Have you seen Wreck it Ralph yet? I can’t wait to get there this weekend. I also can not wait to see the short that plays before the feature. It is titled “Paperman” and I heard it is spectacular.
And so is this custom by artist Mike Vetrone…
Find out more about Mike:
Mike Vetrone
Crawl Apparel
www.crawlapparel.com
Check out Mike’s other spotlighted work here.
Destination Vinylmation: Great job Mike! Why did you choose Wishes for the subject of your latest custom?
Mike Vetrone: I have done a couple other “night time spectacular” customs in the past (World of Color and Illuminations). A customer approached me and asked me to do one for wishes. I loved this fireworks show when I went to see it too.
DV: Tink looks great! Do you enjoy paining characters or scenery more and why?
MV: Thank you! That’s a tough question. Characters are a ton of fun to paint, but my favorite thing to do is painting them into a scene.
DV: Any characters you enjoy paining more than others?
MV: Tink was a challenge for me. I don’t really know why. I would have to say villains are my favorite to paint.
DV: Was there any challenge in finding the perfect way to paint the fireworks?
MV: The fireworks were a ton of fun to paint. I have tried several ways now to paint fireworks and I feel this has been the most effective way.
Mike Vetrone
Crawl Apparel
www.crawlapparel.com
Check out Mike’s other spotlighted work here.
I’m fascinated with trying to create my first custom Vinylmation, and being impressed with Rust this World’s tips last week, we invited him back to talk about a few more of his customs and how they came to be.
Destination Vinylmation: Looks like you solved the problem some designers have with drawing a duck beak on the Mickey canvas. Can you give artists out there some tips on molding parts onto a custom vinylmation like you did with this beak?
Rust This World: The duck beaks never quite worked on the Mickey face in my opinion. I usually object to obscuring the “Mickey-ness” by adding too much, and this started as just a weird little experiment I did. It turned out way better than I thought it would, honestly.
The great thing about sculpting onto Vinylmation is that if you want to stick with the soft style of Vinylmation accessories like the hats, you don’t need to be great at sculpting because what you’re making doesn’t need a ton of detail. There are several different sculpting compounds to use. Another option is Super Sculpey. Regular Sculpey is too brittle to use, and chips easily, but the Super variety is stronger. I don’t like Sculpey personally because you have to either bake it or bowl it for it to harden, and I hate risking the vinyl by putting it in an oven (not to mention that vinyl gives off toxic gases if heated high enough.) Another option is epoxy putty, but you have to get the right stuff. Don’t use the stuff at home depot that fixes leaky pipes, get something like Games Workshop’s “Green Stuff”. It’s a two part compound that air dries and holds detail very well. What I used on Donald’s beak, and is one of my personal favorites, and kind of a secret, is a kind of clay called Makins Clay. It’s a strong, yet pliable air dry clay that is water based. It’s easy to sculpt into a smooth shape, dries rock hard, and is tolerant of a wide range or temperatures. The only downside is that it doesn’t hold tiny detail well, so if you’re sculpting really intricate stuff, a good epoxy is a better bet. And do not use Crayola air dry clay, it is absolutely terrible.
In terms of sculpting tips, clay is clay. Work it around in your hands to get the basic shape, apply it to the figure, use water to smooth it, etc. You can always use sculpting tools to add texture or detail, but I sculpted Donald’s beak entirely by hand, so it’s possible to do something like that without a bunch of tools.
DV: Maleficent is so vibrant and detailed. As an artist working on such a small canvas, how do you get such smooth color and detail onto a face like that?
Rust: There are 3 things that help me with smooth, clean paint applications.
1. Get a good quality paint. I would swear my life on Citadel Paints as I have yet to find any model acrylics that even come close quality wise. They’re slightly expensive ($3.75 a bottle), but apply smoothly, have a long shelf life, aren’t too thick or too runny, and have very vibrant colors. Cheaper paints may save you a buck, but are much harder to paint with.
2. Apply the paint in small, light strokes. Maleficent’s face, because it’s a light color that was applied over a black base coat, took about 5 coats. I would paint a light coat and let it dry before applying another. I know the tendency is glop the paint on until you can’t see the color underneath, but if you take you time, it will look smoother.
3. Get a tiny brush. I use a 4/0 size brush, which is tiny, for 80% of what I paint. The key to getting tiny sharp lines is to have a tiny brush, there’s no real way around it. On 3″ figures especially, it’s almost all I use unless I need to fill in a huge area with color.
