Catbus is a character in the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. And I think she nailed it…
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.
 Alright children, class is back in session after a long summer break. Today, we’ll be talking about sculpting. Sculpting is something that can really take your figure to the next level. More and more vinyls are coming with accessories these days; whether it’s a hat, a weapon, or even little stuff like the rim of Darth Vader’s helmet in Star Wars 2. Today I’m going to teach you how to do this yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or share ideas for future tutorials. Just leave a comment here or tweet me @rustthisworld. Also check out Lesson 1 – A Beginner’s Guide. Part 1: Common sculpting materials that custom artists have used. Sculpey  Sculpey is everyone’s favorite hobby clay. Regular Sculpey is brittle and flimsy when it hardens, so I wouldn’t recommend using it. However, Super Sculpey is a different story. Super Sculpey hardens much harder and stronger. Super Sculpey is great if you want to sculpt something really detailed because it holds detail very well when cooking. Sculpey has a huge downside, you have to heat it in some way for it to harden. This means either baking it or boiling it, both of which can cause serious harm to your vinyl. If you heat it, you probably don’t want to put your figure in the oven as it could melt and release toxic fumes. Heather of Customations fame apparently bakes her figures with the Sculpey attached to it, but just heats at a low temperature. The other way to get the Sculpey to harden is to hold the vinyl and clay with a pair of tongs in a pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes. Now I need to move on and stop talking about Sculpey because the word Sculpey now sounds completely weird in my head. Sculpey. |
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Crayola Air Dry Clay
Pros: It air dries! No heating required. |
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Epoxy Putty
Epoxy Putty is a two part compound that when mixed together hardens. There are many different kinds of Epoxy, most are for industrial use, like fixing pipes and filling holes. This kind of Epoxy holds no detail or shape as it’s meant to just expand and fill a space. Other kinds are meant specifically for hobby sculpting, like for models or miniatures. Another custom artist, Joe of War, uses Aves brand of Epoxy and gets good results. Games Workshop (who make my favorite Citadel Paint) have a kind of Epoxy called “Green Stuff” which holds amazing detail and dries rock hard, but it is expensive. |
| And finally, my secret weapon.
Makin’s Clay I love Makin’s Clay, and I use it for all of my custom projects that require sculpted modification. It air dries, so you don’t need to cook it. Not only that, but it air dries as hard as plastic. I’ve dropped some of my sculpted pieces from like 8 feet off of the ground and they didn’t break. It comes in all kinds of colors, including Glow In The Dark, though I mainly just use plain white. or “natural”. Since it’s water-based, it makes creating smooth even sculpted extremely easy. I get mine at Hobby Lobby, but it can also be found online. |
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| Part 2: Some other things you’ll want
Super Glue If I’m sculpting a shape onto the vinyl that I want to smoothly blend into the figure, I use super glue to stick the basic shape onto the figure. Even if you’re sculpting something like a hat that you want to stick to the figure, Super Glue is there for you. I personally use Gorilla brand Super Glue because it’s a thicker gel-like substance so it doesn’t run everywhere, and it doesn’t leave much white residue like some other Super Glues do. It also it’s super hard when it dries and is much more durable than lesser brands. |
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| Sculpting Tools
I’m not sculpting anatomically correct ecorche here, so I don’t need a million tools. I have 3 (each with two ends, so effectively 6) small plastic tools that I picked up for $3 at Hobby Lobby. They just help shape your sculpt; some ends cut, some ends round or smooth, and some add texture. |
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A Dremel
This is totally optional, but I love my dremel. I use it to sand down and smooth out my sculpts so that they’re cleaner and easier to paint, but I’ll go more into that later. |
| Part 3: The Sculpt
Today I’m going to make a heavily sculpted Kermit the Frog with a sculpted mouth, eyes, collar, and banjo. This will cover both the sculpting on and off of the figure. I’m going to start out by making his collar. First, I take a ball of the clay and flatten it onto the table.  I take my knife tool and cut out little sections so that it resembles the points of Kermit’s collar.  Then, I line it up with the head of the figure I’m using to make sure it’s a good size.  Next I take a couple drops of super glue to fix the collar onto the vinyl.  The clay I use usually takes about 24 hours to fully dry. Now I’m going to start working on the mouth. This will cover how to sculpt directly onto the figure. I use the knife tool again to cut out a couple sections that are generally shaped like the 2 halves of Kermit’s mouth. These will be my base.  I add a line of super glue on the back of each and attach them to the head. They don’t need to be fully dry to glue them down. Gorilla Glue hardens very fast, so I just hold the piece I’m gluing to the surface for about 30 seconds and that usually holds it.  It looks too much like a bird’s beak now, so take a couple small clumps to round out and widen the edges of the mouth   Now I begin to add more sculpting to blend the shape of the mouth into the head. I take a big clump of the clay and smooth it out. Makin’s Clay is water-based, so I just dip my fingers into water and then smooth the clay out and blend it into the figure with my fingers.  That’s the basics of how I sculpt onto a figure so that it is seamlessly integrated into the overall sculpt of the figure. Using these same methods, I’ll also add a couple of eyes and made a simple banjo for him to hold.  I also used my razor knife to cut his hands off and glue them back on so that they can accurately hold the banjo.  I then use the same ultra fine sandpaper that I used in my last tutorial and sand the figure down. This should smooth the sculpt out and eliminate any finger prints or uneven edges. Then I take my trusty dremel tool and attach a buffing wheel onto the end. This really smooths down the sculpt and makes it perfect for painting on top of.  Once everything is dry and prepped, I just paint it like a normal figure. And that is how I sculpt onto my figures.  Remember if you have any questions, ask them here in reply or find me on twitter (@rustthisworld) and ask on there. |
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Last week we showed you the LOST custom that artist Annemarie made for an online charity auction. Which is still on going by the way with a leading bid of $750! The auction ends on August 29. But today, Annemarie released this time lapsed video of the custom’s creation from start to finish. It is simply a fascinating look into the making of a wonderfully detailed Vinylmation. It was actually picked up by the official LOST Facebook page… and now by DV. Here you go:
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.
