Cod Fisherman

With shopping and other Christmas preparations I haven't had much time to update my blog.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to share a few work in progress photos.

I've got the polymer codfish painted. I thought of airbrushing it but was too lazy to strain the paint and then have to clean the airbrush.

I've also built and primed the wooden dory the fisherman will be seated in. I still need to make a pair of oars and other fishing gear.

Here is a photo of the fisherman holding his catch seated in the dory.

Sea Serpent Sculpture Sold!

I had two pleasant surprises yesterday. The first was the sale of a piece of my horror themed art.

It was the sea serpent sculpture that was inspired by the brontosaurus upsetting the raft full of sailors in King Kong (1933).

The second surprise came after I had fed the seagulls. Each morning the gull we nicknamed Wally shows up on the beach near our home.

My wife and I started to feed Wally when we noticed he was hobbled by fishing line ensnaring his legs.

Eventually he somehow freed himself but now each morning when I check out the surf conditions for fishing Wally expects his free lunch.

Yesterday was the end of the striped bass fishing season. Each year I make a point of fishing the last day. Well the freezing temperature combined with the gusty northwest wind put any idea of fishing out of my mind.

I thought since I'm here I may as well tough it out and walk a few beaches. After three blocks my eyes were tearing badly from the constant wind. I turned my back to the wind to get a moment of relief. As I turned to continue on this lure washed up literally at my feet!

The weird thing is I wanted this lure but I had put off buying it till after the holidays.

Empire Team Treasuries

Here are two treasuries of the artwork of my talented teammates on Etsy: Empire State of Mind by corrnucopia on Etsy Empire Team It's the Joys of the Season by sandyssentiments

Dark Art Horror Sale

http://www.etsy.com/shop/BlacknickSculpture I'm having a 30% off sale in my Etsy shop from Dec.11th through Dec.15th on my horror art and dark art sculptures. With free shipping on purchases over $100. So have a look if your searching for an unusual gift for someone.

Dark Art Goblin Tree Ornaments

I recently finished this set of three Goblin tree ornaments and listed them in my Etsy shop.

They are modeled in Apoxie Sculpt clay and polymer clay. Handmade Goblin Dark Art Ornaments by BlacknickSculpture on Etsy

Between Christmas shopping and fishing the last weeks leading up to the close of the striped bass season I haven't had much free time to work on my new sea serpent piece.

I thought I'd share these photos showing the beginning of the armature and adding the tongue and teeth.

After gluing the aluminum wire into the wooden skull I began sorting through my teeth.

I glued the individual teeth in place. And then sculpted Apoxie clay around them to form gums.

Next it will be time to create the eyes and paint the jaws.

Eric Kessler's King Kong Project

The last week in October Eric Kessler visited us on Long Island to pick up a project I had completed for him. It was a set I created for a stop motion film he is at work on.

Kess is an avid fan of the 1933 version of King Kong. In that classic film special effects creator Willis O'Brien brought Kong and the other creatures of Skull Island to life using stop motion animation.

Utilizing elaborate miniature sets and the most gorgeous Kong puppet I've ever seen Kess has set about to create his vision of the Kong story. In this clip on Youtube you can get an idea how labor intensive this process is : YouTube - Kong Spino & T

Here is Kess loading the last piece of the cavern set into his Jeep.

I took some B&W photos of the cavern to see how it would look.

And here are some color photos of the completed cavern.

For a Kong fan like myself it was a privilege creating this for Kess. I mean think of it -- Kong is going to be strutting his stuff through something I made! How cool is that? The icing on the cake was Kess was kind enough to give me a sneak peek of some footage he had recently completed!

Black Friday to Cyber Monday Dark Art Sale

I'll be having a 20% off sale and offering free shipping on sculpture purchases of over $100 from 11/26 - 11/29 : BlacknickSculpture - Etsy On Sale Many of my fellow artists on Etsy's Dark Team are also holding weekend sales. They create a wicked selection of gorgeous dark themed artwork! Be sure to check them out if you have a free moment: Etsy Dark Team: Black Friday to Cyber Monday 2010 EDT Specials!

