Gizmo Charity Auction

At the beginning of January 2012 this Gizmo Replica will be auctioned off to help a friend of mine struggling with Cystic Fibrosis. Here is the link for anyone interested in bidding:

Replica Gizmo from Gremlins the movie

Thank you all for the support, and hopefully we can give this guy a good home.
-Todd

A Mogwai for a Good Cause

A few months ago I became aware that an old friend was in need of important, even life saving operation. Family and friends were doing what they could to raise money for him, so at that moment I decided that I would do what I could to contribute to his cause. I decided I would make a prop and sell it with all proceeds going straight to him for his operation. That prop... is a Mogwai. Some of you might ask "What is a Mogwai?" A Mogwai is a fuzzy little creature that turns into a Gremlin when it eats past midnight.

For this project I wanted to sculpt him out of Chavant nsp medium clay. This kind of clay is prefect for doing a sculpt like this, plus you can also use silicones with it as some clays you cannot.

The next step was to make a blueprint of the Mogwai without any fur on it.

Once that was completed I could start the build up. I started first by making a wire skeleton that would support the entire sculpt.

Once the skeleton was completed it was then covered in tin foil. The purpose of that is to take up some of the mass of the sculpt so you don't end up with a solid heavy clay figure.

When the body was to the size I wanted I then mounted it to a base board for sculpting.

Now time for the fun part! The clay was applied to the entire tin foil body and the sculpting process could begin.

The same process was applied to the head. Some pieces such as the hands and feet will be molded separately for different options on the finished piece. At this time the sculpt is complete as I just have a few minor clean up spots before this can be molded.

Happy Halloween Everybody!

The Artwork

Its been a few weeks since I showed something new and since I dont have any progress on any projects I thought I would show you guys and gals the base for everything I do. I have always loved to draw ever since I was a little kid. Throughout high school I took as many art classes as I possibly could, and in my sophomore year in high school I signed up for the Graphic Design program at The Art Institute of Phoenix. Everything I make now is either sketched out or blueprinted before anything is even started. So here is kind of a little show off of some things I have drawn or designed over the past few years. Enjoy!

So lets start with the drawings from high school.

Reproduced Korn album cover done in pencil

Pencil sketch of Jim Carrey from "Liar Liar"

Pencil sketch of Rob Zombie

Pencil self portrait

 Pencil sketch of Santa Spawn

Cobalt sketch of Spawn

Now we move on to college where more design elements were applied.

Perspective pencil sketch of a house

Pencil and Ink design

Ink stipple, hatch and cross hatch design

After college I started doing more freelance work for friends and family.

Parking signs designed for friends vehicles

Artwork done for a Ghost Busters calendar

Logo created for Wok-N-Stix restaurant

Arizona Pop Culture logo

Final version of the logo in color

Outside cover for the Arizona Ghostbusters brochure

Inside cover for the Arizona Ghostbusters brochure

Poster artwork for the Arizona Ghostbusters. Drawn by John Yurcaba and colored/designed by me

Blueprint for an upcoming project due by October 2011

Blueprint of an M76 gun for a prop replica

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We are tonight's entertainment!

Back in 2008 The Dark Knight was released in the theaters and I had decided I wanted to do a tribute costume of late Heath Ledger's version of the Joker. The costume was completed in time for Halloween of 2008 and everything went great, nothing but positive responses. Well come 2011 I wanted to do something a little different with the Joker. As I had already purchased table space at Phoenix Comicon I knew this costume had to come out again. So I knew the costume by itself wound not bring that much attention to my booth. So I thought about it, and whats better than a life size full realistic Joker from The Dark Knight?

A few years prior to this I had it in my head that one day I would want to built a stand up to display this costume so I ended up purchasing a urethane resin Joker bust from a company called Howard S. Studios. The down side to this bust was that it had sculpted hair and it was a hard resin, by no means life like. Once I had received it I started to paint it and was not happy the way it was turning out, so it was shelved for a year and a half. Which brings us to our current time.

Unfortunately I did not take a picture of what the bust looked like unpainted but I do have a few of what it looked like before I gave up painting it the first time.

 

*** IMPORTANT INFO: I DO NOT CONDONE RECASTING FOR PROFIT, ONLY FOR THE GOOD OF THE PROP. ONLY ONE CAST WAS MADE OF THIS BUST AND THE MOLD WAS DESTROYED ***

The first step in changing this bust was to strip off the paint so that when a new mold was made I could capture all the detail of the sculpt without the paint interfering.

Since the final piece would have punched hair in place of the sculpted hair I had to find a way to remove the hair but keep the shape of the head. In order to do this I filled the hollow resin bust with expandable foam.

Once fully cured I took several different tools (dremel, grinder, palm sander, and a table sander) and sanded off the hair and the partial ear that was sculpted.

Now that all the hair is removed I sealed the foam with Smooth On Smooth Cast 320. Then I applied body filler to help sculpt the final shape of the head.

The only thing missing at this point is to sculpt a set of ears and attached them to the bust and then it can be set up to be remolded.

To get this ready to be molded I added some clay to certain areas to hide any seems that could be seen and added a clay barrier around the bottom where I wanted the mold to stop.

Next blog will show the molding process.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We are tonight's entertainment! Part 2

In molding the bust I decided to use Smooth On Rebound 25. This silicone can be brushed on in several coats to make a nice thick mold without wasting rubber.

Areas under the nose and behind the ears had a thicker silicone added to allow final piece to be removed from the mold easier. Also a seam line was formed on the back which is where the mold will be cut to removed the final cast.

The last step before the outer shell is made is to add some key locks to the mold so that it locks into the shell perfectly every time. In this picture they are the round domes on the forehead, back of head and neck.

First step in building the outer shell was to build a frame around the entire bust.

 

Next i mixed up a Body filler/fiberglass resin mix that I could spread over the silicone mold to create a hard shell that I could then cover in fiberglass.

Once everything has dried completely I then pulled it all apart, cut the seam and pulled the original out.

 

Next step is to bolt everything back up and add a layer of clay about 3/8" thick on the inside of the entire mold. This is done so you can pour a inner skull that will go inside the final piece so you dont have a solid thick silicone head.

Once the clay up was finished I poured in more expanding foam. Let it cure for an hour and then pulled it all apart again. Scrapped out all the clay and the bolted everything back together, sprayed mold release and poured the new silicone head. For this I used Smooth On Dragon Skin.

As soon as the Dragon Skin cured I pulled the mold all apart again, removed the expanding foam skull and then placed the new silicone head back in the mold without the expanding foam skull. Then I poured more expanding foam into the mold with a piece of PVC pipe that would act as the neck on the stand-up.

Once fully cured, this guy was finally done and ready for eyes, paint and hair.

Next blog will be the final chapter with paint and hair and the full body.