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!!
Destination Vinylmation: In this article, we will focus on some of your Disney character customs. The Evil Queen is amazing!!! The face is spot-on with the calm yet evil looking expression. But for me, the poison apple steaming in the cauldron is the best part. What do you like best about the front of this one?
Ryan Marella: I had to create some thing different from the ordinary vinyl that we usually see, so I began sketching out ideas and the Idea of having scenes from the movie on the front and back of a vinyl would look amazing. I watched the movie and Googled images of the Evil Queen and it turned out just the way I planned it. My favorite part about the front would have to be the face of the Evil Queen, getting that expression was a fun challenge.
DV: The back is like a whole new vinyl. It’s the Old Hag. You have a knack for painting faces, and this one seems difficult, but I also heard hands are difficult for artists to get just right. Which half of this vinyl was more difficult?
RM: The back was a little easier and I would have to say that hands are a little harder for me than faces.
DV: Lastly we come to Maleficent. You pack so much detail into your creations, how much pre-planning goes into your designs?
RM: Maleficent is one of my favorite pieces that I’ve worked on, I took my time on this one. Pre-planning for this one only took a couple of hours, but sketching on the vinyl took some time. I do a lot more sketching on the actual vinyl than on paper, it helps to see how it looks on the canvas your working on.
I’ve seen other Maleficent customs but I never see Diablo the raven incorporated into the vinyl. I wanted to create a Maleficent custom that would be unique and different from other artists.
DV: I have seen a ton of Maleficent dragons now, and I love the way you painted yours onto the mold like a scene instead of trying to fill the entire canvas with the dragon. Tell us about your favorite parts of this one.
RM: My favorite part of the Maleficent custom would have to be the Dragon on the back, I put so much time and detail, creating smoke on the background,smoke on the nose and fire in front of the dragon and just the over all look. This particular custom took me 2 days to finish. I was very pleased with what I made. With a little inspiration and some time anything is possible.
DV: To see more of Ryan’s work visit his website: www.ryactiv.sketchlab7.com
“I made this for the VMK custom swap. Its a 3” figure painted sky blue and with airbrushed clouds. The house and balloons is made from a block of wood painted to look like the house. (Next Limited versions LE10 will have a JR. in place of the painted wood block). The wood block example is just a one off for the swap.
All placed together in a glass dome with wooden base. This “look” will be a staple of mine over the next few years, glass domes. I have plans on doing 9″ custom dioramas in glass domes also.
I’ve made a Topiary version for Blind Bags Two LE10 and a One of a kind “Balloon Kid’ version for the epilepsy charity Art From the Heart held at the UCLA campus, that sold in a silent auction.
I found out about the “Art From The Heart” event through my artist buddy Mike Peraza (Art Director for the Little Mermaid). The event would be one night where Disney Artists would talk about Epilepsy, have a Disney panel where they would talk about the movies they worked on and donate art to raise money for Epilepsy. The roster of Disney Animators was amazing. From Mike Peraza, Rob Minkoff (Director of Lion King), Ruben Procopio (Famed Disney Sculptor) and many more. There was also a good amount of Disney artists not in attendance who donated art like Larry Nikolai (Art Director for The Little Mermaid Ride and Disney Pin Designer) and plus many more.
I asked if I could be apart of this event and represent Vinylmation. He was very excited and added me to the artist list. I quickly began work on my two customs for the silent auction. One being a Purple Candy 9″ Custom that would be signed by all the Disney panelist and a one of a kind Topiary entitled “From the Heart” where a little child holds a Red Mickey Balloon against a Purple/Green Mickey Topiary.
The event was a huge success, we raised awareness of Epilepsy. Both my Vinylmations sold at the silent auction to the biggest vinylmation collector in the world, Gabriel Luna.
The panelists talked for a couple hours about all the great times they had working on The Black Cauldron, Little Mermaid, Lion King and many more. It was very surreal to be grouped in with such Disney legends.”
-Evilos
Congrats on the great work Evilos! If you’d like to find out more about the things mentioned in this post check out the following websites.
Face Book “Art From The Heart” Page, lots of info here.
facebook.com/artfromthehART
Evilos’ Webpage
evilos.com
Evilos’ Ebay Store:
ebay.com/sch/eojcollector/m.html
