust trails. For the texture on the dust, (FIG.15/16) I mixed up some white Elmer's glue, and simply poured in some play sand form the kid's sandbox in the yard. Woooo!!! It dries clear and gives a nice effect. Sideshow cast the dust arms and base in clear, purplish resin so the effect is pretty cool. I also pulled up the dust trail to come off his foot. This gives added support to the key and hides the key slightly. When finishing a figure in Super Sculpey, I use a very rough grit sandpaper at first to knock down all the Dremel marks. Then progress to a finer grit. Then I use drywall sanding screen in a circular motion. Finally I use 3M brand sanding pads...and lastly, a fine steel wool with a little water. I find that Super Sculpey, when sanded properly, can give you as smooth a finish as any wax.

The portraits have been cast into a hard toy wax for better detail. (FIG.17/18/19)

TONY CIPRIANO: THE DUKE OF DUST - PART 1 of 3

2010-04-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

I’ve been thinking about how to introduce my friend, Tony Cipriano. I’d thought about extolling his virtues as an artist. I’d considered mentioning his genuineness. His down to earth, easy-going, joyful spirit. Maybe touch on his steadfastness as a friend, his loyalty and integrity. I could have opened with his compassion; he is a true blue dog lover and a man on intimate terms with Mother Nature. (Its okay, his wife knows). His devotion to old TV shows and classic movies, in particular, horror movies that open with a miniature plane circling a rotating globe. A die hard Beatles fan and the only other guy I know who listens to the Beau Hunks and their impeccable renditions of music from Laurel and Hardy and Little Rascal films. But, I suppose it makes more sense here, to discuss Tony, the sculptor. There ain’t nothing Tony can’t sculpt. He thinks with his fingers. He doesn’t over analyze, doesn’t get bogged down in minutia. He sculpts until its right and when it is, and he’s done and moves on to the next piece. He’s not as well known as he should be. If reputation were a direct result of talent, Tony would have his own network prime-time TV show. But he’s a terrible self-promoter. He’s more concerned about maintaining a good relationship with his clients and the quality of his work. Help us spread the word about our reluctant star. Ladies and Germs, the first of a three-parter, Its my pleasure to introduce, Tony” here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into” Cipriano. - Tim Bruckner

So Tim asked me to 'blog' with him. At first, I thought it was a tropical drink. Or maybe some kinky activity left over from his 'free love' days. So I did a little research and found out that this 'blogging' is all the rage with the kids today. Apparently they like to ‘tweet’ each other, too. To each his own. But, since I owe much to these grand old men--Procopio and Bruckner--I had to give it a whirl. I've decided to show my twisted, convoluted approach to a statue from 'soup to nuts'. I don't know too many other sculptors who are dumb enough to bake a Sculpey sculpture 20+ times along the way... and have clay dust an inch thick on the studio floor and shelves, not to mention on me. My wife calls me 'Pigpen', from the Peanuts cartoons...only my dust cloud is pink. (make your own jokes). Along the way, I'll go through several different materials, a dozen tubes of super glue, found objects, waste expensive silicone, and typically burn myself with boiling wax or slice off a fingertip or two. In short, I can't, in good conscience, recommend you follow my process…but maybe a tidbit here and a snippet there will apply for you. I hope you will take some useful info from this essay, but please save your laughter till I've left the building? Deal?

The sculptures I will be chronicling for this entry are the GAMBIT Premium Format Figure, and the SILVER SURFER Comiquette produced by Sideshow Collectibles. These are two recent projects and I worked on them simultaneously. SS's 'Premium Format' line consists of larger, 1/4 scale figures...mostly sculpted, but having some type of mixed media element added...like leather, fabric, etc. In Gambit's case, it was decided to sculpt most of his body, and add a 'real' trench coat. The SURFER, also 1/4 scale, is fully sculpted.

