We have featured John Ward before, and he just sent us some pictures of his latest work. Seeing that we have had so many stories on the Haunted Mansion turning 40 lately, we thought it perfect to share these with you now. We think the pictures tell the whole story…. or is your computer screen actually stretching?
Recently we received some cool looking art from a custom artist named Aaralyn. We tracked her down and asked her a few questions about her vinylmation artwork.
DV: Fantasia has so much material to draw from, yet we have seen very little in the way of Disney Vinylmation. What drew you to the Spring Sprite from Fantasia 2000?
Aaralyn: In addition to my love of Disney, ever since middle school I also enjoyed the art of anime. The Spring Sprite’s artwork is a great blend of the art of Disney and the art of anime. I was most drawn to her beautiful eyes and very detailed hair. As far as art goes, it was love at first sight.
DV: The detail is amazing and it looks so true to the film. What was the hardest part of the figure to get just right?
A: Thank you! The lines were definitely the hardest part of the Spring Sprite figure. I spent hours trying to get the lines as straight as possible. It took over 30 hours of drawing and painting time to complete her.
DV: Was the plan always to put her on a 9″?
A: Yes, I love the 9” form because I have the space to add intricate details. I loved the details in her artwork and wanted to be able to capture all those details on my custom.
DV: What other characters might we see in your “cutie-pie” series down the road?
A: I have a huge list of cutie-pie custom candidates. I don’t want to give away too much, but some of them are main characters, while others, like the Spring Sprite, are supporting characters that I love.
DV: Is your work for sale?
A: Yes, I have a store on my website where anyone can view the customs I currently have available. I also take commission work as well.
DV: I see you also accept trades for Disney figures you want as well?
A: Yes, my vinylmation want list can be found under my about page on my website. Since I just started collecting and customizing vinylmations recently in December of 2011, my collection is quite small and I would love to add some of my favorite pieces to it.
DV: Where can people go to view your work and contact you?
A: My work can be viewed on my Facebook Fanpage as well as my website:
www.facebook.com/customsbyaaralyn
www.customsbyaaralyn.com
I can also be contacted by email at: customsbyaaralyn@aol.com
DV: Thank you. Your work is amazing and we look forward to seeing your next round of customs.
A: Thanks so much for featuring my customs!
John wrote this message he wanted to share with our readers:
The piece is called, “26.2 with Donna.” That is a runners weekend that has been held here in Jacksonville for the past 4 years. There is a marathon, half marathon, 5K and a marathon relay. All in an effort to put a stop to breast cancer.
Each year they have a silent auction called, 26.2 with Donna PINK ROOM Silent Auction. that feature lots of different items, from artwork and gift cards to autographs Jacksonville Jaguars items and hotel weekends. It’s held two days before the race and all the proceeds go towards breast cancer research. It’s held that the Prime Osborne Convention Center in downtown Jacksonville on the 10th & 11th of Feb.
This year I decided that I would like to donate a vinylmation into the auction. The logo they have was well suited for a vinylmation and the bright pink and black worked well with the white vinylmation. I also donated a couple other pieces of my artwork, a couple paintings.
You can find more of John Ward’s work here.
Cesar is becoming a staple of our Spotlight On segment. This prolific custom artist has put out another great piece… Syndrome, the villain from Pixar’s The Incredibles.
Syndrome was a request from a buddy of mine. I had a load of fun making him. I specially like working with his hair.
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My original plan was to paint his cape. But I thought it would look so much better if it was fabric.
I am now thinking of characters that have hair because I want to start making more 9″ vinyls with hair.
It’s been a while since we last checked in with artist Rust this World. He has some great stuff for us this week that focus on Kingdom Hearts. And if your not careful, inspiring custom artists out there just might learn something as well.
Destination Vinylmation: Last time we spotlighted your work, we took a look at your Kingdom Hearts collection of figures. Well that collection has grown. In fact you sent Destination Vinylmation a 3″ KH custom as a gift. We appreciate the gift which is part of a set of 5 Heartless symbol Vinylmation. They are a nice simple tribute to a great game. Were there any challenges in getting the look you wanted out of these?
