From custom artist Brian Shapiro:
I present my latest Incognito Series figure! This one’s abstract for sure. It is called “Mikey Mouse” in celebration of the upcoming movie, Monsters University, by Disney. With a lift from his friend, Sully, Mike Wazowski scares up some laughs as Mickey Mouse! Of course, things don’t go according to plan when poor Mikey’s vision is obstructed and Sully’s shoe doesn’t fit!
Custom Artist Brian Shapiro is back with a very intriguing series customs set for next year:
I present my last custom of 2013 which is a preview of a series I’m going to do in 2014 called Invertimation!
That mischievous prankster, the Cheshire Cat, has teamed up with other tricky characters like Stitch and Genie to invert the colors of some of Disney’s beloved characters. To undo this magic spell on your phone or tablet, simply invert the colors on it and look at the photo as shown. For iOS devices go to Settings>General>Accessibility>Invert Colors. I’m not sure how to do it on Android. If you are viewing this on a monitor, invert the colors on your phone and look at the pic with your device’s camera. Enjoy!
Next up is Experiment 626!! See you in 2014!
Brian Shapiro has begun a new series he titles “Incognito.” The first in the series is called “Put on a Happy Face” and features Donald with a Mickey mask on.
This is a brilliant and very well executed idea. It is very smart because Brian found a way to make a Donald custom and not have to try to paint that annoying beak! (I know from experience that duck beaks are a little tricky) The other exciting thing about this custom, is it is up for auction at the Vinylmation Bid Wars Facebook page and all proceeds will go to the Kickstarter for the Urban Vinyl film that is trying to get made.
The Custom Artist Project is a group of 11 of the best custom Vinylmation artists in the world who have come together to make their own blind box series. Series 1 is called “Sidekickz” and is a mix of different Disney sidekicks from films or TV. It will be released on October 6th. Each day leading up to the release, we will spotlight a different artist from the series. Today we spotlight custom artist Brian Shapiro.
Hometown:
Philadelphia, PA
Website:
Http://www.Facebook.com/BRInylmation
Http://www.BRInylmation.com
What Disney Sidekick did you choose?
I chose Creeper from Disney’s movie, The Black Cauldron, which was released in 1985.
Why did you choose that sidekick?
Sadly, The Black Cauldron was not much of a hit for Disney, but I really enjoyed it as a kid. It’s based on a great series of books by Lloyd Alexander. Because the film is not as popular as some of Disney’s biggest hits, there is very little merchandising. When there is merchandise, commonly pins, it usually features the visually striking villain, the Horned King, or the lovable heroic sidekick, Gurgi. In fact, these two appeared together in a Vinylmation 9″/3″ combo set a few years ago for the movie’s 25th Anniversary. That’s actually when I got the idea to do the Horned King’s sidekick, Creeper. Creeper is a hilarious, goblin-like underling with a mix of Igor and Gollum in him. He is horribly abused by his master, and you can’t help but sympathize for the guy, even though he’s evil. I think he has the most humorous moment at the end of the movie (SPOILER ALERT) when he realizes the Horned King is gone forever. At first he laments that his master is gone, and then realizes that hey, he is GONE, and starts laughing and celebrating! Going back to the set released by Disney, I thought it was amazing, but I thought Creeper should have been in there with the Horned King. When I was invited to participate in the Custom Artist Project, I immediately wanted to do Creeper as my Sidekick! I also thought it would be cool to make a Black Cauldron accessory to accompany him!
Favorite Disney Movie?
That is tough!! My favorite animated film is Beauty and the Beast, and my favorite live action film has to be a tie between TRON and The Black Hole.
Favorite Disney Theme Park Attraction?
The Haunted Mansion is my all time favorite.
Favorite aspect of working on the Mickey shaped canvas?
After three years of doing Vinylmation customs, I really have come to appreciate just how adaptable the Mickey shaped canvas is for creating just about any character. If you design it right, you can make tall, short, thin, or chubby characters fit by playing with their wardrobe and accessories. You can also give the illusion of flatter faces or snouts. As for the ears, I used to find them the most perplexing part of the mold, but now, I consider them the best. The ears can be used to place eyes, pointed ears, and antennae, or they can be used to set the scene by providing a sense of the background environment.
Thank you, as always, for your generous spotlight of my Vinylmation work!
More info on the Custom Artist Project:
Website: http://www.facebook.com/groups/ArtistProject/
How to purchase: The price of one blind box is $65, including shipping within the US. We’re looking into international shipping right now, but it will probably be another $5-10 if it works out.Paypal is going to be the accepted payment. It is limited to one household per blind box.