When I am initially contacted to begin a project, either the client will present me with an initial concept sketch, or ask me to draw one. Sometimes we will brainstorm on the phone, but in both of these cases, the client had a specific pose in mind. With Gambit, I was sent some existing artwork for inspiration..... and for Surfer, they sent me some JPEGs of a model ( my art director!) in the pose they wanted. ( FIG. 1) Most producers do not go the extra mile like this. It really makes my job easier. Using the photos of the model, I did a small drawing of the proposed statue from 2 angles. This was used to show to the licensor ( Marvel, in this case) and get a green light before we began sculpting. (FIG. 2)

Once the concept sketch was approved, and the OK was given to proceed, I decided that it might be a good idea to work out some of the kinks on Silver Surfer in a small, oil clay maquette. Gambit was a straight forward, standing pose, but Surfer was to be on a 22 inch surfboard... banking into a turn... with trails of 'cosmic dust' behind him and supporting the 18 inch figure. So, I made a quick 1/8th scale model. ( FIG. 3) Once I began work on the larger version, this little 'study model' would eliminate all the guess work, making the project go much faster. This figure is only about 8 inches whereas the actual product will be an 18 inch figure.

For these 18-inch figures, I am using 1/4 inch armature wire. I like it because it is firm enough to hold up my figures, but it is a pain in the neck to cut through later. I suppose a more organized sculptor can plan ahead for cutting up a figure, but as I say....LAZY. I'm working in Super Sculpey. I had some gray for Gambit, but frankly I prefer the softer pink. The gray is harder, drier & takes detail better, but the pink is faster to work. Here is the Gambit figure blocked with the gray ( FIG. 4 ) I squeeze my clay on fast....pushing, scraping with the loop tool....raking...mashing. My first and foremost concern at this stage is that pose. I want it to be dynamic even if the figure is simply standing upright. You'd be surprised at how much of a difference even the slightest head tilt, shoulder dip, or finger bend can make. Even as rough as this is, it has already been baked several times to lock in the pose. You can see the light gray areas where I had to patch the cracks form the baking process. I've also used my grinding tool to actually 'sculpt' some forms. I use a barrel/drum bit on my Dremel, to sand the figure and break it down into planes. This may be my favorite part of the entire process. I can already tell at this point if I have a successful pose or not. Many times, I break the limbs and re-position them, using Magic Sculpt Epoxy.

I love this stage, because I'm not noodling it...I'm not worried about the tiny details yet. I can just sand, grind, slap clay on. I think it is the promise of what is to come that excites me. In other words, I haven't screwed it up yet! : )

Here is the first pass on the Surfer. ( FIG. 5) This is a little bit further along from the 'Dremel' stage. I have begun to add anatomy. Notice the light gray areas. This is Magic Sculpt epoxy, used to putty cracks and add keys to the arms & legs, which have already been separated for molding.

Another round on Gambit. I've begun to add some anatomy to his chest, separated the parts, and begun to actually draw with pencil where the costume details will go. The staff is only a wood dowel, but later will be replaced with brass stock. This statue comes with 2 alternate heads...one depicting the classic look, and one with the more modern incarnation of the character. ( FIG. 6) You can see how much I rely on the epoxy putty in the early stages. This is mostly due to the cracking that occurs with baking the Sculpey so many times. I know some sculptors will use a heat gun to cure small areas, but I never like to use a heat gun. It cures things unevenly and sometimes burns it. This is also why I like to separate the different components early on; I can bake parts while I continue to work on other parts of the sculpture. ( FIG. 7)

And another round on Surfer. ( FIG. 8 ) Since the last pass, I have sanded and primed the figure and continued work on the cosmic dust trail. The middle image shows a quick Photoshop area where I was showing the client what I planned to do to the dust. The client wisely requested that I raise the tip of the surfboard upwards. I think it made a huge difference. This is one of those things that happens when a sculptor works alone in his studio, and looks at the sculpture for days at a time. You begin to get 'tunnel vision'. It's extremely important to have art directors who know their stuff, take a look at the work many times along the way to catch things like this. Compare the difference to the earlier photos; much more dynamic & in keeping with the character. At this point the dust trail is just epoxy putty, stippled with tools.

In these shots (FIG. 9), you can see the new board. I cut 1/4 inch Masonite and carefully cut strips of thin styrene, gluing them down to the top and bottom.

POP SCULPTURE: LET'S GO TO THE VIDEO

2010-04-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

Here's your first look at a teaser video for Pop Sculpture, edited by Tim with narration by Thor, er, Zach.

Do you want to see more like this? Let us know!

