SPIRITED AWAY. NO-FACE MASK. 2022.

This is the most recent piece that I've sculpted. I know, it was two years ago, but at the moment I'm now aiming to be a bit more active and sculpt some new things, so watch out for some further updates on here and on my social media pages.

The reason I've not been so active over the past two years is just boring life stuff. I've bounced around from several different jobs and it's made things difficult to be creatively inspired. Plus a lack of funds. Materials are pretty expensive and I just couldn't justify spending the money.

Anyway, back in 2022, I really wanted to make a no-face mask, from the animated film Spirited Away. I sculpted it in ceramic clay and made a cheap latex mould of it. Not ideal, but at that time silicone was unaffordable to me, so I had to just use what I already had.

I think it turned out really nice. I sculpted some fine detail and texture onto it as I wanted to give the impression of wood-grain.

I painted it with acrylics and then gave it a couple of coats of varnish.

For the reverse side of the mask, I covered it with black felt and then attached some brass wire so that it could be hung on the wall.

THE EVIL DEAD. NECRONOMICON BOOK. DIARY. 2021.

 After doing the evil dead inspired fridge magnet, I really fancied doing another version of it that was closer to how it looked in the films. I though it would be cool to have one that was an actual diary that you could write in. So I bought a hard-back diary and then textured over it with latex and cotton wool, sculpting and shaping it as I did so. It's a very simple technique but one in which you can create some lovely textures. 

Once dried, I then painted it, and added the stitches. I loved how this turned out and was really happy with the results.

The paint that I used for this was just normal acrylic, but I did mix in a little bit of latex so that it would not crack once dried upon the diary.

And the finished piece.

EVIL DEAD FRIDGE MAGNET.

After 2018, I didn't do any sculpting until 2021. My father's health became much worse and as I was his primary carer it left me with little time for anything else. After he passed away from cancer, it took me some time to re-adjust, and so later in 2021 I decided to do a little sculpting again.

I ended up sculpting this fridge magnet, inspired by the Necronomicon book featured in the Evil Dead films. I sculpted it in super sculpey polymer clay, and once baked, I made a silicone mould of it. I thought it turned out okay. 

Four magnets on the back keep it securely attached to the fridge door. 

CTHULHU. WALL PLAQUE/RELIEF.

This one was also from 2018. As a fan of Lovecraft, Cthulhu is a pretty appealing character to sculpt. However, I opted to sculpt it as if it were some sort of primitive carving. Well, I thought it was a good idea at the time... 

I thought my wife would let me hang it up somewhere at home, but sadly she wasn't too keen.

  

DEATH NOTE. RYUK.

This was one of the last sculptures that I did during the time of  2014 - 2018. So I'm guessing that this one must have been done in 2018. I vaguely remember that I'd been watching the Death Note anime series and had enjoyed it, so I decided to do a sculpture of the character Ryuk. At that time, there had been a couple of Japanese live action films made from this too, so my sculpture was a sort of amalgam of the comic, anime, and live action versions of Ryuk. I liked different elements of each. 

I remember having trouble deciding on how to sculpt the hair and I re-started the hair several times before I was happy with it. The teeth were something else that I chose to do a little differently. Many years previously, my friend Juliette had given me some resin castings of fox teeth that she'd made. I'd kept them in my sculpting kit, but never used them on anything. So I thought it would be cool to use them on Ryuk.

I was really liking how this sculpture looked, but sadly I did not have the money to make a mould of it. It was sculpted in ceramic clay, and after leaving it wrapped up for too long, the clay went all mouldy and horrible, so I was forced to dispose of it in the bin. This is the only photo that I have of it. 

Maybe some day I'll do another one.

HELLRAISER. CHATTERER.

Another one from the years 2014 - 2018. Having done two previous Hellraiser characters, I was thinking of gradually doing the rest of the Cenobites. So here we have the Chatterer. The photos below are of the clay sculpture. Once I'd made the mould of this piece, I never got around to doing a resin casting of it. 

I never did sculpt any of the other Cenobites.

HELLRAISER. PINHEAD.

This is another one from 2014 - 2018. After making The Engineer, I decided to sculpt Pinhead. I never did get around to painting one and sticking the nails into it. I really should do soon as I still have a couple of blank castings of this. 

These photos are of a blank resin casting from the mould. The edges haven't been trimmed, so they look a little rough. Again, this is the same size as the Engineer, 15.5 inches by 13.5 inches.

HELLRAISER. ENGINEER.

I'm not sure when I sculpted this piece. During the years 2014 - 2018, I sculpted a few pieces, this being one of them, but not much. It's safe to say that I was in quite a creative slump. I had a busy family life with two children, and was now also a full time carer for my elderly father. But there were times when I'd just need to do something creative so I'd grab some clay and sculpt.

I've always been a fan of the Hellraiser films, mainly the first two, (not so much the rest). One of the strangest creations in that first film, for me, was The Engineer. So I sculpted him/it, and decided to have it on a background of a puzzle box panel.

The photos below are of the resin piece once reproduced from the mould. This is a pretty large piece measuring 15.5 inches by 13.5 inches. 

This painted version was done using a combination of acrylic and oil paints. I like to hand paint things with paint brushes. 

SHORT FILM MAKE-UP WORK. 2013.

The Predator Facehugger piece was the last substantial sculpture that I did for a very long time. I drifted further away from my creative interests, and if I'm honest, I paid a heavy price for it. Being creative is a vital part of who I am, and by not being creative anymore, over time caused my mental health to suffer greatly. There were also other stressful things going on in my life over those years, that I think also  contributed to my mental and creative decline.

In 2013, I did kind of re-surface, but it was with very mixed feelings. A couple of my old film college friends were getting ready to shoot a short film called Happy Bakewell. I'd heard from another friend that they were struggling to find people to help out, so I offered to volunteer. I assumed that they'd just need an extra pair of hands on set, or something. However, they asked me to do a bunch of make-ups for them, and some explosive bullet hit FX. This wasn't what I was expecting, but they were so happy that I'd offered to help, I didn't have the heart to refuse. 

I dug my old make-up kit out of the attic to see what I still had that could be used. It wasn't much but I made do. The bullet hits were a bit of a problem but after a bit of research I managed to come up with something using compressed air and fake blood. 

The make-ups for the drug addicts were created using good old mortician's wax and some grease-paint. It worked out okay, and I was even offered some further work on a feature film by the actor who was playing the hit-man. I wasn't in a position to take on any other work, but it was nice to be asked.

The problem was that whilst doing the make-ups for this film my anxiety was going crazy and it made me feel quite ill. I was regretting it all and felt that I was stupid to have gotten involved. The confidence that I once had was nowhere to be found and I was glad when it was over. Never did I think that I would ever feel this way, but right then, I did. I managed to hide it all though and got on with what needed to be done. My two friends wanted me to work on the next project that they were planning, but I just couldn't do it. I was too afraid to get involved with anything else.