Fantasy Painting

The fisherfrog waits. Patient. Hungry. Alert. Experience tells him, his favourite meal - the cave-dwelling pondpig - cannot, itself, resist the sweet, zesty flavour of the common dusk-faeries. Unmissable as the sun falls, and the day ends, the timid faeries light up the forest floor with a gentle lilac glow. Easy to catch. Easy for bait. However, one bite from these tiny beings can shock a creature 10 times their size into a day-long paralysis. Don't let one sneak up on you...

Acrylics on cheapo (now wrinkly) paper.

In other news, it is the middle (maybe nearing the end) of winter and I find a giant wasp in my workshop (attic)! Is this normal? I have some animating to do this week so it better clear off! Here's a photo of another giant wasp I had in my kitchen a few months ago.

Click to ENLARGE at your own risk...

And... 

For anybody that doesn't know Jeff Lafferty - the extremely talented illustrator and artist. And now, stop-motion film-maker. You can read about his exciting new film on its own blog below:

Curse Of The Wolf's Heart

One of the puppets in progress.

But Jeff needs your help. It's not easy making and funding your own film, so he put together a Kickstarter campaign to get things moving. There's not long left, but let's hope for a final push to the goal. You can help him get there if you take a look at the rewards on offer for donating to this fantastic-looking film:

Jeff's Kickstarter.

Until next time :D

Playing with anagrams.

Also an anagram of Dean Bycroft.

It might not be immediately obvious, but 'Beyond Craft' is an anagram of Dean Bycroft - hence the name change on the blog. I felt it was far too appropriate to ignore.






I used black card to cut out the letters of my name and animated them on a whiteboard. A few digital effects later and I've got some kind of cheesy branding logo. The light-ray effect taking the cheesometer off the scale... :D

I can't figure out what kind of sound it should have, so at the moment it's mute.

Sculpture - Old Face.

Fancied a bit of sculpting inbetween all the other stuff going on (animateclay quarterly challenge underway!).

Haven't decided if it's an old man or an old woman, but it's definitely old. There are some flaws. Some things I like, some I don't. Sculpted in Chavant NSP Le Beaux Touché - way too soft. It's softer than plasticine.

Yep! Toilet roll tube for a neck.

Tie

Hopefully, posting this now, will show how much I will have improved in 12 months time. If I don't, I'm gonna give up. You can probably tell I'm not over-the-moon with this short. I had about 4 hours to shoot, compile and edit in time for the deadline, so I'm sticking to that as a reason why it's not very good.

Animateclay.com June challenge entry. Theme was 'Tie'.

Some progress shots: (click to enlarge).

Limp stills.

A couple of stills showing the puppet and partial set of my animateclay.com monthly challenge entry for May. The challenge theme was 'Limp'. I've had a few problems editing the final film, and as it's now middle of June, this short might never be seen. I just  thought I owe it to the poor doll to post her picture.

Extra lighting for photo purposes. The actual film is darker than this.

The doll was a nightmare to animate. Too tall, no tie-downs.

Spare Parts.

Unlucky old Rough Puppet had to be stripped down to make new puppets this week. I extracted his eyes and nuts (tie-down nuts!), leaving him in a sorry state. Goblin did his best to console the poor fellow.

Puppet Preview.

I was hoping to get this puppet finished for the weekend and post it in full, but that's unlikely to happen. I have college work, baking work, a family christening and other social functions which take precedence over the next few days. 24 hours in a day?! Come-on!! They should be 3 times that long!

So, here's what I've done so far (cos I can't stand not updating any longer). I have to detach the latex face from the skull and put the eyes in. Then maybe add some eyebrows - I haven't decided yet. I'm holding the fur in place for photo's sake. Hopefully, I can complete it within the week, depending on how much sleep I require.

Mobile phone pic.

New Goblin

I wasn't happy with the lack of control over detail in the previous attempts so I decided on a different technique. I sculpted a face in plasticine, made an open plaster mould and slush cast a thin latex mask. After dipping the upholstery foam head in latex, I grafted the mask on while the head was still wet. I don't think I have a career in plastic surgery, but it worked ok.

Slightly disturbing!

Mask, mould, sculpt.

Still a bit rough but getting nearer to what I envisaged.

I have to thank Jon for the photo backdrop technique. Cheers, pal :)

Puppet FAIL.

I wasn't going to post this, but I haven't updated in a while. Below you can see the latest failed attempt at a goblin. Before I dipped in latex, the puppet was spot-on. The proportions were all nice and it was feather light due to it being made from upholstery foam, then wrapped in bandages. For some reason I didn't take any photos of the pre-dipped phase.

Then it all went tits.

The latex soaked into the bandages too much (perhaps I should have foreseen this), resulting in a very heavy body and I couldn't achieve the 'smooth' finish I was hoping for. The right arm became detached from the wooden chest block - probably because I used metal epoxy, which set rock-hard but didn't bond to the wood. The right leg came loose from its wooden block too - same reason. Overall, it just didn't look the way I wanted it to. Back to the drawing board. Oh, and the latex dried much darker than I had anticipated, despite adding gallons of white pigment. After I finish the puppet I'm doing now, I think I'll get back to the Dragonskin silicone. I'm losing faith in liquid latex.

Quite a big puppet. About 13 inches.

I don't like the face. It's too generic.

Rough Puppet

So, I've had some old liquid latex hanging around for a few years and haven't used it for much - I wasn't overly pleased with my early tests. I thought I'd give it another go and made a basic wire armature, glued bits of foam on and snipped it to shape. I experimented with different wire shapes to make the head able to have moving eyes and mouth. I don't think I have suitable wire for expressive eyebrows and cheeks. I'm fairly happy with how the latex works (esp after about 3 years in storage!!), so I'm leaving this puppet unfinished and starting on a proper one.

Add caption

I used a ping pong ball and a piece of wire hooped 4 times - the middle 2 forming the upper and lower lips and the bottom being the chin.

The foam from an ironing board cover works well. I tried polystyrene too (ears). The latex doesn't stick too well to it.

Dipped in latex a few times, then placed some eyes on. Dipped a couple times more. Then slit horizontally across the eyes to create eyelids.

Trousers made from an old black T-shirt but I didn't like em. Off they came.

Jumper made from an old sock. Pose!

I had to trim the ears to half their original size cos they wouldn't fit in the jar I had the latex in. Next time I'll use a wider jar!

I attempted to make hands a few times but they never came out right. I need some thinner wire. I want to avoid the 'giant hands' syndrome.

After a few days the latex had become a bit too stiff, so I may apply less layers next time. The lips and eyebags were coloured with left over latex mixed with a little red pigment and painted on.