What you get: You will get one blind box (yes, I’m actually making boxes) with one of 24 different figures. Some figures come with accessories. You will also get 11 different cards, 1 from each artist.
We see many custom Vinylmation. Many are Disney related, many are not. But every once in a while a custom that is completely unique comes along that stops me in my tracks. Brian Shapiro recently sent us pictures of one such custom. Take a look.
Destination Vinylmation: How did you come up with the idea for the Menorah?
Brian Shapiro: First off, for those who are unfamiliar, the Menorah is a candelabrum that holds nine candles. One candle is usually more prominent and is called the shamash, and the remaining eight candles represent each of the eight days of Hanukkah. Each night of Hanukkah the shamash is lit and then used to light each of the other candles from right to left up to the candle representing that particular night of Hanukkah.
Disney doesn’t release a whole lot of Hanukkah merchandise, so I came up with the idea of doing a Vinylmation menorah a few years ago. I thought it would be cool to use the figures as candles. Lighting the candles could be simulated by painting one side of each the heads with just a wick and the other with a flame. By turning the heads 180 degrees, the candles could appear lit or unlit. Unfortunately, using nine three-inch figures was not practical. Once Vinylmation Jr’s came out, the idea became more feasible, but I never got around to it. This year I was determined to get it done!
DV: Tell us about the features of this design?
Brian Shapiro: The Menorah was fabricated by gluing together assorted wooden shapes I bought at Michael’s Crafts. Originally I was going to just paint it, but my good friend and fellow Disney collector, Alan Benaquista, suggested that I cover it in gold leaf. I had never worked with gold leaf before, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. The gold leaf really gives the Menorah a nice antique appearance.
When I painted the Vinylmation Jr’s I painted the heads to have a flame on one side and a wick on the other, as described before. I had planned to just paint the bodies solid blue, but then I thought the arms and hands looked like wax dripping on the sides, so I painted these white. I also painted wax drips along the fronts and backs of the bodies to add to the dripping wax effect.
The photographs show the Menorah as it will appear on day three and day eight. It was a lot of fun and very rewarding to create, and I appreciate your spotlight of my work!
Destination Vinylmation: Do you ever draw a concept then give up on it because you can’t make it work in 3D? Or do you stick with it and make alterations?
Brian Shapiro: Luckily, I haven’t had to abandon any designs because I couldn’t adapt them, but you can see I’ve had some challenges that required some sacrifices and compromises to make them work. I will typically redraw a design on paper until I’m happy with it, and I never start painting without a definite understanding of how I want it to look. For example, when I created my Zom-B custom, I wanted to make a zombie, but for some reason I struggled with the facial proportions of the canvas’ head.
Then I came up with the idea of breaking up the face by using the nose as an avulsed eyeball. By painting in a shadow under the muscle attachments of the dangling eyeball, I think I made it look like it literally popped out of its socket.
DV: The Prospector is a very fun looking design. I hear you designed it for a special event?
Brian: There’s a great group of pin traders in central New Jersey called the Central Jersey Disney Pin Traders or CJDPT for short.
They have monthly evening or afternoon meets, but twice a year they have weekend long events that attract over 150 pin traders from as far as Canada and the west coast! In recent years, Vinylmation trading has become popular at their events, and I have made some very nice vinyl trades with the group’s members. More importantly, I’ve made some great, lasting friendships there too. Last summer, the CJDPT decided to have a trading event in Anaheim during the D23 convention. The event was called Westward Ho! Traditionally, they will raffle off prizes at their events, and I’ve donated customs to use for the raffle. For Westward Ho! I wanted to create something fun in the spirit of the event. I came up with the idea of an
old prospector who travelled west and found pins while prospecting for gold. I painted a grizzled Vinylmation prospector with a gold tooth and a worn hat holding a sifting pan. In the custom made pan, I made a faux gold CJDPT pin from dental acrylic. The pin even had a miniature Mickey rubber back sculpted on it!
Using a model kit and some spare wood shapes, I made a covered wagon with a hidden Mickey logo on the back, and I placed the prospector and the wagon on a custom base made from wood flocked with stone and sand. I also placed a worn wooden plaque on the base with the name of the piece, “There’s Gold in Them There Hills!” In true Disney fashion, I think the set told a complete story.
DV: The details are great… including the hidden Mickey and pin.
Brian: Thank you! And again, thank you for your interest and generous spotlight of my work!