New Horror Artwork

After going without clay for several days I finally got my shipment! I was one happy camper. Nothing worse then being near completion of a piece and not being able to finish it!

This gnarly looking vampire was fun to make. In the near future we are having an exhibition of artwork by the Etsy Dark Team members. The theme will be non-sparkly vampires and this fellow will be my entry.

I wanted my sculpt to be a depiction of an average joe type of bloodsucker. Like if a groundskeeper or villager were to become one of the undead. I just listed him on my Etsy shop this morning: http: OOAK Dark Art Clay Vampire Figure by BlacknickSculpture on Etsy

Speaking of the Etsy Dark Team a number of our members are having great Black Friday sales. Some running through to Cyber Monday. If your looking for the perfect dark gift pop over to check it out: http://etsysdarksideteam.blogspot.com/2010/11/black-friday-to-cyber-monday-2010-edt.html

Horror of horrors!

I ran out of Apoxie clay in the middle of a horror figure I'm sculpting. A sculptor without clay is a sad sight. A sculptor that fishes without clay and who is unable to fish is an even sadder sight. I'm watching out for the UPS man today and hoping my clay order arrives!

The ocean has been kicking up something awful the last week. This photo gives you an idea of the size of the wave compared to the surfer. Also notice the surge of water pushing back seaward in the left of the picture. It is colliding with the incoming water and erupting straight up.

There was also water flooding over the rock jetty to my left adding to the washing machine action of the water. I scratched fishing for another day and decided to snap some pictures of my feathered friend Wally.

He ( or she ) is a black backed seagull. My wife named him Wally after we came across him one afternoon with his legs tangled in braided fishing line. He could just barely stand.

She took to feeding him daily which was hard because even small seagulls were able to dominate him and steal his food. As I came to know him I realized besides being ensnared he was also blind in one eye.

Some how over the weeks the line came free. Then Wally went through his limping phase for about a week till he regained full use of his legs.

Now he is a living terror!

Blackback seagulls are aggressive by nature but Wally has raised it to an art form.

He savages any seagull that even comes near him on the beach. And forget it if he sees one of his own species! Sometimes he'll chase them 1/4 mile down the beach before circling back.

I'm thinking someone threw something at Wally to blind his eye. The reason I say that is if he sees you holding anything large he wigs out.

The picture of him lifting off is right after he spied the camera. Otherwise he is fairly trusting of me. Even walking alongside me when I go to the waters edge to check on conditions.

A Lazy Weekend

I had planned to fish the outgoing tide Saturday and Sunday morning but things didn't work out. The new moon brought strong sweeps which I'd counted on. The stronger than usual current actually makes some fishing lures work better.

What I hadn't expected was tons of seaweed!It would have made fishing next to impossible. The surfers weren't bothered by the seaweed and seemed to be having a ball surfing the seven foot waves off Long Beach.

Instead my wife and I decided to take a beach walk and throw some stale bread to the birds.

These are mostly Ringed-bill gulls. They are pretty good at snatching the bread in the air but would come in second best to a fly off with a Laughing gull. Lucky for these little beggars no Laughing gulls were in sight.

I like how three seagulls are honing in on the piece of bread in the picture above!

When we got home I decided to paint some work I had started ages ago. I primed a fisherman and cod fish I had sculpted and got some painting done.

I have a wooden boat I built that the fisherman will be sitting in. The stick in the cod fish serves as a handle for painting.When it is all together it will show the fisherman unhooking the cod.

A Few Halloween Photos

We didn't see many trick or treaters at all on Halloween. We have so much candy left over!

Some kids would look at our house and just keep on walking.

My wife doesn't understand it. She says when she was a kid she would have headed straight for a house decorated like ours.

I think all together we had 22 kids come by. By the way she doesn't wear the mask to hand out candy if the kids are too young.

That's me in my surgeons gown and rubber apron.

I only answer the door if it is teenage kids. Three older girls got a kick out of my costume. The rest of the kids were too little for the full treatment.

And the Winner of the Vampire Bat Magnet Is!

The winner in the drawing for the Vampire bat magnet is Debbie Wright!

Congratulations Debbie when you have a chance email me your address I'll get this off to you.

Priming Up For Halloween!

