Zak - finished

So, despite this guy turning out alright, I'm still very very frustrated that he doesn't match the original design very well. If you go to my painting blog, you'll see the original design - which to me is much more appealing than the final sculpture. The legs ended up way too stumpy, and the head just too big and not shaped quite right. The sculpture is cute, but it just could have been better had I followed the design better. This is a frustration I've had time and time again - almost with every single sculpture. Guess I'm doing something wrong.

latest work on Elrae

So here's some progress shots and the final look for Elrae. Unfortunately we had a tragic electronics failure, and Jim and I will be working over the next couple months to replace the circuit board.

Random Sculpt

This is my latest - just a random sculpt I did while I was waiting for parts from Jim for the Elrae sculpt. I wanted to try doing just normal looking clothes for once - it turned out that T-shirts are incredibly hard. Also I'd been wanting to try glasses- and these ones were really tricky. The lenses are cut out from a 2 liter soda bottle :)

Sculpt of Ryan Woodward's 'Soldier'

here's a quick one I did with Casteline. (since my sculpture studio is in my bedroom I haven't been able to bring myself to use CM-50. The smell of sulfur permeating your room when you're trying to sleep at night isn't pleasant.) The design is Ryan Woodward's: he taught my character design class back at BYU, and is an amazing artist. You can see more of his work on www.ryanwoodwardart.com

Quar

These are a couple of commissioned pieces I did for a coworker who saw my sculpts at the Pixar craft fair. They're larger versions of a line of pewter game pieces (you can see the originals at www.zombiesmith.com)

The many faces of Elrae

For those of you who have been following this blog for over a year, you'll recognize this character. Her name is Elrae, and I've been trying to do a sculpt of her since last october\november. Each of these six heads have been created since that time, starting with the earliest in the upper left and the most recent in the bottom right. I really despise #1,3,4, and 5 - and I may have decided to use 2 if she didn't look so ugly from the profile (besides the fact that that head was too large).
This final head used to have the eyes looking down and to the left to give a more 'sultry' sort of expression. It didn't work.
The fact that I've done this head so many times is just a testament to my rampant perfectionism. I've also wanted to do LEDS with this one from the start, and Jim is currently working on getting the circuitry ready to make this sculpt more awesome than many experts thought humanly possible. So now hopefully I'll be able to proceed with and finish the sculpture (and keep my fingers crossed I don't accidentally break off those eyelashes somewhere in the process...oi!)

Rylan

My latest sculpt: Rylan, the main character from my story. This sculpture turned out to be somewhat disappointing - not only due to a few mistakes I made that resulted in some firing problems (he cracked in a few places) But also I'm miffed that his expression and pose didn't turn out a more appealing. My meticulous detailing of his clothes doesn't really make up for the fact that his face is a little funny.

Nurk

This little fellow is called a Nurk. He's a domestic pest, typically residing between the washer and dryer (though they also have been known to nest behind dressers and under beds). His primary diet consists of socks (though he will only consume one per pair). However, specimens have also been observed grazing on ties, bobby-pins, pencils and pens, etc. Nurks generally avoid clean, well-kept spaces, preferring instead messy and cluttered homes to build thier dens. In such an environment they have also been known to snatch shiny objects such as keys or glasses and hide them at random (there is only one documented case of a Nurk actually eating a pair of glasses. Keys free of keychains, however, are more easy pray for a Nurk's insatiable appetite).

Who broke my broom?

Thought I'd show a little more of my process on this one. Again, this is with CM-50, and this one took me about 12 hours. I'd spend more time polishing and adding detail, but I'm trying to keep if rough to mimic the Pixar process (they typically keep theirs relatively rough, though probably not as rough as these).

Icarus

So this one is obviously a lot more rough than my typical piece. It took a little under 8 hours from start to finish, and it's my first try using Chavant's CM-50, the hard styling clay the sculptors at Pixar use. It's good stuff, but it'll take me a little while to get the hang of it.

Aryah Finished

So - Here she is from a bunch of angles. Hope everyone likes her - There's a few things I would do differently if I were to start again (as always when I'm done with such a long project) but overall I'm pleased with how she turned out. Thanks so much Jim for the circuitry and getting the light in Aryah's hands - this sculpt's pose depends on the lights and how much interest they add to the character.