Rust This World: So many people were asking me about my Kingdom Hearts stuff that I decided to make a limited edition series of 5. I’ve never done multiples of the same design before and it’s definitely hard trying to get each one to match the others. I sat there for hours, tweaking each one in tiny increments until I was satisfied. A little more red here, a little more black there. These were also the first 3″ figures that I used my airbrush prominently on, making the pink/purple background gradient. I usually reserve that for 9″ figures. I still have a couple for sale if anyone is interested.
DV: You also have shared with us pictures of a 9″ Hollow Bastian custom. This also references an important part of the KH games. What is it about Hollow Bastian that made you create this custom?
Rust: It’s not only my favorite level, but it’s also a totally unique world to the games. I love the aesthetic of the twisted castle and the frozen lake around it and thought it would look great on a 9″ Vinylmation. Not many people do landscapes on the vinyls, and it was definitely my first. I wanted a background of sorts to put my other Kingdom Hearts vinyls in front of. Every single time I create a new custom, I try to make the design completely different than anything else I’ve seen.
DV: You did a great job of fitting it proportionally onto the vinyl canvas. I have recently begun the early stages of a custom vinyl, and that is one of the hardest parts for me. Any tips on laying out your design before you actually attack the canvas with paint?
Rust: Attack is a great word. Show that canvas who’s boss. Before I ever paint, I always do a sketch on the vinyl itself with pencil as a guideline of where to paint. Of course before I do that, I print out a blank vinylmation template and sketch it out on paper first.
If you’re having trouble even coming up with a design, think of your favorite vinyl. Why is it your favorite? Take the list of reasons and apply them to your own design. If you’re doing a character, think about the character’s proportions and how they would best fit on Mickey’s body without becoming unrecognizable and distorted. Sometimes, with weirder characters, it involves really being creative. The Jafar chaser from Villains 1 is a great example of a creative character design. The artist thought that a skinny character like Jafar would look awful if stretched over Mickey’s pudgy body, but saw that Jafar’s turban is one giant sphere anyway and was able to relate that to Mickey’s head. Don’t be afraid of the negative space around the character, characters don’t have to stretch to fill Mickey’s body. Villains 1 Kaa and Villains 2 Yzma are other great examples. The ears of Mickey are great ways to also be creative and add a little something to the design, whether they’re an integral part of what the vinyl is representing like the Park 7 Star Jets, or a fun reference to the character like Muppets 2 Lew Zealand. Anything is better than just plain white or black. Having a creative design will make your vinyl stand out.
One awesome website I want to share is if you’re having trouble coming up with a color scheme, go here http://colorschemedesigner.com, it’s like a color theory class in 5 minutes.
DV: Find out more about artist Rust this World at http://www.rustthisworld.com or you can email him at evolvedbutter@aol.com
Rust This World dropped some Disney villains on us for this spotlight. A 9″ Chernabog and a 3″ Headless Horseman were the subjects of his latest customs. Let’s take a look.
Destination Vinylmation: What inspired each piece?
Rust This World: I decided to make the light up Chernabog because a lot of people on custom Vinylmation message boards were asking how to make a 9″ figure light up. I have some background in small electronics, so I figured I could make it work and show people how to do it. Most of my collection is villains-related, so of course I had to paint the figure to make it villain-related. I had a great design for Chernabog that I had laying around, so I figured why not make it light up as well? Now I have the coolest night light in the world.
The Headless Horseman came about when I saw how lame the official Animation 2 figure of it was. As soon as it was revealed, I immediately started working on my own. I kept the same basic concept of the official figure, but added more paint details, a fully sculpted cape, a sword, and made the head into the pumpkin, so that it still maintained the Mickey-ness.
DV: Talk about some of the details of each figure.
Rust: The Headless Horseman’s head is painted on a clear yellow figure so that it lights up when lit from behind. I sculpted the cape entirely from scratch too, which was not easy.