Destination Vinylmation: TRON seems to be a fun choice for custom artists, and you have a few in your portfolio. Your TRON Donald and Pooh are wonderful. What was the inspiration for these?
Brian Shapiro: I created those two figures before TRON: Legacy came out. I’ve been a huge TRON
fan since I saw the original as a teenager in 1982. Like Beauty and the Beast, other
artists had already done customs that we’re based on characters from the original film
and from the soon to be released sequel. That’s when I decided to do mash ups with
Disney characters, since I loved the action figure mash ups of the Disney and Star Wars
characters (I can’t wait to get my hands on the Disney Character Star Wars vinyls, quite
possibly my favorite set ever). I selected Donald Duck for TRON since his name
worked perfectly as TRONald, and I selected Pooh since his name worked perfectly for
Winnie the CLU. I thought it would be funny to adapt their GRID outfits to the
characters’ traditional outfits, so TRONald has a bow-tie and Winnie the CLU just has a
belly shirt!
I also gave each character a back story. TRONald’s is as follows:
“Once there were three young ducks who wanted their uncle to buy them the latest
video game console with motion sensing technology. Since he was a thrifty duck, the
uncle tried to build them his own game console instead. To his surprise, not only did his
homemade creation scan his movements, it scanned him right into the digital world
where he became TRONald! While his three nephews were disappointed not to get the
console they wanted, they sure had fun putting TRONald through all kinds of video
game trials on the Game Grid!”
Winnie the CLU’s is as follows:
“One day, a silly ol’ bear tried to digitize a pot of hunny so he could replicate an infinite
supply without having to worry about getting stuck in trees or stung by bees.
Unfortunately, the honey spilled from the pot, causing the computer to go haywire and
digitize the bear. Now, trapped in the Hundred Acre Grid, Winnie the CLU is desperate
to escape back to his home!”
When I get the time, I want to create JessiQuorra Rabbit…
Destination Vinylmation: You also have another TRON figure. When creating these, is there any rhyme or reason to the lines, or are they just a random aesthetic design choice?
Brian: The other TRON figure I painted was inspired by the classic look of the original movie. I
love the scene when TRON, Flynn, and RAM escape the Game Grid on their light
cycles while being chased by Recognizers. I wanted to capture that on a vinyl, and I
thought the feet on the Vinylmation canvas look like two light cycles side by side. I
made one blue and one yellow. I then painted a classic Recognizer on the torso, and
covered the dark areas of it with a hand painted gloss finish to offset it from the rest of
the black areas on the figure. To keep the rest of the Vinylmation interesting, I used the
ears, head, and back for the angular light trails that the classic cycles created.
Destination Vinylmation: Today we will talk about a couple movie themed customs of yours. We will start with Thark from John Carter. Although a flop in the theaters, this figure came out spot on. You must be proud of all the detail in this one?
Brian Shapiro: Out of all my customs, this is my favorite. As you can see from my portfolio of work, I rarely ever create nine-inch figures. Besides the Thark and the Partners set, I’ve only done one other nine-inch design. I eschew the platform because I prefer to work in miniature. However, when I saw production stills and previews of John Carter before it came out, I was struck by the appearance of the Tharks, and I knew the only way to do them justice was to use the larger blank canvas. It allowed me to convey the height of the creature and gave me room to paint an extra set of arms. The Vinylmation took a long time to paint, consuming many little pots of Games Workshop paint and brushes, and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish it until a week or so after the movie’s release. Unlike the Tharks in the books, the ones in the movie had expressive eyes, and I think I captured them just right. I also had a little fun in that I painted the two extra hands to only have four fingers each to match the ones on the canvas’ arms. I replaced the design typically seen on the creature’s breastplate with a hidden Mickey, and I painted a Martian landscape on the ears. Finally, I couldn’t resist making my first large accessory, the spear, from a wood dowel, some ribbon, and a custom painted spearhead crafted from dental acrylic. I was proud to see it featured on Tomopop’s site, and when I posted a picture of it on Facebook, I was honored to see Thomas Scott both commend it and recommend that I post it on a John Carter fan site!
DV: Are you a fan of the books, movie, both?
Brian: As much as I loved TRON: Legacy last year, I have to admit John Carter is a much better film. It is such a shame it didn’t get the recognition it deserved. I had not heard of the character until I saw the first previews last year. In anticipation of the movie I read the first book, and I’m partway through the second. It’s impressive to think they were written one hundred years ago, and it’s amazing how many modern franchises from Superman to Star Wars to Avatar are derivative from them. The movie did great justice to the material. It had great acting, brilliant special effects, and some clever humor. Hopefully people will pay more attention to it when it’s released on DVD on June 5. There’s no doubt it will be a cult classic like TRON, and hopefully we won’t have to wait thirty years for a sequel!
