SHE Ursula Andress Portrait statue

The most difficult digital to solid project I have done. The feathers were a nightmare. I was most concerned about getting the eyes to show a resemblance. That's the hardest part and I have found it most difficult to do with women for some reason--there is a fine line between it appearing doll-like or anonymous. You have to really focus on the subtle qualities of the eyes to get something that makes it look like the person.

Vincent Price Matthew Hopkins Witchfinder General

2 versions of the 3d printed design.

3d printed Vincent Price Roderick Usher head painted test

I am really happy with this. It is so clean and smooth.

Debra Paget portrait

Will use these for something down the road related to Vicnent Price. Now I am just playing around with the portrait.

3d printed heads

The first successful 3d prnted heads cast in hydrostone from molds I made of the prints. Vincent Price on the left.

Monica Bellucci portrait

Using Dracula 92 as theme.

Celebrity heads

I also finally got to completing the first stages of some new sculpture heads. A few of these have been sitting under my computer table for well over a year. I decided to branch into a larger scale in an effort to get a likeness better, then reduce the scale of the sculpture to my regular size of around 1/6th. I wont say who the heads are supposed to be yet since I need to mold, cast and paint them. I'll wait until I can be sure the likeness works when I add the realistic eye and hair effects to it. I have seen some excellent portrait heads get ruined by bad painting. The top two heads are of a pair of horror movie actors who frequently worked together. The other male head on the second row is an oscar winner--I did the head ten years ago but the likeness wasnt quite right. You can find the completed original sculpture somewhere back in the archives---I used the head on a sword and sorcery inspired sculpture. A couple of years ago I came across a truly outstanding portrait sculptor who did a perfect likeness of the same actor--he had access to screen captures which I did not have at the time--but I vowed to come close to matching that sculpture when I refashioned my own, using the same clay head form ten years ago(since they often survive the molding process). The final two heads are actually of the same person--an actress I have never seen in a movie but turned up in online photo sites. She is one of those people who tends to look different in different photos and i had a terrible time locking down her likeness. Women are generally harder to do than men I think, but I did the best I could and am glad to have it in the mold stage. I have another few heads that I need to re-work(one of the downsides of being self-taught is not having the right amount of discipline when starting a sculpture--my heads tended to have slightly misaligned features because I never approached them like one would a drawing--when in fact it is very useful to mark a sculpture like you would a 2d image--getting the nose and eye and mouth placement so you dont need to go back and make corrections(which I have had to do way too often). These heads will mark the new generation of my figure sculptures--assuming I dont get distracted. They have been the lowest priority of all my art pursuits.

Perseus sculpture revisited

Been a long time since I took photos of my Perseus sculpture. I did this in polymer clay in 1997.
If I had known how brittle polymer clay was-I probably wouldnt have made it.
I have to keep it under glass because it is so delicate-and I cannot transport it easily.

It was my attempt to do a classical-style work--with influences from Michaelangelo and Cellini.

Perseus is holding a curved sword and the blood has transformed into serpents as found in the mythological stories.
He is also running across ground that is comprised of the broken shattered remains of precious Gorgon victims.
Although Medusa cannot be seen as the head is inside a bag, the idea was to be closer to traditional interpretations-which suggested a large bulky creature with tusks. I made the snakes much larger and varied-an eel is depicted among them--and they are eyeless.

Might revisit mythology again one day but for now its back to "normal" figures.

Of Sculptures, Swords and Sorcery

I did not become interested in sculpture from a fine art background. I was fascinated by miniatures and special effects that employed puppets and scale models designed for tricking the viewer through photography. This interest developed my sculpting ability until I was able to experiment with ways of making miniature figures that looked realistic when photographed under certain conditions. Frankenstein sculpture done for a photography contest. Got an honorable mention.





The angel sculpture was done for a special effects photography experiment. I was frequently asked if the sculpture still existed-and after hearing disappointment when i explained that the sculpture was recycled after it was photographed I started to look at ways to preserve it.










I did some fine art style decorative sculptures as experiments and as freelance work. Mostly hated it. Non-narrative art is very boring to me.












Classical statues, birdbath designs etc.





































For my own personal work, the subjects were often based upon sword and sorcery--either Arabian Nights, or Conan inspired, or historical figures like Robin Hood. And a little bit of futuristic/outer space fantasy.
Usually because costume was tedious to sculpt and I was interested in improving the sculpting of bodies-so the more naked the better.



I started by using hydrostone as a casting material--but as I found molds difficult to make-I eventually turned to polymer clay-and made a few pieces with it. But this was not a satisfactory material for a few reasons so I looked into epoxy clay-which was much stronger but harder to work with. I spend a lot of time making the figure faces realistic by adding a transparent eye effect and also miniature eyelashes. A small detail and difficult to add but I like doing it.

Perseus Fleeing the Gorgons' Lair. Ray Harryhausen liked it.

































Eventually I used a combination of hydrostone(for heads) and polymer clay or epoxy clay for bodies.
I did some costume sewing but doubt I will try it again.


































Now I am experimenting with using all epoxy clay--pressing it into molds made from clay originals.