POP SCULPTURE: A POST ABOUT POSTERS

2010-04-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, we'll upload a digital promotion poster, just for the fun of it. This is our first effort, designed by Tim and based on an old Gene Autry movie.

POP GOES ATHENA

2010-04-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

On October 6, the end result of two years' work will arrive in bookstores. But what the heck is it? Simply put, it's a start-to-finish instruction manual for creating prototypes, molds and paint masters for a 3-D sculpture headed for mass-production. While we show a bunch of different pieces in the book, in different stages of completion, we needed to create one piece on which we could demonstrate the various techniques we were about to teach. Since Tim, Ruben and I were emptying the contents of our skulls to benefit aspiring sculptors and curious collectors around the world, we figured, why not choose a character who sprang fully-formed from someone else's skull? And so Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, became our willing test subject. Here, you can see glimpses of her representing the many steps of the process. - Zach Oat

1: Rough clay. Playing with position and proportion on a mock-up base.

2: Finished clay ready for Waste Mold.

3: Finished clay head.

4: Clay head part cut from figure and gated for waste mold.

5: Waste mold cut and clay part removed.

6: Collection of wax cast part from waste molds

7: Working wax toward finish

8: Finished wax head for Athena statue.

9: Cleaning resin cast for Paint Master.

10: Primed resin cast. Paint Master started.

11: Finished Paint Master of Athena head.

JONATHAN MATTHEWS: ADDING DIMENSION TO 2-D ART

2010-04-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

My work at DC has included a little of everything, from statues to action figures... both from my own stylings and from specific comic artists' styles. I think some of my most successful pieces, from both fan reaction and personal gratification, are the ones I've sculpted to capture a comic artist's two-dimensional style in three dimensions. I loved working in Mike Mignola's style, and, judging from the pricing on eBay, the Batman Black and White statue I did from Mignola's art is a fan-favorite. ...Of course, that could have to do with low production runs. I'll tell myself it's fan popularity, though. Makes me feel better.

This particular Batman piece was pretty challenging. Mignola's artwork is highly and wonderfully stylized. It looks great on the page… it also happens to be difficult to translate into three dimensions. I'll assume Rubén had the same difficulty (and similar success... love the Lobster Johnson statue, Procopio!) in rendering shapes that don't necessarily belong in the three-dimensional world. I had to cheat angles, add planes where they wouldn't normally work, and generally throw all the knowledge I have of three-dimensional realistic anatomy out the window. The result in painted prototype form is a statue that reads as two-dimensional. Granted, I painted differing light and dark areas onto the statue to enhance the effect, but I remember reading forums where collectors honestly didn't believe the statue was anything more than a cardboard stand-in for what would be the final piece of sculpture. Pretty funny, actually.

I've also had the honor of working with Darwyn Cooke on the New Frontier action figures. I remember beginning the project and being introduced via email to Mr. Cooke; he forewarned me that he's a bear to work with. I've worked with some prima donnas in my time, so I assume if the guy's telling me he's hard to work with it, can't possibly be anything but a nightmare. I'm expecting revision after revision, mid-progress changes, the works. It turned out he was one of the easiest artists to please that I've ever worked with. A true professional. He gave my art directors beautiful and fully realized turnaround artwork for the figures, plus we had his whole New Frontier graphic novel to pull from for stylistic reference. Mr. Cooke was well pleased with the result, and I was honored again to be thanked for the effort in the "Absolute" edition of New Frontier.

Finally, I did action figures of the New Gods, based on master comic artist Jack Kirby. This was a similar challenge to the one I faced with Mignola -- a whole lot of artistic license is taken to get the effect Kirby wanted on the page. So, tear out the first chapter in realistic anatomy. No smooth transition from one muscle group to the other, and how the @#$% do you translate all that ultra-bold ink work into three dimensions? Unfortunately, Mr. Kirby wasn't around to help us nail down the style, but we did the best we could, and I was pleased with the result.

