Statue Forum 





Go Back   Statue Forum > Other Stuff > Testing Grounds

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 08-11-2015, 12:05 PM   #1
Luminous
Cyclops
Moderator
 
Luminous's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 11,557
test

SF - First, we at Statue Forum would like to congratulate you on your new position as a Lead Sculptor and Art Director for Diamond Select Toys. Could you tell us a little bit about the decision to move away from licensing and begin working for DST on a full-time basis?

CSM - Thanks very much! Well, it has become increasingly difficult dealing with Chinese factories over the last few years. Prices are going up and late shipping has become the norm. I could go on, but those are the main two problems. The late shipping is especially impactful on a small business like ours. Frankly, it was just getting old and tiresome. That’s always been a huge problem with factories overseas. I’m first and foremost a sculptor and dealing with another problem at the factory at 2 AM has always had a negative effect on the hours I can spend sculpting. So when Shawn Knapp at DC discussed with me the possibility of doing some pieces for DC, I thought I’d give it a try. It went well and that lead to several more projects. The Michael Turner Batman was especially nice to be a part of. Mike was a terrific, one of a kind person and one of the very best artists ever to work in comics.

SF - First, we at Statue Forum would like to congratulate you on your new position as a Lead Sculptor and Art Director for Diamond Select Toys. Could you tell us a little bit about the decision to move away from licensing and begin working for DST on a full-time basis?

CSM - Thanks very much! Well, it has become increasingly difficult dealing with Chinese factories over the last few years. Prices are going up and late shipping has become the norm. I could go on, but those are the main two problems. The late shipping is especially impactful on a small business like ours. Frankly, it was just getting old and tiresome. That’s always been a huge problem with factories overseas. I’m first and foremost a sculptor and dealing with another problem at the factory at 2 AM has always had a negative effect on the hours I can spend sculpting. So when Shawn Knapp at DC discussed with me the possibility of doing some pieces for DC, I thought I’d give it a try. It went well and that lead to several more projects. The Michael Turner Batman was especially nice to be a part of. Mike was a terrific, one of a kind person and one of the very best artists ever to work in comics.

SF - First, we at Statue Forum would like to congratulate you on your new position as a Lead Sculptor and Art Director for Diamond Select Toys. Could you tell us a little bit about the decision to move away from licensing and begin working for DST on a full-time basis?

CSM - Thanks very much! Well, it has become increasingly difficult dealing with Chinese factories over the last few years. Prices are going up and late shipping has become the norm. I could go on, but those are the main two problems. The late shipping is especially impactful on a small business like ours. Frankly, it was just getting old and tiresome. That’s always been a huge problem with factories overseas. I’m first and foremost a sculptor and dealing with another problem at the factory at 2 AM has always had a negative effect on the hours I can spend sculpting. So when Shawn Knapp at DC discussed with me the possibility of doing some pieces for DC, I thought I’d give it a try. It went well and that lead to several more projects. The Michael Turner Batman was especially nice to be a part of. Mike was a terrific, one of a kind person and one of the very best artists ever to work in comics.

Last edited by Luminous; 08-12-2015 at 11:31 PM.
Luminous is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2015, 11:30 PM   #2
Luminous
Cyclops
Moderator
 
Luminous's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 11,557
SF - The new 12-inch Batgirl statue you've created for Diamond Select Toys looks incredible. What would you say was the most challenging aspect of tackling this sculpture?

CSM - Thanks! Sculpting live action characters isn’t normally my favorite thing to work on. You have three levels of approval to go through is the main reason. Let’s take Batgirl. First, there’s the employer, in this case DST. After that, you have Warner Brothers. Both levels of input are usually helpful. Warner’s actually uses tracing paper over photos of my work, which is a great way to make suggestions. Finally, you have the actor, which on this project was Yvonne Craig. That can be the x-factor. Will the actor see themselves differently than you did? It becomes a very personal thing to them and that can lead to input I find can take the portrait further away from what it should be, not closer. It’s a part of the process, but sometimes you end up trying to sculpt something that follows the actor’s input, but also is still close enough to the character that collectors will be happy to add it to their collections.

All that being said, Yvonne Craig, Julie Newmar and Adam West are great subjects and I loved the show, so working on these has been a lot of fun. I had met Julie Newmar at a show recently and talked to her a little about the project. When she got the photos from Warner’s, she approved the piece without added adjustments, which was nice.

SF - The new 12-inch Batgirl statue you've created for Diamond Select Toys looks incredible. What would you say was the most challenging aspect of tackling this sculpture?

CSM - Thanks! Sculpting live action characters isn’t normally my favorite thing to work on. You have three levels of approval to go through is the main reason. Let’s take Batgirl. First, there’s the employer, in this case DST. After that, you have Warner Brothers. Both levels of input are usually helpful. Warner’s actually uses tracing paper over photos of my work, which is a great way to make suggestions. Finally, you have the actor, which on this project was Yvonne Craig. That can be the x-factor. Will the actor see themselves differently than you did? It becomes a very personal thing to them and that can lead to input I find can take the portrait further away from what it should be, not closer. It’s a part of the process, but sometimes you end up trying to sculpt something that follows the actor’s input, but also is still close enough to the character that collectors will be happy to add it to their collections.

All that being said, Yvonne Craig, Julie Newmar and Adam West are great subjects and I loved the show, so working on these has been a lot of fun. I had met Julie Newmar at a show recently and talked to her a little about the project. When she got the photos from Warner’s, she approved the piece without added adjustments, which was nice.

SF - The new 12-inch Batgirl statue you've created for Diamond Select Toys looks incredible. What would you say was the most challenging aspect of tackling this sculpture?

CSM - Thanks! Sculpting live action characters isn’t normally my favorite thing to work on. You have three levels of approval to go through is the main reason. Let’s take Batgirl. First, there’s the employer, in this case DST. After that, you have Warner Brothers. Both levels of input are usually helpful. Warner’s actually uses tracing paper over photos of my work, which is a great way to make suggestions. Finally, you have the actor, which on this project was Yvonne Craig. That can be the x-factor. Will the actor see themselves differently than you did? It becomes a very personal thing to them and that can lead to input I find can take the portrait further away from what it should be, not closer. It’s a part of the process, but sometimes you end up trying to sculpt something that follows the actor’s input, but also is still close enough to the character that collectors will be happy to add it to their collections.

All that being said, Yvonne Craig, Julie Newmar and Adam West are great subjects and I loved the show, so working on these has been a lot of fun. I had met Julie Newmar at a show recently and talked to her a little about the project. When she got the photos from Warner’s, she approved the piece without added adjustments, which was nice.
Luminous is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:46 AM.



Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright StatueForum.com