Well, two popular comic book characters in a row... Most definitely a change of pace. Nothing wrong with riding a different horse for a while. Using different colors and expecting different things from myself. This little 1/6 scale head sculpted by John Desser is one tight little sculpture. The ol' Bats looks like he's been through a few brawls; been through a few bottles of the tough stuff to get through the memories of those brawls, too.
This is the first comic book or Superhero related piece that I've ever painted. Not that I don't enjoy comic books, I do. But I've never really gotten into painting the popular characters from the DC and Marvel universes. They were never really dirty or ugly enough for me. But this Joker! From what I understand, this design is from a new imagining of the DC Universe in which a character named, "Dollman" cuts the Jokers face off. The Joker later retrieves his face and reapplies it with a belt and some staples. It all sounded dirty and ugly enough for my liking.
This 1/6 scale head was sculpted by artist John Desser.
I think the power of this piece speaks for itself. Sculpted and produced by the Shiflett Brothers. Buri is a one piece casting standing at about
three inches in height, and he has more testosterone in his jaw than an
entire mosh pit at a Lamb of God show. Brandon and Jarrod have
captured the raw, rough energy of a warrior you might see posing on top
of a pile of hewn bodies in a Frank Frazetta painting. I wanted to paint the bust
somewhere along that aesthetic.
There's some kind of energy that flows from this piece that I really grab hold of. Painting Simon Lee's sculpture work just feels so right. The man is magical. This is my second pass at a Gray Skull bust. This piece was painted for a friend who requested that I finish it in the same manner as the one I painted several years ago. I had just started to really get into Wayne Barlowe's "Inferno" works when Simon released this piece, and one of his paintings titled, "Examination" really inspired me with the paint application on these two busts. The colors and also the fact that there seems to be a relationship between Simon's sculpture and some of the forms that Wayne painted in that piece.
The base was made using wood and epoxy putty, and I ended up painting it a bit differently than the previous, which I think this version looks much nicer. That and the symbol on the back of the bust was painted a dirty gold rather than the purple toned one of the original. I also wanted to do something different with the eyes. I painted them a deep crimson, but after looking at it for a while I decided to stick with the icy, cold blueish tone which I had done previously.
I still have another casting here somewhere and one day I'll get to it and it will be something entirely different. In the meantime, Enjoy:
Gray Skull, sculpted by artist, Simon Lee, aka, " Spiderzero". I painted a casting several years ago, and now I'll be
working on another one. This piece still stands as one of my favorites among my collection, and in the spirit of sharing wonderful Artwork,
here are some photos of an unpainted casting. Enjoy
"Ashe".
I had planned to finish this
scratch-built skull last week. I had leftover materials from of few of these that I made about three years ago. This was made by using a male styrofoam head,
sandpaper, a Dremel tool and other random materials. No theme, just
followed suit of some unknown force.
As I placed this bust into my display case I realized that I've painted a good many pieces in my collection the color Green. Oh well, Green he is and Green he'll forever be! Trolls are supposed to be Green, right?
This is actually the first piece that I've not had to do any prep work to in any way prior to painting. I was so ecstatic that I even forgot to wash it, gads! There there...no sense in crying over spil't milk, as they say. If the paint sloughs off I'll at least have photographic evidence that it looked good at one time. In fact I'm very happy with the way it turned out. This is the first piece I've painted from artist Jordu Schell. Jordu with his beautifully rich, Jim Hensonesque characters, and I must say that not unlike good sex: I enjoyed every stroke!
