It’s the Winter Solstice and time for the annual Hub Comics DARK KNIGHT ON A DARK NIGHT Batman art show!
And above is my contribution, designed for me in record time by Erica Henderson. Here’s her design: 
And here are some pics of the work-in-progress, made from Sculpey Firm over an aluminum armature:
Here’s another pic Erica took of it from the front. I’ll get some more pics and post them soon!
More from the ongoing project with Sean Downey:
First we shot some photo reference, then we drew our creature here onto tracing paper, then pasted that onto some foamcore. Then Sean cut some hardie board into the general shape and we sculpted over it using Sculpey over a paperclay base.
Because we’re building pieces to be photographed and only seen from one angle, we’re working in relief …
Which leads to one weird-looking sculpture when viewed from the side.
UPDATE 12-22-13:
Very glad to share more work-in-progress pictures of my ongoing project with Sean Downey. This was photographed by Tony Martins. This will be part of an illustrated book which we hope to show people sometime next year.
It’s amazing working in collaboration, particularly with a photographer. You really see what ideas hold up and which don’t.
More to come!
UPDATE:
Here are some behind-the-scenes pictures from this photo shoot at Hub Comics in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Green gels were used over the backlighting.
(Note also Sean’s tiger-stripe arm hair.)
Since it wasn’t supposed to appear in the shot, the “roof” was just cardboard draped over the walls to block light.
Here’s Sean. He’s holding the monster, I think.
You can see how the room was built using forced perspective: it gets bigger as it gets closer toward the camera.
Back at my house, this was how one of the walls looked when we started.
FURTHER UPDATE:
Sean added on 11/13/13:
In the making of this I made a brush by cutting a thin sponge into the shape of a hand roughly to scale with the set. It was then dipped in a red/brown paint and lazily dragged across the wall. Thinking about it now, I can hear The Stroll by The Diamonds as i look at the smeared blood trail. When I painted this, the sponge/brush fingers touched the doorknob with a foggy memory of how to open a doorknob. It was a chilling.
The brushes’ name is Richard.
‘Tis the season to be scary! Here’s Solomon Hitch, the hero with the power of the horror movie (he always comes back!), star of Drew Edwards’ amazing HALLOWEEN MAN comic. This piece was designed for me by original artist Terry Parr (http://darthterry.deviantart.com/).
I worked on some HALLOWEEN MAN stories – mostly coloring and lettering- with such talented artists as Nicola (WONDER WOMAN, SECRET SIX, EARTH 2) Scott, David (BLUE BEETLE, YOUNG ALLIES) Baldeon, Sergio (SKYJACK, SAMURAI & DINOSAURS) Calvet , and many more under the guidance of the irrepressible Russell Hillman.
Working on some caricatures. I enjoyed the first season of HANNIBAL.
These are made of some kind of hard modeling clay. Hannibal was relatively easier to caricature; Graham was more difficult.
Next, they’re both boxed up- like so much take-out dinner- to be molded. Later, they’ll be painted.
I just made some brush-on silicone molds with Smooth-On Rebound 25 for four of the faces I’ve been sculpting.
Ordinarily I’d cast these pieces in some kind of plastic resin. The problem is I wanted to make several of these, and the resin heats up when curing, which can warp the silicone mold. Plaster, another cheap alternative, does the same thing. Eventually I settled on Creative Paperclay, which air-dries. It worked really well! The innermost parts of the mold, noses, brows, chins, were still wet when I pulled them out of the mold, but they held the shape and just needed to be exposed to air to dry.
I’m pretty pleased with the results. Now to paint ’em.
I’m working on a bunch of stuff right now, some of which I hope to post soon. Meanwhile, please enjoy this foreboding hallway.
I recently rewatched the wonderful LILO AND STITCH with its lovable, anarchic alien lead.
Initially I wanted to try a more realistic approach to Stitch, that kind of anatomical reality that Terryl Whitlatch applies to fantasy creatures. I’ve also been looking at the terrific work of Neal AKA Verdantsculpts who excels at these kind of creatures (check out Neal’s shop !)
In the end, with only a few nods to realism, including Pug-like rolls of fat and plaque, I stuck pretty close to Stitch’s creator Chris Sanders‘ design.
If it ain’t broke… Well, Stitch will probably break it.
JFsculpts 