Chernabog is special because he’s literally a light up demon. It’s the first time I’ve ever included any electronic elements into a figure, but I think it turned out well enough.
DV: Can you take us into the process of making the figure light up?
Rust: The Chernabog figure was definitely something new for me. I know Evilos has put lights in figures before, but this was my first try. I used to do robotics, so at least knowing exactly how everything needed to be wired and set up was easy, but it’s still kind of awkward stuffing all the wires and lights and batteries inside of a Mickey figure. The lights themselves are LED Arrays taken from a flashlight, the switch is for an rc car, and the batteries are just three AAAs. Not including the base figure, there’s probably under $20 in parts to make it light up, so it’s not all that expensive to do something cool like that.
DV: If people would also like one of these really cool night lights… how can they find you?
Rust: My website is http://www.rustthisworld.com and my facebook is http://www.facebook.com/rustthisworld . I’ll probably be doing some sort of figure raffle to my facebook friends in the next few weeks so make sure you like the page.
Last time we talked with Crazy4Vinyls, he was giving us minions and a grouch. This time around he tried his hand at recreating some Disney’s most popular works.
Destination Vinylmation: What drew you to the designs you have chosen?
Crazy4Vinyls: Well I asked a few folks on facebook what they would like to see recreated and I was drawn to Pirate Mickey first. So I tried my hand at that and I received such an overwhelming positive response from many collectors that I thought I would try another one. So I decided to try Oopsy because I thought it would look awesome as a 9″. It is probably one of the most recognizable vinyls out there, so I thought it would be fun to try and create it in a larger form. Then came Super Raton just because the design was so complicated I thought I would give it a try. Then the last one I did was Stitch just because well, it’s STITCH!
DV: When creating these, did you take your own spin by trying to add details you wanted to see on the original? Or did you test your skills by trying to recreate them exactly?
C4V: No I didn’t add anything to it, I wanted to see how close I could get the design and see if I could get the proportions just right.
DV: You mentioned these are your first 9″ customs. What is the major difference for an artist taking on the larger canvas as opposed to the 3″ version?
C4V: The 9″ canvas is much easier to work on. I was a little intimidated at first because it was such a large workspace but not having such small tight spaces was a big plus when working with it.
DV: I’m sure you have something on the drawing board right now?
C4V: I am currently working on my first 9″/3″/3″ combo right now. All I can say is that it is based on characters from A Bug’s Life. I would also like to thank EVERYONE who has been so supportive of my hobby has a custom artist. I am really lucky to have met some people that really appreciate what I am able to accomplish and are happy for my success!
You can find Josh Edwards, a.k.a. Crazy4Vinyls, via Facebook: Crazy4Vinyls Custom Vinylmations. He can also be reached by email: edwardsjmn123@comcast.net.
Cesar Diaz, one of our frequent spotlighted artists, is holding a contest. Visit his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/mycustomations and LIKE it. Once he reaches 50 LIKES, he will give away this Vinylmation:
it’s Marvin from the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. Cesar also gave us a look at his latest creations.
He has produced five bounty hunters from Empire Strikes Back.
He also has designed a Star Wars iPhone case.
Good work as always Cesar! Please support him by visiting his Facebook page where you can view his other customs and contact him about purchases.
Rust this World has brought us many custom designs, but this time, it is not about Vinylmation. A few months back, we told you about a new line of vinyl Mickey’s by Play Imaginative. To promote this new product, they had artists create customs using the blank figure. Rust this World was one of over 50 artists that contributed a custom. The figures then went on tour. The photos we are posting here are from a show at the Suntec City Mall in Singapore. None of the figures are for sale, but the designs are incredible to look at. All photos are the property of Play Imaginative.
Crazy4Vinyls has sent us over pictures of his latest creations… let’s take a look.
You can find Crazy4Vinyls, via Facebook: Crazy4Vinyls Custom Vinylmations. He can also be reached by email: edwardsjmn123@comcast.net.
