Monster Wonderful Monster

Tarayvonne my teammate on Etsy Dark Team has assembled a wonderful collection of monster themed artwork in this treasury: Monster Wonderful Monster by tarayvonne on Etsy

I'm honored that she selected one of my monsters for inclusion in her unique treasury!

If you have a minute you should pop into Tarayvonne's Etsy shop for a treat. She has a wonderful assortment of shadow boxes and other miniature creations: :19th Day Miniatures bids you welcome by tarayvonne on Etsy

I Finished My Swamp Creature Sculpture

I see there are some new folks who are following my blog and I'd like to offer you a warm welcome!

Sometime ago I started a base for a swimming monster I had sculpted. If you missed that post here is the link to it: Blacknick Sculpture: Creating A Base For A Sculpture

This sculpture was inspired by my love for the Universal horror film The Creature From The Black Lagoon. As a kid I was so taken with the Gillman suit! Frankly I think that suit stands up pretty well even by today's special effects standards.If your not familiar with the movie here is a cool website with some photos and a quiz on the Gillman:The Gillman's Movie Trivia

This past week I've been trying to finish up work in progress before I start on something new. Which led me to painting my swamp monster sculpture.

It was pretty straight forward painting. It was done by brush with opaque and translucent acrylics. I used a lot of dry brushing to bring out the scaly skin texture on the beast. Though I did break out the airbrush for tipping the fins and for shading the back of the swamp creature. I hope you like him!

A Couple Of Irons In The Fire

On occasion I'll work on two or three pieces simultaneously. It may seem chaotic to other artists but it works for me.

If I'm sculpting I have to get out my tools and set up my work bench. If I'm airbrushing I have to fire up my compressor, prepare my spray booth and thin and strain my paint.

And of then of course there is the cleaning of the tools and neatening up my studio at the end of the day. For just this reason I find it more productive (and cost effective) to work on multiple artwork at once.The sculptures I have going presently are Kong vs the Pteranodon, a thresher shark and a gillman.

The gillman is about ten years old! It was the first piece I ever made using Super Sculpey.I have always been interested in Cryptozoology and the sightings of unknown, mysterious lake creatures. So it wasn't surprising that my first polymer sculpture would be a cryptid of my own design.

Recently while searching for something in my studio I came upon a box containing the gillman.I thought it would be fun to design a base for it which I did.

Here is a picture of his head. In preparation for airbrushing I've masked off his eyes and mouth and primed him with spray paint.

On his side you can see the holes I drilled that correspond with the bolts at the top of the piece of driftwood on the base. I'll post more photos as work progresses.