My toy sculpting portfolio and more...

[GojulasPrime23]

Greetings!

This is actually my first post here though I've viewed the board many times. There seems to be a great community of artists here and I'm looking forward to learning from you all.

Just a quick rundown of who I am- my name is David Silva, I've been working in the toy industry for the past six years first as a designer and, for the past four an half years, as a sculptor. I fell into a niche of sculpting animal- like creatures and characters such as dragons and such. There are other more human figures that I've worked on, but I really enjoy anything having to do with animals/ dinosaurs.
Instead of posting a few threads individually, I figured I'd pass along my whole sculpting portfolios (what I can show anyway). You can check out my professional work here:

http://creative-beast.com/?page_id=106

And my personal sculpting work here:

http://creative-beast.com/?page_id=115


Feel free to browse the rest of the site- there's plenty there.

[Evilivo]

Man, your work is amazing - I own some of these toys and they inspire me for my own sculpts Too bad the Leo from the Zodiac warriors got canceled, and Hasbro opted to drop the headgear from the dewback... Love your concepts too, especially the dinosaurs and other animals!

[dark_wraith]

Welcome to the forum. Fantastic work.

I have some of your work on my book shelf, very nice stuff.

hope to see more of your work.

[lilalex]

Holy Hell!! Digging your Personal Work; and did you execute the Dilophosaurus painting? Awesome! ... and I'm really digging the anthromopo' stuff! So creative!!

I'd also enjoy seeing any real early wips/armatures or step-by-steps you might have "laying around" - or any elaboration on the toy work process; are you provided with joints info? Armatures? Material to work in? etc. I saw in your Personal Concept page where you have several figs broken down and sprue'd; and on others you have construction instructions such as gear designs, points of pivot, etc - is that also something a toy sculptor normally has to consider?

Great stuff - Thanks for sharing!
la

[GojulasPrime23]

I do have some WIP pics on my webshots portfolio for the Dilophosaurus:

http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/566893709PcjRwc

If you go back to page 3, you'll see how I started with the armature and then moved forward with soft castilene then to the hard castilene. I had to build the armature so that it broke apart for molding so I used a combination of wire, square styrene rods, and epoxy putty to hold it all together. Once the rough was completed, the piece was separated then molded and cast into hard castilene. The final piece I did paint myself. I did every step of the final model from sculpt to mold, resin cast, assembly and then paint. I actually reused the armature for the in-progress Acrocanthosaurus. I had to make some modifications, but it worked out well. Obviously the scale will be different, but the proportions were similar.

As far as the design drawings go- what's required just depends on the job. For instance McFarlane hardly ever noted articulation on their design drawings- it was all about the pose and concept. Hasbro however is very adamant about articulation (as you'd expect) but the sculpting details are left mostly to picture reference. Their design drawings usually have different colored parts so that it's easy to see where the parts separate. As far as joints go, McFarlane made their own fittings and joints. Hasbro has their own as well, but plenty of other companies like DC Direct or NECA may expect the sculptor to make (or find) the appropriate parts to use. It's different for each company.

[Dan FS]

I really dig in your work, very inspiring, thanks for sharing!!!

[Greyguy]

Awesome sculpting!

[One Eyed Terror]

Nice work. Very impressive.

Love the Styracoaurus, especially.

[Mad Cross]

I love them all. I personally own some of the McFarlane dragons and they serve as inspiration to me. Welcome to the forums here and I'm glad to see someone who have worked on those amazing sculpture on here. Looking forward to seeing more from you.

[GojulasPrime23]

I'm glad to see some here actually have some of these toys! I definitely see the action figure industry as an important resource for creative inspiration not just for sculpting, but for conceptual design in general. I have a huge collection of 'inspiration' all around my workspace (and everywhere else). I think it's been helpful.

[Camara]

Your dinosaurs are fantastic!!!The Dilophosaurus is great!!How do you create the skin???

[Camara]

Your dinosaurs are fantastic!!!The Dilophosaurus is great!!How do you create the skin???

[GojulasPrime23]

Sculpting techniques for sculpting reptile scales very depending on the material. I use castilene, but I know super sculpy and oil based clays are more common.
I think the most important part of creating realistic scales (like anything else) is good reference. This book here is the best I've seen for this and I HIGHLY suggest it to anyone who likes to draw or sculpt reptilian creatures. Once you have the reference pay attention to scale progressions and variations. I try to keep my scales looking interesting by varying size, but maintaining a consistent shape and flow. Size progression is important since an abrupt change in the look of the scales from one type next to another can look strange. Not to say you can't go crazy- but if it's grounded in natural science it's always more convincing. Also make note that areas of articulation such as joints and eye lids, usually have smaller scales. You will normally find the largest scales on areas that don't need much flexibility such as areas of head, spine, pelvic region, and torso.
Not sure if that's too much info, but perhaps it will be of use to someone. If I had been told those things when I first started sculpting dragons I would have advanced much faster.

[Breath of Life]

That's a lot of fantastic work there! Can you tell us about the "fur" on the lion and reindeer? It looks like you are actually embedding real furry stuff in there. Is that something that castilene allows you to do? Could it also be done with wax?

[georgedesio]

un freakin ballievable, you rock man rrooooooooock

[troyboy]

You don't need me to tell you this, but you do absolutely stunning
work GojulasPrime23. Really amazing and inspiring stuff.