DV: You also created a Rocketeer. On this custom, you decided to not fill the entire Mickey head with the Rocketeer’s head. I can see this one being tricky, because the side view will have split heads. I ran into this issue myself with a custom. How often do you have to alter a design that works on paper, but not once you paint it on the mold?
Brian: My Rocketeer custom was one of my first, and it was back in the days when I thought using accessories was cheating. I felt the entire concept had to be conveyed only through painting in the details. At the time, the only way I could imagine doing the fin on the helmet was to paint the helmet on the lower portion of the canvas’ head to allow room to paint the fin on the forehead. It also meant painting the non-helmet portions of the head to look like the sky. Today I would craft a fin out of acrylic. I knew when I painted the Rocketeer the design would look strange as viewed from the side, but I felt I had no choice.
We recently put out a call for custom artist designs on the new Vinylmation 95 mold and have received a great response! Keep those customs coming. Today, we feature an artist familiar to DV, Brian Shapiro.
Destination Vinylmation: What inspired you to choose Maleficent as the subject of your first Vinylmation 95 custom?
Brian Shapiro: Maleficent is my hands down favorite Disney Villain. Whether she’s in Sleeping Beauty, Fantasmic, or even Kingdom Keepers, she never disappoints! Also, I think she has the most striking features in both her humanoid and dragon forms!
DV: You managed to place all of Maleficent’s iconic features onto the canvas to make it instantly recognizable. Did this take much planning on paper, or were you able to instantly picture it on the mold?
Brian: When I saw the Vinylmation 95 canvas for the first time, I immediately noticed the horn shaped side windows and instantly thought of the Maleficent dragon. From that starting point, it was easy to imagine her features on the new mold. The hood of the car worked perfectly for the snout, and the spoiler was a perfect place for wings. I did sketch out the design, though, before painting it. I downloaded an image of the canvas from disneystore.com and inverted the colors on my iPad to make it black. Then I used a paint program to layout the basic design features. In the end, she came out looking exactly as I imagined her!
DV: What was the most challenging part of the this design?
Brian: The most challenging part was the placement of the wings. While the spoiler on the back of the car was an ideal location, it wasn’t split down the midline to provide two separate wings. As a result, I had to take some artistic license and make the wings appear pressed together in the midline. I’m really happy with how they came out.
DV: You pulled off exactly what I hoped an artist would do. You ignored the features of the car itself (tires, windshield, etc.) and just painted a design onto the canvas… sort of like an artist ignoring the placement of eyes, feet or arms on a Mickey shape. Was this difficult to do?
Brian: Not with this particular design, which was pretty obvious to me once I saw the canvas. As you have previously spotlighted, I created a version of the Maleficent dragon on the 3″ Mickey shaped mold, and Disney recently released a version on the 9″ Mickey shaped mold, but a lot of compromises had to be made in both of those instances. I think the Vinylmation 95 canvas is ideal for characters with snouts and bills like Figment, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto.
DV: As an artist, what is the major difference between working on a Lightning McQueen shaped mold as opposed to Mickey?
Brian: Other than the shape, I think the biggest difference is that you can’t disassemble the figure into separate pieces like you can with the Mickey shaped mold. As a result, you are forced to handle the figure in areas that have already been painted. Because the Maleficent dragon is mostly black in color, it was hard for me to keep the black paint clean. Every little piece of dust would show, and if I had the slightest trace of yellow or purple on my fingers, it would appear where it wasn’t supposed to. In this case, once I finished painting in all the features, I placed her on top of a jar of peanut butter and painted back in all the black areas!
DV: Did you enjoy working on the Vinylmation 95 mold enough to do more?
Brian: I really enjoyed working with the canvas a lot! Ironically, I’m not a huge fan of the Cars movies or even cars in general, but I think the Vinylmation 95 canvas has a lot of potential. I have another blank that I would like to paint.
DV: Can you give us any hints to what we might see next?
Brian: I have a few ideas, but I’m undecided on which one I will pursue. I will definitely keep you posted, and I appreciate your generous support of my art!
P.S. – Brian sent us a little tease of his next project just before this article went live:
Destination Vinylmation: As an artist, what drew you to the medium of Vinylmation?
Brian Shapiro: I’ve been doing film making as a hobby since I was 10 years old. I especially love animation, and I began creating clay animated films on super 8mm film when I was in elementary school. Years later, after I got my first PC computer, I started creating animated films using Flash. I even used Flash to produce an illustrated children’s picture book called Plaquetooth (www.plaquetooth.com) in 2008.
