Another fuzzy viking guy

Latest sculpt for Josh from my work. Fuzzy liddle guy.

New Sculpt

This one was fun because I really enjoyed the whole process of character creation. You can visit my digital painting blog to see the original design.

Pele (finally!)

After wrestling with different ideas to light this sculpture, after attempting a couple of sculpted heads, I decided that this project couldn't be done proper justice with sculpii. If I used UV light to make it glow I couldn't have gotten the nice, rich reds (UV light makes reds go pink) and if I used internal LEDs to light it then I'd never have gotten an even glow, nor could I light delicate things like fingers or arms. I'd been meaning to learn Zbrush anyway, so this project provided a great opportunity to do so. It's been a major battle, taking far longer than a physical sculpture would have taken me - and these renders are a product of 6 different software packages (Zbrush, Maya, Modo, Photoshop, Painter and UVLayout). Yowza. The renders have very little doctoring in photoshop, mostly I used Painter and Photoshop for creating and applying the textures you see on the model.

Voting Closed

We have our Winner! Thanks again for all of you artists and your entries - it was a close race and there's a good chance I'll end up doing more than one of these designs. but first up, I get to do Brittney Lee's - It will likely be a few months before I'll have it ready, due in part to the fact that the technical challenges of this piece will be very large. But they should be interesting to work out - I'm debating right now whether or not I want to try to light her internally or externally with UV lights pointed at phosphorescent red\orange clay. Externally gives me a more even\smooth spread of the glow, while internally lighting gives me a more vibrant\accurate color of glow, though I'll have hot spots where the leds are seated. Hmm.

Huntress

So here is my latest sculpt - no LEDs, but there is a little bit of slime and drool, so that makes up for it... well, almost it does.

Sorry mom, this one's a bit violent for me, I know. Here's the clip from the story (Book 2, Prometheus Fire)

"Asharadel wrenched her bow free from the hard packed soil. The carved steel of the blades glinted in the blazing sunlight, one of them wet with the Tamarak's violet blood. The creature's bulky body lay a few yards away, the mass of limbs and spikes finally still with death. The terror of the battle, the adrenaline, the thrill of the hunt all slowly drained from her, leaving her body weary and exhausted. But the beast was dead, and that realization suddenly burned bright within her. She had done it, and she lived.
Elder Aoselan still stood on the stony outcropping twenty yards away, flowing robes a bleached bone-gray that seemed to glow in the sunlight. The shadow of his hood hid his expression, and Asharadel could not see if he was pleased or angered that she had done what none said she could. Slowly the man raised his staff, signaling the final form of the ceremony.
Asharadel strode to the body, grasping the Tamarak's severed head by the scruff of the neck with her gauntleted hand. Every muscle in her body ached from the long hunt, and the many scars crisscrossing her plague-ravaged arm burned with the exertion of hefting the thing. She lifted the trophy, the mark of her right to stand among the Hunters, forcing her expression to remain calm as she regarded Elder Aoselan. This was her right, her heritage.
For a moment the Elder regarded her from beneath the shadows of his hood. Finally, wordlessly, he lowered his staff, bowing his head just enough for the light to brush across his brow. It was finished."

Please continue to submit your designs! I'm excited by what I've received so far. To those of you who have sent me your work, thank you so much! I will post the different designs and open it up for voting by the beginning of may.

Silvester and the Cupcake

So - All you folks who read my blog (if any of you are out there) I want to know what story this sculpture inspires for you when you see it. Please comment and tell me why you think he's crying, and what the cupcake has to do with anything. So far I've gotten a few delightful ideas from people who have seen it in person, and I'm curious what everyone here might come up with. Perhaps when I've gotten a few responses I'll write what I had in mind when I drew him up.

Terec

Here's a villian I just completed, from my latest book.

New Elrae Shots

Here are a few shots of Elrae, taken now that I have her back and Jim has finished the electronics. Thanks Jim!!

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.