DV: We know all your customs are created for your personal collection, but you do accept commissions to recreate your work. Where can people go to see your portfolio and contact you?
Rust: Of course, I’ve done commission work before and would definitely be willing to recreate any designs, or even do something new, if someone was interested. My website is http://www.rustthisworld.com or you can email me at evolvedbutter@aol.com
Rust this World delivers us some more classic Disney in custom form.
Destination Vinylmation: First of all, Splash is my favorite ride at Walt Disney World and your depictions of Brier Bear, Brier Fox and Vulture are fantastic. Why did you decide on these three Villains?
Rust This World: I think the characters from Song of the South and Splash Mountain are under utilized. I know Disney likes to pretend that the film doesn’t exist, but I’m pretty shocked that we haven’t gotten a single park figure based on Splash Mountain yet. I love the character designs, and of course they add to my huge villain collection. I got to try some new stuff on them too like sculpting hats and painting parts of their bodies so that they didn’t match up with the same part on Mickey’s body.
DV: What are some of your favorite features about the Queen, Hook and Tremaine?
Rust: The others I did because I wasn’t satisfied with the official designs. Though instead of just stretching them out, I framed their bodies with a background or other features, so they keep their look without becoming fat, but aren’t split in half on the bridge of the nose. I really liked putting Lucifer on the feet of Tremaine.
DV: And where can people reach you?
Rust: My webpage is www.rustthisworld.com and my facebook is www.facebook.com/rustthisworld
Today we would like to share the work of Karen Turner. Karen lives in Valrico, FL where she creates custom jewelry and Vinylmation. We recently talked with her about her passion for Disney and creating these works of art.
Destination Vinylmation: Were you into creating artwork before custom Vinylmation?
Karen: Definitely!! I have painted ceramics for years and years and have always been working on some sort of project or another, even as a kid. I majored in art in college for awhile, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with an art degree. I then changed my major to History (I was going to be a teacher). After college I managed my Brother’s insurance office for several years (thereby proving that what your college major is often has nothing to do with what career you will have after college!!) while toying with the idea of selling my work online. Finally, a couple of years ago, I worked up enough nerve to open a shop online and create full time. In my shop I have jewelry, hand crafted boxes, hand painted ceramics, ornaments, and my latest edition to my shop is of course, custom Vinylmation.
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| Karen’s “All the Colors of the Ocean” necklace |
DV: How many customs have you done?
Karen: About a dozen or so. Right now I have five in my shop, but I first started with making customs for my Niece. She and I both love Vinylmations, so I painted one for her based on drawings she would make for me when she was younger of a winged heart with a halo (Angel Hearts she called them). I also painted a tonal gold and silver one and a pink polka dotted one for her. Those got me hooked on painting custom Vinylmations. When the Jr Raindrops came out, I thought a rainbow would be neat to go with it and a sunshine as well. So I painted a 3″ rainbow and a Jr sunshine. When my Dad saw the rainbow one, he said you should sell that and you could name him Roy G Biv for the colors of the rainbow. So, now I have a line of different Roys – traditional, pastel, and bright.
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| Roy G Biv 3″ |
DV: Do you collect Disney’s Vinylmation?
Karen: Oh definitely!! And I must say, when I discovered your website my Vinylmation addiction grew!! I love all the updates and in depth analysis you do on the different vinyls. I have a feeling from the pictures of Vinylmations I have seen from the D23 Expo, my wallet is going to be hurting in the coming months!!
DV: What is your favorite figure?
Karen: Just one? That’s impossible!! My favorites that I actually own are: It’s a Small World 3″ from Park 3, Squares from Urban 4, Mardi Gras, and Love 9″ from Urban 6. My favorites from the ones I don’t own (yet) are Magical Stars from Park 1, It’s a Small World 9″ from Park 1, Teacups from Park 1, Birds on a Wire, Red Scream, Railroad from Park 9, Skyway from Park 9, Living with the Land from (a future Park series), and the Gumball Ear hat set.
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| Urban 4 Squares |
DV: What is your personal favorite custom that you have done? Tell us about it, the design and inspiration.
Karen: Well, I love my Roy G Bivs, but I think my absolute favorite customs I have done are Cumulus Mouse and my Autograph Mouse.
