Comments on: Falling Stardust

By: Stainless Steel Droppings » Blog Archive » Friday Favorites: Charles Vess

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 02:30:09 +0000

[...] His inked illustrations are equally as fantastic. In addition Charles Vess is a skilled painter and sculpter (you can see work-in-progress images of his sculpt of Yvaine of Stardust beginning here). [...]

By: Stainless Steel Droppings » Blog Archive » Friday Favorite Re-do: Charles Vess

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 02:20:16 +0000

By: hairsprayfreak

hairsprayfreak — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 23:23:42 +0000

hey uncle charles how r u i miss u soooooooooo much and i hope to c u soon!!!!!!!!!!!! tell everyone i say hi and lover them but great job with all your work and i cant wait till stardust i am bringing friends to go see it and today i saw hairspray today well i hope to see you soon

By: sue

sue — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:49:54 +0000

Michael, thank you – what a great explanation – and here I thought sculpey’s use was limited to very small works such as jewelry. I thought most figurines began with plasticine – though I have heard silicone molds and plasticine don’t always play well together. A distinct advantage of the sculpey is the baking and hardening – I’m sure it gets it thru the moldmaking process quite well.

By: folkmew

folkmew — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 01:03:44 +0000

She’s gorgeous! If I weren’t an incredibly broke grad student/mom I’d order one in a heartbeat!

You won’t remember me nor should you but just fyi I got some old “Sing Outs” (or wait – maybe “Dirty Linen”? No I think Sing Out) autographed by you at a Boskone and you were delighted because you said no one had ever asked for those to be autographed before. The ballads series they ran. :-) I love your work and I admit I haven’t been following the movie news closely but I keep thinking “I hope he had a real presence in the look and feel of the movie!!”

By: AeireQoW

AeireQoW — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 11:10:41 +0000

Oh that’s lovely. I keep staring at the promo Stardust mobile I’ve finally got hanging in my room again and looking at the photos you’ve posted and boggling at your skill, she’s just as lovely in 3D as she in on paper!

By: Michael Draine

Michael Draine — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 03:18:46 +0000

I’m very impressed with Falling Stardust; few artists who work primarily in 2-D could produce such a refined, elegantly executed sculpture. As for the questions raised by Sue, sculptors of fantasy and superhero statues such as Randy Bowen usually work with a solid Sculpey figure. In an article on his working methods in COLLECTING FIGURES, Bowen described starting with a wire skeleton; covering the wire skeleton with Sculpy and firing it in a kitchen oven; sculpting the musculature over the skeleton and firing; sculpting a nude figure on top of this; then finally sculpting the costume and hair. A silicone mold is created from the figure, from which prototype models are cast for painting. The harder and more expensive Super-Sculpey shrinks, whereas the original Sculpey doesn’t. Sculpey is less prone to warpage and distortion than wax.
As for retail sources for limited edition resin statues, try http://www.budplant.com, or eBay.
I’m looking forward to TwoMorrows Publishing’s MODERN MASTERS VOL. 11: CHARLES VESS, due to ship in February.The book is already listed as a pre-order item on Amazon.
Best wishes to all for 2007!
Michael
http://www.michaeldraine.com

By: Quixotic

Quixotic — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 14:00:09 +0000

So. Excited.

Looks wonderful! We wants it we does!

By: Manuela

Manuela — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 17:32:31 +0000

Boy, this sculpture is gorgeous. I love how it doesn’t look as kitschy as most of the Fairy/Elf-sculptures you get nowadays. I hope the colours won’t be too garish either (like … pink).
Any chance it will be available through Amazon as well? It’s nigh impossible to get anything but the most commercialized comic merchandise in comicshops here.

By: sue

sue — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:06:29 +0000

Really charming, a lovely piece. I’m curious as to using Sculpy for such a relatively large work – did it bake solid, or did you hollow it from underneath? How about shrinkage/distortion? It certainly lends itself to fine detail, and while it will be painted, it is beautiful as a white piece on blue glass too – the shadows and workmanship become much more dominant. May I ask what type of molding material will be used? I’ve not cast too many complex molds such as this and am curious – I’m guessing silicon rubber? Then cast with marble impregnated resin? Hope to see a finished piece!