Aryah

Here's Aryah's head... The rest is coming along in the next couple weeks.

Sucker

This is a character\creature that was genetically engineered as a janitor. His concept painting is on my painting blog (www.jonpaint.blogspot.com).

So, as you can see- this latest sculpt has a bunch of LEDs - they're actually going to be animated too, but Jim is still working on programming the micro chip that runs the animation. I'll get some high quality photos next week with proper lighting and backdrop and such - but I'm really excited for this one so I snapped a few this morning to post.

Okay all - so which one would you be more interested in me sculpting the full body? I've got concept art for each piece on my paintings blog, take a look:www.jonpaint.blogspot.com

Mirel

This character is the antagonist from my story: Mirel Terasireon. My brother commissioned me to make this sculpture for my sister in law Angie - It's a remake of an original that sold from the BYU bookstore in 07. My brother Jim was the mastermind behind the LEDs for the blade, (they even pulse when you switch them on) which is really a nice touch for this piece. I also strayed away from my 'clay only' rule, and used some auto-body chrome spray for the blade and the base. Who doesn't like shiny stuff?

Rylan

This character is the protagonist from my story - though I can't say I'm 100% enthusiastic about the way the sculpture turned out (especially his face). His figure was originally done from a study from my figure sculpture class, and our model was sorta short and stumpy. Rylan is supposed to be beefy, but I think he's a little too squat in this rendition.

Quick sculpt

This is a sculpt I did while at a local high-school renaissance festival. It was quick and dirty, but a fun little piece.

Hugo

This is a commissioned piece I did recently for Shadow Mountain press. This is a character from the book 'FableHaven'. His name is Hugo, and he's described as being made from mud rocks and clay. I decided to go more with rocks than mud simply because I felt the form of the cracked and chipped rocks was more interesting than a sort of muddy clay look (which would have honestly been much easier considering the sculpture is in actuality made from clay).

Fairy Lantern

In the book 'FableHaven', the Jack-O-Lanterns have fairies inside. I used 5 different colored LEDs in this lamp to give it a more magical look - And yes, there is actually a little translucent clay fairy inside the lamp. I was very pleased with how it came out. It's really quite stunning up close and in person. Thanks again for your electronics and wiring help, Jim

Hugo Details

Here are some closeups

Angry Finhead

I love the attitude of this character- like he's a grumpy old ... whatever he is. His attitude reflects how I felt when I made him a couple nights ago - I was unable to sleep, and rather grumpy about it, so I warmed up my casteline and went to town. The last two images were an attempt at taking the character's 1.5 inch tall face and making a larger version of it, with a different expression. It turned out alright, though for some reason the angry one doesn't capture that same lethargic, upset feeling of the earlier sculpt. Maybe his eyes are too open...I don't know. The top sculpt took about 5 or 6 hours, and the lower head about 2. The top sculpt is 9 inches tall - I created polymer clay eyes for both sculpts.

Nose

This is a one hour face study I did this morning - After having seen Pixar's Ratatouille, I fell in love with all the fantastic character design - all the humans had stylized proportions in their faces, usually with one dominant feature like the forehead or the nose. So I got the disproportionate part down - but the 'making it look good' part that Pixar pulls off every time - yeah, didn't get that quite right. looks like I need some practice. At least it only took me an hour.

Bob

This is my first attempt at using Casteline, which was both fun and frustrating for me. It took me about one third the amount of time one of my colored polymer clay sculptures takes (maybe a total of 6 hours for this one) . It was an improv piece from the beginning - also unlike my polymer clay work where I have to plan everything meticulously from the start - I figured since I'm just using one color of clay I might as well just make it up as i went. I couldn't resist using some of my home made polymer clay eyes on this one tho - it needed that sorta glazed over - wonky eyed look for the character.

Here's the sculpt with low key lighting so you could actually see the glow of the LED in the lamp. The sculpt is 11.5 inches tall, and what you see is 100% polymer clay (no paint!). There is of course armature wire running throughout - and a button battery in the base of the lamp for the LED.