Jimmy The Head Monster- Part 2

After a week of illness and a brief bout with laziness, I have returned with an update on Jimmy's progress. It's only about 50 degrees in the lab lately, so is it IMPOSSIBLE to try and smooth anything in the rock hard clay, but i've added his eyeballs in, and sculpted more fat rolls, hand details, and he's just exuding more personality with every stroke of my hand. I'm used to working much larger, so this is an interesting challenge of fighting my impatience with my attention to detail. There are a lot of subtle details that sadly my camera refuses to pick up on, like how all the flesh and his eye socket is being pulled by his disgusting neck goiter...but it's probably just because I'm lighting the photos like an asshole. I also finally started working on the back of him, which I've been avoiding...but you get no pictures of that yet :-P Critiques?

click to enlarge

I DIDN'T SMACK YOU...

THAT WAS A HIGH FIVE TO THE FACE!

So i've been trying to draw more...which so far has mostly been quick doodles in my crappy lined notebook. Also, most of them involve stylizing sketches of my love, my light, my child...Samson the beloved bulldog...and anyone that knows Samson knows how much he loves giving high fives and tens. Not sure why this doodle amuses me so much...

And now for something completely different

Jimmy the Head Monster

*update 2.15.11*

A couple more hours tonight, I mostly concentrated on his left arm, hand, all those lovely wrinkles, and a bit of his chest...I love how just when I think he can't get any creepier, i add a little detail and it make it all the more disturbing. And I kept Jerry busy, as he figured out a very clever way to mold the eyeballs for me out of urethane plastic. Can't wait to get those babies painted and insert them into Jimmy! (This is our first attempt at making eyeballs, let alone really tiny ones, so I'm taking work-in-progress pictures as we go and I will post them all together when they are done) Oh yah, I couldn't just call him head monster anymore, so I nicknamed him Jimmy.

*update 2.13.11*
A few more hours on this guy, i concentrated a lot on his face and head. And added the most important part- nipples!

So this little guy only has about 2 or 3 hours of sculpting into him so far and doesn't have a name yet, but that doesn't mean he doesn't already have a destiny! My good friend and collaborator Vince is the mean mug you see set in plaster there. He endured a tortuous hour or so of us putting goo, goo, and more goo all over his head in order to replicate his impressively large noggin.

As i had mentioned in a previous post, I have grown terribly bored with zombies. Of creating them as well as writing about them or seeing them in movies.

So in a tribute to the era of monsters like Basketcase, Vince and I have been cooking up a feel-good film featuring him and his unfortunate life with his little head monster. The idea is to either figure out some simple animatronics or rig some puppetry to make some disgusting spastic movements, although I have no experience in doing either. Yet another new skill to learn! Woo!

When I had sculpted the head, I was working so up close and concentrating that when I pulled back and took a look, I actually creeped myself out so I take that as a good sign. I like where this is going, but it still needs tons of work and the devil is always in the details, so I will post progress pics! But I can't wait for the glass eyes and mini sharp teeth!

DON'T YOU LOVE WHEN THIS HAPPENS...

PRESTON BLAIR ANIMATION 1:

Just some scribbles based on the book. Trying to learn volume, perspective, and develop an eye for proportion and detail. I will eventually post the pages of the book to go with it, but my scanners too tiny and I'm feeling lazy about piecing the pages together...

SOME ARTISTIC WISDOM

"You start drawing with your brain, but aim to draw from the heart. That doesn't happen instantly. You have to first absorb the knowledge slowly and then forget about it and let your pencil be guided by your subconscious. Not easy, and it hurts to go through the stiff period. A lot of lesser men give up during the stiff beginnings of learning something new and that's a dirty shame. Take the pain and shame like a man and get over it. You'll be so happy when your new knowledge becomes second nature. Otherwise, you will be stuck, a slave to formula for life and unhappy, maybe even without knowing why? That pain and shame is essential to your progress. Embrace it. Kick the walls if you have to. But get back to the drawing board and force that stiff information into your head. Then lay awake nights obsessing over it. That's your tax for being gifted."
- John K.

This struck me as a profound statement.

On one hand, it makes me sad to think about how much time I've wasted being disappointed that my "natural" drawing abilities weren't everything I want them to be and that I convinced myself somewhere along the line that I couldn't possibly learn this ability, like you either had it or you didn't. It also makes me angry to admit that I was defeated in my "stiff period" because there wasn't anyone around to kick me and tell me to keep going and that it would get better.

On the other hand, what better inspiring words from someone that will outwardly admit the parts of drawing and animation that he still struggles with and what through hard work, dedication, and focus can actually do to improve and hone your "natural" abilities.

I would be less inclined to believe it if I hadn't been stalking John K through his blog and listening, learning, and demonstrating everything he says to and actually figuring out simple things about drawing that apparently my 27 years and 4 years of college didn't teach me.

Fuck it. Let's do this.

I've already been sketching a lot and will post results soon.

MOMENTS LIKE THESE MAKE ME SMILE...

Ok, so this is pretty old news, but i just found this again and it still astounds me....

For my newer crowd, i'll catch you up to speed- a friend of mine and I started a horror photography company back in 2007 called They Walk By Night Productions, back before any asswad with an iphone and fake blood thought taking scaaaary pictures was cool...it's originally how i got into doing fx makeup. If you are interested in checking out our photos, most of them are on my website under my FX portfolio www.morgue-anne.com

So we handed out hundreds of stickers and postcards to promote our website that looked like this:

About two years and change later, I get a hysterical call from my friend Nicole, the model in this picture, saying that this guy friended her on myspace because he got her TATTOOED on him.

Behold!
She didn't know whether to be freaked out or feel honored, but i thought it was pretty fucking bad-ass, especially because it was a complete stranger that decided our art was iconic enough to be on him forever.