It was during a trip to Walt Disney World in May of 2009 that I was introduced to Vinylmation. In planning my trip online, I had stumbled upon an image of the Park Series #1 Kermit, and I was so intrigued at how a figure shaped like Mickey Mouse had been painted to look like Kermit the Frog! When I arrived at the parks, Park Series #2 had just been released, and I purchased my first figures. I was immediately hooked as a collector. The idea of creating a custom immediately interested me, because it appealed to both my love of creating clay sculptures and illustrating. My first custom was of a soccer player that I used as a cake topper for my daughter’s birthday cake. It was a lot of fun to create, and when I posted images of it online, I received a lot of great feedback. It wasn’t long after that I started making more and more customs. Creating customs is a fun challenge because it’s a combination of art and puzzle solving. The trick is coming up with a concept and then adapting it to a three dimensional canvas that often has inconvenient contours!
DV: I hear a lot of collectors looking for a Partners Statue Vinylmation set. You have designed a great looking custom 9″/3″ version. What was the biggest challenge in creating this set?
Brian: When I create a custom, I do a lot of planning by sketching the design on the blank Vinylmation template provided on the official site. I then sketch my finished design on a blank create-your-own figure and paint in the details with various solid colors. If I make a mistake, I can always correct it by painting over it with the intended solid color. With the Partners set, I first had to give the figures a faux bronze finish by dry brushing them with many layers of metallic paints. This prevented me from being able to sketch the design for the rest of the details on the figures. I had to paint all the facial and outfit details by freehand with just my template sketches as a reference. There was little room for error, because if I made a mistake, I would have had to go back and dry brush back in the bronze texture and start all over. Also, painting cartoon characters is not too hard because there are a lot of references out there to draw from, but creating a caricature of Walt as he appears in the actual statue took a lot of practice on paper. To complicate things, the nine-inch Vinylmation figure has a very small lower face. The distance between the nose and chin is relatively smaller than it is on the three-inch figure, and Walt had a lot of distinctive features like his mustache and smile that had to be squeezed into that space.
DV: You created a Judge Doom with a ton of special details. Tell us about his different features and was the idea always to give him the extras, or did that develop while you were making him?
Brian: I’m a huge Who Framed Roger Rabbit? fan, and I think Judge Doom is one of the best and one of the most frightening Disney Villains. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to find any good Judge Doom merchandise, so I decided to create a custom inspired by him. By the time I decided to create him, I had a lot of experience making accessories for my figures using dental acrylic. Dental acrylic is great because it is lightweight and strong, and it can be fashioned into any shape. Until Judge Doom, I had used the acrylic to make hats, but fans of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? know that Judge Doom had more than just a hat. In the movie he had sunglasses to mask his sinister red eyes, and because he was actually a toon (spoiler alert! lol), his hand transformed into an anvil and a rotating saw at the end of the film.
From the start I thought it would be cool to create the figure to resemble the character in the early part of the film, and then with the removal of the hat and glasses, it would look as he did at the end. I also wanted the figure to be able to switch between the anvil and the saw without having to pull its entire arm off to make the change. When you create a crown for a tooth, you shave the tooth into a peg-like shape with minimally tapered walls to allow the crown to fit over the tooth. I used the same principle to shave the right hand of the blank Vinylmation figure into the identical shape I would give a tooth for a crown. I then created the anvil and a spinning saw to fit over the peg-shaped hand. Using an impression of the original hand, I created an acrylic copy of it to fit over the peg shape so it would look like an unaltered figure when I wanted it to. When the figure was complete, I thought it would be amusing to create a stop motion animation of him using the interchangeable parts and the soundtrack from the film. I’m really happy about how he came out, and he looks great on display with my custom Jessica Rabbit.
DV: Do you do commissioned pieces?
Brian: I am open to doing commissioned pieces when time allows. Most have been original designs like custom tombstones with humorous epitaphs similar to the ones around the Haunted Mansion. I’ve also done some work for the Central Jersey Disney Pin Traders, and I recently did a set of wedding cake toppers.
DV: Do you have a website where people can view your work?
Brian: I am working on putting something together, and I will let you know when it is ready! In the meantime, if anyone has any questions or requests, they can contact me at customsbybrian@yahoo.com
DV: I have been following your work for a long time now. I am so glad we finally connected and were able to showcase your talents.
Brian: I really appreciate your interest in showcasing my work!!
