Caracolilla Finished

It took me a bit longer than I had initially expected to finish, but at last, Caracolilla is finished. (See my previous post regarding the bust): http://thesepulcher.blogspot.com/2015/06/caracolilla-nude.html Upon seeing this beautifully rendered piece for the first time, I immediately thought of some of the strangely beautiful, and otherworldly alluring beautiful women seen in many of the late artist H.R. Giger's fantastic paintings. It was right then and there that I decided to attempt painting Caracolilla in a similar manner.

 I spent quite a few evenings after work, and some weekends as well, layering sepia and black washes; applying different tones of airbrush colors, and working the highlighted areas of the bone-like, chitinous formations of the head, and her lovely, angelic face. It was a constant ballet of additions and subtractions; ebb and flow, and I loved it. I would've liked to better define some of the biomechanical line work that Giger is famous for in the face, but alas- I needed to wrap it up and move onto the next project. 

 I must again thank Abner Marin for gifting me with this most amazing piece! Thank you!








                       

       

     


                                             

  
    

   

  
  
   

Caracolilla Nude

This beautiful piece will be occupying my paint table for the next few weeks. It's called, "Caracolilla", and is sculpted by digital artist, Abner Marin. Abner very generously sent me a casting of this stunningly detailed bust a few months ago, and it's now available to order from Black Heart Enterprises: http://www.blackheartmodels.com/

 There's absolutely nothing that I can say about this amazing piece that the pictures won't illustrate. Enjoy.

Diseased Alien

 This is another great piece sculpted by artist John Schuster. It's basically your typical "Gray Alien" design, but with quite a gruesome cleft lip and palate rotten nose. The bust is solid resin cast, and a one of a kind piece according to John. The little Feller is just a touch under 5" tall, and flourishing with subtle skin wrinkles and detail. The skin tone I painted turned out more purple than I originally intended; a minty, pistachio green was one of the colors that I'd been applying and knocking back alternatively throughout the paint process, and it seems a knocked it back a bit too much to even detect! But, in the end, I'm happy with it, and John seemed to be pleased with it as well. 

                      
                                            
  



  

     

Desmodus Vrykolakas

I recently finished painting this most excellent vampire display piece sculpted by artist Anthony Watkins. It's cast in solid resin, and comes with a nice round display mount and a clear resin stand. The head is roughly the size of a nice sized orange or apple. This piece really is a painter's dream with all the great textures, crazy teeth, and dramatically positioned tongue. I chose a pale gray skin tone with a really dark, inky mouth and bright reddish-orange eyes to stand out. Anthony didn't have a particular name for the piece other than vampire, so I took the liberty of naming it Desmodus Vrykolakas. Desmodus being a common Vampire Bat, and Vrykoulakas being the Greek, or Slavic name for a blood-feasting, undead creature. Even though it's only a head piece, there's just so much gnarly, pissed-off energy in the facial expression and writhing tongue, it's sure to hold it's own among the other nasty creatures in any Garage Kit enthusiast's display cabinet.






 

Avagddu

I painted this awesome piece several years ago at my friend Norman Meyer's home, way out in Los Angeles, CA. The character is named, Avagddu, and it's from a comic book called Slaine the King, illustrated by Glenn Fabry, and written by Pat Mills and Mike McMahon. Here's a short description of Avagddu found on the internet: "

"Avagddu is the son of the earth goddess and a tainted, brute of a demon. Avagddu is misshaped and covered with boils; he also has only one good eye. He is the dark side of the Earth Power personified."

  

 

                                           

                  Above is an illustration of Avagddu by Glenn Fabry from the pages of Slaine the King. As you can see, Norman did an exemplary job capturing all the nuances of Glenn's depiction of Avagddu. I actually applied some of Norman's facial hair to some of the boils to push the loathsome factor. Visit Artist Proof Studio webstore to purchase a casting of Avagddu here: http://artistproofstudio.bigcartel.com/product/slaine-the-king-avagddu-resin-bust-2000-ad

*Photos courtesy of Nitai Kearney*

Melon Head

I picked up this grim little gem from Quarantine Studios table at Wonderfest 2013. Sculpted by the undisputed sculptural Master of the Macabre, William Paquet. Melonhead was a pre-painted statue with very pale skin tone. I stripped off the factory paint finish with a soaking in Easy-Off oven cleaner, and scrubbed like a fiend until it was all removed. 

Since the original paint was light, I knew that I wanted to apply a more drab finish, and ultimately went for a dark, sepulchral green appearance. 

Bloater

  









Here we have another piece sculpted by John Schuster which is based on a character from a video game. This is a Bloater, and it's one of the ugly creatures from the Playstation 3 game, The Last of Us. I'm not familiar with the storyline, or why these things are completely festooned with fungi and all manner of neat looking mushrooms, but it's an interesting twist on the zombie mythos. John's Bloater bust is pretty small, measuring at 4.25" tall, but it's imbued with lots of very nicely executed details, and I really enjoyed painting it.