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| Cumulus Mouse 3″ |
I got the idea for Cumulus Mouse while watching Up – a super favorite movie of mine. The scene where Carl and Ellie are cloud watching and finding shapes in the clouds gave me the idea for it. I used a textured paint to build up the clouds and kind of let the clouds take their own shape, except I did put a few hidden Mickey shapes in the clouds (I love hidden Mickeys at the Parks) just for fun.
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| Autograph Mouse 9″ |
Autograph Mouse is a 9″ I did for my own collection using the 9″ Glow in the Dark. I had read about the problems people when having with their vinyls that had been signed by characters smearing. So I made up a list of all the characters I would want to have an autograph of and Googled them and found images of their autographs. For the characters that don’t give autographs (Nemo, Dory…) or don’t really make appearances in the park (Jessica Rabbit, Bolt..) I creates a signature that made me think of that character.
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| Autograph Mouse 9″ |
I also Googled Walt Disney’s and Roy Disney’s signature and put them on the vinyl – I figured without them there wouldn’t be any of this, so they definitely had to be on it. I really like how it turned out. It would have been great to have had the characters sign it, but this way I had no smears, and signatures I couldn’t have gotten any other way.
DV: What have you learned from creating your customs that you can pass onto other custom artists?
Karen: The first few are hard – more like learning experiences. But once you get a feel for the material it’s gets easier to translate your idea to the figure. Really, you have to be flexible with vinyls – sometimes their shape works great with a design, sometimes it makes the design really difficult and you may have to tweak your idea some. So just be open to a little change and have fun!!
DV: What’s next?
Karen: Lots!! I am working on a Night sky vinyl now that is looking really good. I’ve got a hidden Mickey in the stars, which I love!! I am also working on some Christmas themed vinyls – holiday lights, one that looks like an ornament that are turning out really well. I have some other ideas brewing that I need to take time to get down on paper to see if they will translate to the vinyl well. And I should get some inspiration soon because I have several trips to WDW planned for the next few months and I always get great ideas there!!
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| Topiary Mickey 3″ |
DV: Where can people go to see more of your work, see what you have for sale and contact you?
Karen: You can see all of my work at my shop www.flightsoffancydesign.etsy.com and even more photos on my Facebook Fan Page Flights of Fancy Design. I am delighted to take custom orders as well. My email is flightsoffancydesigns@gmail.com.
DV: Thanks for showing us your work Karen.
Karen: Thanks so much for featuring me in your Spotlight On series – I am so delighted by this!! I am glad you had such a great time at Disneyland – I have been trying to get everyone on board with making a trip out there in the next few years so both my nieces can see Disneyland. I included some other pictures of some of the Vinylmations discussed in the questions for you. Let me know if there is anything else you need. Thanks!!
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.
DV: Tell us about your new themed Custom Autographed Mice.
Karen: I came up with the idea when I was at WDW with my family over New Years. My youngest niece was (and still is) on a Princess kick. Anything Princess was for her. I figured that she was not the only one like that so I decided to come up with some themed Vinylmations to suit such tastes.
On the eve of Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando, we take a look at a great deal by a wonderful custom artist Cesar Diaz on his latest Star Wars creations.
Today, we feature the work of a newcomer to the custom artist scene, Zach from Radnor, PA.
Destination Vinylmation: How long have you been customizing Vinylmation?
Zach: I have been customizing for 2 months.
DV: How did you get into creating customs?
Z: There were some vinylmations that Disney hasn’t created yet, or characters I felt I could change and make better that I really wanted to see on the Vinylmation mold. So I decided to start painting them as customs myself.
DV: Do you work on any other types of canvases?
Z: I have painted on regular canvases, but Vinylmations were my first 3D mold.
DV: Why did you choose the Toy Story Alien as the subject of one of your pieces?
Z: I chose the Toy Story Alien because he is one of my favorite Disney characters of all time, and I felt Disney didn’t properly represent him in Park 2 with the lack of certain features, such as the antenna.
DV: What was the biggest obstacle in creating the Merida figure?
Z: The biggest obstacle in creating the Merida figure was trying to make her face look right without the hair, and trying to figure out how the hair should appear.
DV: What part are you most proud of?
Z: I am most proud of the Toy Story Alien because I feel he turned out true to e character, and had some of the features Disney didn’t.
DV: You seem to favor Pixar movies… what are your favorites?
Z: My favorite Pixar movies are Toy Story, Brave, and Finding Nemo.
DV: Do you have a site where people can view your work?
Z: I have a Facebook page called Customs By Zach where people are able to view all my customs.
