A Christmas Carol

I went back home to Burlington , Iowa for Christmas break. On Dec 30th I got home pretty late from a day on the road (visiting various family members) with the wife and kids. We pulled in to my Mom's at about 10:30 PM and I noticed the snow looked mighty good for Packing. We got the kids down and I proceeded to slip on my boots. Angie (my wonderful wife) asks "Where are you going?" "I'll be right back, I wanna see if the snow's good for making a snow man."

It was 36 degrees out, and the snow was perfect. I stepped out side at Midnight, and didn't come back in till 3:30 AM. At first I forgot how to start the ball rolling... but after a bit it all came flooding back. The snow ball grew and grew and soon I had to stop because on my own I just couldn't make it any bigger and still move it. So I started a second one, and chopped a dent for it to roll up into. (I wished I had been able to do this with my Brother and Brother inlaw, or some friends... it would have been much, much bigger, and better.) With my 56 year old Mothers help, we Lifted and pushed and rolled that second ball on to the first.

I asked Mom to run in and print an image from the web to work from. I worked on it for 3 and a half hours that night, and about an hour the next day. The Temperature dropped to 20 or so and so all I could do the next morning was cut into it, as the snow wouldn't stick once it got too cold. Here are some images of the final product.

I made this snowman for my Two year old (Geogie) and her little Sister(Liberty), and of course for my Mothers enjoyment, as well as just the love of creating. My mother being the proud parent that she is called the local news paper, and somehow I ended up on the front page... I think she bribed someone.

You can check out that story here...

http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Snow-sculpture-010210

Did this in a meeting. It's a double fisted portrait of Mark Price.
Not the best likeness, but it was an exercise. Red pen in left hand, Black in Right, I did the opposite side lines at the same time. It was actually quite fun.

These are a couple of maquettes I did for the last game I worked on. They are not my designs, and I wasn't really asked to make them but once the inspiration train starts, it's hard to stop.

I like to work through the shape of character designs by sculpting them, it helps when it comes to the final model. After creating the physical model I don't need to pester the character designer with tedious questions like. What does his belly look like, and how exactly do you want these hands. The maquette helps work through those issues in a nice natural way, plus it can be re sculpted, and even tweaked later once it's a 3d model.

I did this sculpture way back in early 2001 or so. It's based on a painting by Joe Choido, of VooDoo from WildCats. I'm a big fan of Joe's work. Never met him, but I think he used to be my Buddy Ellis' roommate. (Small World) I painted it with enamal, which I really like the effect of. Looks like candy. It's one of my earlier works, back before I knew when to dig back in and make changes before baking the sculpy. Even so, I like it.

This is a sign I designed for a friend. It was created to hang just above the entrance to his wiffleball stadium.

Had the wood cut and sandblasted to my specifications, then my pal Jeremy Kromberg and I painted and distressed it.

It's about 8 feet across.

This is not the mouse from a recent animtated feature film, this is just a tribute. Don't really know if I could catch any crap for posting this, but it is one of my favorite pieces. I made it for a good friend who left Heavy-Iron. The freind is an espresso drinker, so I sculpted in directly into an espresso cup.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Like with any sculpture, photos don't do it justice.

Called this dude Tinker, he was an attempt at designing a Steam Punk marionette. I'm pretty sure I drew this before Robots came out, but I was watching a clip of it this morning and noticed he looks a lot like that red robot Robin Williams played, you know, the annoying one.

Some friends and I had toyed around with the idea of making some vinyl. This was an attempt at a Logo. I kinda dug it although the silhouette could be a lot cleaner.

On this Puppy I started with the head first, I remember carrying it around and showin' pals at work. Back in the KA days. He's one of my favorites, but like with any piece O' art we create, we can't help but to see all those maddening flaws. I photoshoped this one a bit and Fixed some things, I know... that's cheatin', but in the process I think I've found a mixed media method I'd like to attempt. Paint from sculpt design. Could be interesting.

I need to draw more.