I recently finished some pieces for two awesome shows at the same night and the same place— too bad I couldn’t make it. <sad panda>. I really wanted to make this post sooner but I’ve been busy as hell with work, commissions, client work and a definite need to catch up on sleep…on to the info!
So I’m not gonna show off all the concepts that I sketched out, mostly because those will get made eventually—I will show off everything having to do with my submitted pieces. That means you get to some of randomness and how I approach things, just like with the Behemoth post there’s going to be some progress shots. Enjoy!
Vinyl Thoughts 5
So Vinyl Thoughts 5 had an awesome theme this year that fits into some stuff that I worked on not that long ago— the Mad*l figure!! I professed my absolute joy working with that platform for the block heads and I gotta say…that did not change. I threw my hat in the ring the second I could, and once I got that acceptance email I started sketching immediately!
Below you’ll see the original concept for “Vincenzo”, which was my submission and as usual was a crazy amount of fun to make.
I did end up changing a few things once I got into the nitty gritty but this was mostly for story / background purposes within the Bear Knuckle universe. My original concept was to have the bunny ear barrette removable, just like the eye patch. Sadly neither idea made it to the end—the eye patch was nixed for story purposes and the removable barrette proved dangerous to the paint.
As a side note, to get the pieces off of the head I just used my Hulk strength—I used a heat gun and made the vinyl a little softer.
Here’s the finished bandoleer sculpted in magic sculp and it’s in the beginning stages of the priming & sanding saga. I wanted it to go along with the shape of the figure so it gets flat on the side for the hang, and then kicks back up around the back of it.
Sneak peak at the Sweet Meat head in the sanding / priming phase.
The skin tone was airbrushed slow and steady, layers at a time so it has a super smooth and soft feel to it. Then I went to town on his face with my weapon of choice, a 10/0 liner and some thinned out (really thinned out, like Stephen King thin) black Lascaux acrylic paint.
Base colors getting laid out, it’s completely possible Braveheart was on my mind when I went a little crazy with his face paint—he is posing as a rabbit though. You can see the rabbit ear barrette a little better in this shot than the one above, and you can make out the real Vincent the Red Eye’s hair style. Don’t worry about the hole in his mouth, that’s for his big ass cohiba cigar!
Here’s a pretty shitty picture of the cigar in his mouth, but the face is 90% finished here, and look he’s got pants now. No more runnin’ around in his birthday suit punching people with those brass knuckles!
Now that all major base coats are done I go to town on the tattoos. The MadL has such a good pose that full arm sleeves really pop off, and I wanted this guy to have some heavy hitting ink. I had two ideas for this arm and one of them was a space scene with exploding planets and other silly shit—that ended up going no further than an idea haha.
Second arm gets some ink, same process, paint thinned out to damn near water, a beer and patience. Then outlined with my trusty 10/0 liner. As you can see, I ran out of beer while painting—such a damn shame.
Here’s the last shot for the custom MadL “Vincenzo”, he’s all finished at this point and has the first layer of his clear coat spray tan. You can also get a better look at the cigar in this shot, I did say it was big…and if you look close you can see my finger trying to sneak into the shot at the bottom!
I wish I could have submitted more than one piece for Vinyl Thoughts 5 but time wasn’t on my side. The final pictures of him can be seen here, and if you wanna let him into your home and keep your other toys in check you can pick him up from Vinyl Thoughts Nation, there’s a lot of awesome pieces that didn’t get picked up from the Vinyl Thoughts 5 show too so check ’em all out!
There might be alternate versions of him at one point or another, and he will definitely be appearing in the upcoming print / comic strip ideas. I had a blast working on him and being a part of such an awesome show!
Check out Vinyl Thoughts 5 & Creatures for Kids – Part 2 – its all about the kids!!
[ssbp]