Cheers,

Jonathan Matthews

www.matthewsculptor.com

jonlmatthews@insightbb.com

ALTERTON BIZARRE: EMPEROR OF EPOXY

2010-04-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

I’ve never known anyone with more enthusiasm for sculpture and sculptors than Argentinean sculptor Alterton Bizarre. Alterton’s Sculptor’s Corner (http://www.thesculptorscorner.com) was the first online gallery I joined. Mr. Bizarre works in epoxy putty, the most unforgiving sculpture material known to modern man. You have to have the patience of Job, the work ethic of a stone mason and be fleet of hand and sure of eye to be able to beat the damn stuff into submission. He has all of that and a mode of expression that would make the entire crew of a pirate ship blush. In addition, he is a doctor of dentistry and orthodontics. But don’t call him Doc. He promises to “kick your fat ass” if you do. How he knows I have a fat ass, I don’t really know. None the less, ladies and germs, midgets and microbes, I give you, the one and only Alterton Bizarre! ~ Tim Bruckner

1: This was my first time working with this kind of control art. Mike Pavlovich did an awesome job creating the ZBrush file, and I was able to disassemble it in parts: shoulders, torso, head, etc. Having all the reference in 360 degrees meant I could examine the piece from every angle in detail. It was a big challenge, because there was no room for mistakes or “cheating” as everything was there, right in front of my eyes.

2: I started with a wire armature for pose and proportions and covered it with a fast-curing epoxy (5-10 min of working time) to get a rigid skeleton to work over. Then I used regular epoxy (45 min to an hour working time) to create the basic volumes and shapes. Once the epoxy was cured, I did some rotary tooling to compensate and accommodate the shapes.

3: One of my biggest concerns was the relationship between the belly and the gun. So once the gun was sculpted, following the digital file, I positioned it in place to see how it would work.
4: As some volumes were tricky, having to leave room for details, I used polymer clay to add volume to the belly and the hunched back. This allowed me to be a little more specific in adding/removing material. After the polymer clay was baked, I added some epoxy layers covering the clay. Pete Jirles' directions were really helpful and easy to follow to accomplish these proportions. Next, I cut the piece into parts with a jeweler’s saw for molding and casting purposes.

5: It was working!!! It was time to start adding armor shapes and volumes, cleaning and reshaping with a rotary tool. It was a process of adding layers of regular epoxy, letting them set, tooling, new epoxy layers, letting them set and tooling again and so on and so on, until the desired result were achieved.

6: Details followed the same process of adding epoxy layers and tooling. I did one side first to see how it was working. Once the client was satisfied I continued with the other side. For the gun I used some styrene rods and sheets, using heat and shaping blades, and adding thin layers of epoxy. And lots of filing and heaps of sandpaper to get those damned sharp edges!!

7-8: To give a final smooth surface, I sprayed gray automobile primer in several layers, being very carefully not to smooth out the details, but enough to give a unified look and a continuous polished surface. The first layers of primer allowed me to see which parts needed more sanding and refining. Again, it was a process of spraying primer and sanding, spraying and sanding, until I was happy with it. Finally the piece was ready for approval!!!! I took a set of turnaround pix and some close-ups and sent them to my Art Director for approval, and from there straight to Epic Games for final approval. Luckily, the approval process was one of the fastest I ever had!!!! Epic didn’t ask for modifications, so my AD was happy and I was even happier. After a month and a few days, I had finished one of the most intricate and detailed pieces I’d ever done.

9: The base was sculpted by Peter Jirles, who sculpted the bases for the other figures in the series. The final product was done in cold-cast platinum and cold cast bronze, which really heightened the sculpture’s details.

JONATHAN MATTHEWS: SECRET ORIGINS

2010-04-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

Translating a piece of 2D art into 3D is a challenge every hands-for-hire sculptor faces throughout their career. The nature of the art, and how stylized or impressionistic it is, often determines how successful the translation, but to translate a piece of 2D art into 3D and perfectly maintain its 2D character is damn near impossible. Jon Matthews achieved the impossible in sculpting Mike Mignola’s Batman for DC Direct’s Batman Black and White series. When I first saw the solicitation picture, I thought, like most everyone else, that I was looking at a Mignola illustration. Maybe Jon didn’t have time to finish the piece and so they used Mignola’s art in the interim. When I learned that I was looking at the actual statue, I was gobsmacked, as the English say. It's a brilliant piece of sculpture. I’d never seen anything like it. His solutions to a variety of difficult problems were elegant and inspired. Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, it is my pleasure to introduce Jonathan Matthews, Master Sculptor. - Tim Bruckner

Greetings all...