BOO! Another Halloween is almost upon us. My wife is out decorating our front yard. Though we won't put our good scary stuff out till tomorrow. And I've been busy putting the finishing touches on my mask. It started out as an ordinary mask from CVS that I've customized to fit my face.

I cut the entire face off the mask leaving the original ears and wig portion. After donning the mask I built up the rest of the face right atop my own skin using liquid latex and bread crumbs.

Using the same technique I created a pair of monster hand gloves. You can see the work in progress pictures on a blog post I wrote here: http://etsysdarksideteam.blogspot.com/2010/10/diy-monster-gloves-for-halloween.html The Etsy Dark Side Team blog has some great Countdown to Halloween articles from our members. Such as cool Zombie make up tips and how to make realistic looking burns and scars to name a few.

I wanted to add a throat section and a bloody wound to my mask so I brushed out a mixture of green tinted latex and breadcrumbs onto a tile. After it dried I peeled it off and glued it to the underside of jaw area.

Here is how the finished mask came out with the neck section added and the bloody wound.

If you love celebrating Halloween be sure to pop over and check out Kat the hat lady's Haunted House Online Party!

The Candy Corn Killer

My thanks and a warm welcome to the new folks following my blog. Also a reminder that there is still time to take part in the magnet giveaway.

This past week I haven't done much sculpting. The fall fishing season is beginning to perk up here in the Northeast and I've been on the beach almost daily hunting for signs of life.

From now till the striped bass season closes I find myself fishing the outgoing high tide and sculpting during the low tide.

I did finish up work on the Candy Corn Killer Friday morning. He is a mean little cuss that lures his victims in by using an offering of candy. CCK ( as I call him ) is in a cool treasury rubbing elbows with other killer art : Psycho Killers by VintageEye on Etsy .

While browsing through VintageEye's interesting shop I came across the same type of clock I use in my studio. Another cool find was an 8mm movie camera very similar to the one I used to use to film my stop motion plastilene monsters! If you have an opportunity stop over and have a look around her fun shop.

Vampire Bat Giveaway

To celebrate Halloween I am having a giveaway of a vampire bat magnet. The bat magnet measures 2" X 2 1/2" L .It is part of a trio of scary magnets I recently made.

The drawing of the winning persons name will take place on Nov. 1, 2010. To enter you need to be a follower of my blog and leave a comment to this post.

The other magnets are of a zombie craving (what else?) brainnnnsssss! And a monster who is seriously screwed!

I'll be listing these in my Etsy shop later today.

My work space is a sight! I'm working on a mask for Halloween. Replacing the hooks on all my fishing lures to get them ready for striped bass fishing. And sculpting some new pieces.

Speaking of fish my wife and I visited the nautical mile in Freeport, NY recently to get some seafood for a cioppino recipe I wanted to make.

We always go to Capt. Ben's.

Capt. Ben's also sells this wonderful flavored Italian bread! We usually end up eating half of it on the ride home! That's me bread in hand hamming it up.

The cioppino came out pretty good! The recipe called for mussels but since I'm the only one who eats them I left them out.

It had halibut, shrimp, scallops and Little neck clams in it.

Our Maryland Weekend And A New Mummy

My wife Diane and I visited Maryland this weekend to help celebrate my niece Lauren getting her BA.

Maryland was a nice change from New York! The people seem to be more laid back than New Yorkers.

Even when driving. I think I heard a car horn blown three times the whole weekend. And I didn't see one middle finger salute given!

Unfortunately Edgar Allan Poe's house was closed during our visit. Likewise the Maryland Science Center.

We did get to see the Maryland National Aquarium which was cool! They had an exhibit you could walk through with waterfalls and exotic birds flying overhead.

This photo is Diane and I outside with part of the aquarium in the background.

Docked nearby was the USS Constellation

Since getting home here to Long Island it has been nothing but heavy winds and rain. So much for fishing on the last couple days of our vacation!

I had finished this mummy before I left but hadn't had the opportunity to upload pictures of it. I figured I'd share some photos of it now.

It measures 15" high with a foam rubber/cotton wrapped body with head and hands sculpted of Apoxie clay. It is covered in gauze and mounted on a sand covered wood base.