[GojulasPrime23]

Originally Posted by Breath of Life

That's a lot of fantastic work there! Can you tell us about the "fur" on the lion and reindeer? It looks like you are actually embedding real furry stuff in there. Is that something that castilene allows you to do? Could it also be done with wax?

Yes, castilene is great for embedding foreign materials such as fabrics, mesh, and hair in this case. The 'hair' I used on the lion and reindeer was from a rope that I unraveled and cut into very small clumps. Using my electric waxer, I embedded the hair clumps into the castilene in rows- going from lower to upper to get an overlapping look. Also, using animal reference, I had to make note of the hair patterns of the specific animals since hair grows in specific directions in most mammals. Once that was done, I painted over the rope/hair with a watered down acrylic to give the piece a consistent color for photography purposes.

And thanks for the positive comments- I'm glad to know my work inspires others. Inspiration is essential to growth.

[darkwolf29a]

Amazing stuff. Thanks for posting those. Very inspirational.

My one question is about castilene. Is that anything like plasticene? I have been playing around with that, myself. I like it much better than sculpey, since it's stiffer.

[GojulasPrime23]

Originally Posted by darkwolf29a

Amazing stuff. Thanks for posting those. Very inspirational.

My one question is about castilene. Is that anything like plasticene? I have been playing around with that, myself. I like it much better than sculpey, since it's stiffer.

I am not familiar with plasticene, but Castilene is a wax based mixture if that helps. It is lightweight and the 'Hard castilene' is very hard. Great for fine detail.

[danlucas]

Thats one wild looking toy, awesome work!

[darkwolf29a]

Originally Posted by GojulasPrime23

I am not familiar with plasticene, but Castilene is a wax based mixture if that helps. It is lightweight and the 'Hard castilene' is very hard. Great for fine detail.

Thanks very much for that information.

Plasticene is an oil based clay, won't harden, etc. Sounds like it's a bit softer than castilene. I may have to give castilene a try, if I can find some.

Edit: I did misspell it. It's plasticine, not plsticene. Sorry. I also did some further research into what it is made of and it does have wax in it, as well as some oil.

[jarrodshiflett]

David

This wolf thing is cool as hell! check out our boards sometime



http://www.shiflettbrothers.com/foru....cfm?page=home

jarrod

[Camara]

Could you explain me the proccess of working with castilene?Looks interesting!
Did I say that I have your mcfarlane dragon and just found out that the sculpt is yours!!

[GojulasPrime23]

Originally Posted by jarrodshiflett

David

This wolf thing is cool as hell! check out our boards sometime



http://www.shiflettbrothers.com/foru....cfm?page=home

jarrod

Hey Jarrod,
Just bookmarked your forum- I'll be joining soon. (wolf?)



And Camara,
Castilene is great. It holds great detail and also allows you to easily embed foreign textures. You will need heat to move this material and dental waxers are commonly used for this as well as alcohol torches for heating your tools. You can purchase castilene here: http://completesculptor.com/ under 'Wax Index'. I think they also carry waxers and torches as well.

BTW, which dragon do you have?

[Camara]

Mine is the eternal clan dragon that is in the top of a tower.I think it belongs to the first series!Is a sculpt of yours??????
I´ll give castilene a try!I´ll try to find some good tutorials first!

BTW, staring at your AMAZING art,I can see that your room walls are full of pictures from different dinosaur reconstructions and details of dinosaur sculptures.I am trying to find refernces for dinosaur sculpture,skeletal reconstructions and these things.Do you know some good webpage or source of other kind for good reference pictures?
Thanks!!

[Gaffanon]

I have a question for you where did you get that plexi armature stand of yours

[baard]

Amasing portfolio!
Applause!
Im sure youre tired of this question, but what kind of clay do you use? Milliput?
Baard

[GojulasPrime23]

Originally Posted by Camara

Mine is the eternal clan dragon that is in the top of a tower.I think it belongs to the first series!Is a sculpt of yours??????
I´ll give castilene a try!I´ll try to find some good tutorials first!

BTW, staring at your AMAZING art,I can see that your room walls are full of pictures from different dinosaur reconstructions and details of dinosaur sculptures.I am trying to find refernces for dinosaur sculpture,skeletal reconstructions and these things.Do you know some good webpage or source of other kind for good reference pictures?
Thanks!!

That would be the series 1 Eternal Clan dragon. Unfortunately I can't take any credit for that one- but it is a great piece.

And as for dino reference- I know I've already answered this for Camara- but for everyone else here's a short list of what I use most:

Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

Dinosaurs Past and Present Volume 2

Thunder Lizards!: How to Draw Fantastic Dinosaurs

And of course there is always good ol' google image search.

[GojulasPrime23]

Originally Posted by Gaffanon

I have a question for you where did you get that plexi armature stand of yours

That was made at McFarlane toys in the model shop. Don't ask why I have one...

[GojulasPrime23]

Originally Posted by baard

Amasing portfolio!
Applause!
Im sure youre tired of this question, but what kind of clay do you use? Milliput?
Baard

I use different grades of castilene- wax based clay. For roughing out I use either soft or medium castilene. I finish in the hard castilene. It's a great medium- if you can afford an electric waxer that is.