When I was asked to contribute to the upcoming Pop Sculpture book, I was both flattered and a little daunted. I've never spent a lot of energy trying to put into words what I do as a professional collectible sculptor. I've always been the kind of guy who'd rather show someone how to do something than explain it. Not my talent. That said, I've got the utmost respect for anyone who can describe in detail a process that most folks have no point of reference for and no experience in. I would have killed for a "how to" book back when I was starting out. I've been asked countless times how to get started in this biz and don't ever have a good answer.

I started in this job on a whim, really. I had a couple friends that designed toys right out of college at a collectibles company. At the time, I was working as a grunt in an ad agency. I'd just gotten to where I was using some of my illustration talents -- which I had spent my college years honing -- when these guys I know told me they had a position as a sculptor opening at their company.

I was on the fence about joining them, initially. I was an illustrator, after all -- what business did I have showing up and interviewing for a job sculpting? My portfolio had a piece or two of figurative sculpture I'd done as parts of projects for school, but enough to show up and interview at a toy company? I didn't think so. Turns out these few pieces were exactly why my pals had called me. They remembered me doing some sculptural stuff in school and thought I'd be a good fit. The designers at the toy company looked over my portfolio and gave me a project that same day. It was a trial project, one for which they'd padded the due date, in case it had to be redone, but a paying project all the same.

I worked on the project in the evenings while working my ad agency job. They hired me, but only lasted another year or so before having to close shop. I only worked there a year, but I gained the experience and contacts I would need to continue on as a successful freelance collectibles sculptor.

To this day, I work with some of my co-workers from that first sculpting gig. When the company went out of business, my fellow sculptors, prototypers and designers all ended up in different places and took my name with them in their Rolodex. I ended up working for Palisades, Wiz Kids, Diamond, Plan B, Graphitti and DC Direct, where I'm currently on exclusive contract.

I've met a group of talented and generous people since signing on with DC. I've learned a lot about how my colleagues work and gotten tips and tricks from some sculptors who've been doing this job way longer than myself. I've always felt that if you've got confidence in what you're doing, you should welcome the opportunity to share your craft... particularly with someone just starting out.

When I was first starting out, I had met several sculptors and guys who ran sculpting houses and always found the meetings uncomfortable and even adversarial. Any questions I asked about process or materials were met with blank expressions and the old "That's a trade secret!" wink-and-nudge routine. In my early experience, it was like pulling teeth to get any kind of information from another sculptor about how he/she got their results… very frustrating for a young guy starting out. I vowed to myself never to be like that. If someone wants to know how I achieve a certain result, or about my process from start to finish, I'll tell them without a second thought.

Based on this early experience, I was surprised at how welcoming and willing to share knowledge the other contract sculptors at DC Direct were. Tim Bruckner, in particular, was willing to share techniques and often opened discussions to that effect. It was so refreshing to find a whole group of professionals who were not only willing, but eager to talk about and share all their tricks, tips, and everything in between. A great group of talent to hang out with.

There are so many different ways to do a job for the collectibles market. I think it's safe to say that all us old horses use multiple materials throughout our portfolio of works, but most of us have a favorite. The beauty of having such a choice of materials to sculpt with is that there's something out there for everyone who has the inclination to start down this path. I've tried both soft and hard wax, but I've put in the time with Castilene and am most comfortable using it. Sure, I'll substitute different waxes if I can't make Castilene work, but I know I'm an old dog now. No new tricks for me!

So... how do you get started in the collectible sculpting business? Now I can tell people to check out the textbook. No teeth or punches pulled. Kudos to Tim, Zach and Rubén.

Pre-orders, everyone! Enjoy.

Cheers,

Jonathan Matthews

www.matthewsculptor.com

jonlmatthews@insightbb.com

Check back next week for another posting by Matthews, in which he talks about his experiences translating the 2-D art of Jack Kirby, Darwyn Cooke and Mike Mignola.

FRAZETTA'S GHOUL QUEEN

2010-03-25T17:11:00.000-07:00

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.

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

2010-03-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

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.

CONCEPT DESIGNS

2010-03-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

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.