Notes from the Studio

After so long of a concentration on 3-D work it was fun last week to take a break and actually sit at my drawing board. The opportunity arose because I was asked to be a part of a group effort to help raise needed funds for the ‘Totoro’s Forest’ project (more on that a bit later). I can still remember the magic of first viewing ‘My Neighbor Totoro’, so many years ago that it was only available on pirated Japanese language VHS tapes. The director’s art and story however completely transcended any language barrier there might have been. I thought then and I am even more certain now, that the world would be a better place if there were more minds like Mr. Miyazaki’s in it. Sayama Forest, located outside of Tokyo, served as the inspiration for this exceptional film (my very favorite movie, animated or otherwise). Over the intervening years it has become encroached upon by housing developments. For many years now there has been an on-going effort from Mr, Miyazaki and the Totoro Forest Foundation that he established to purchase as much as possible of the acreage there and place it into a national trust. Now, Pixar art

Welcome back! In our last exciting installment the Titania figure had fallen over and two months worth of work was gone with the wind. The next day the sculpture team started pulling the clay off and stripping the figure down to her not as substantial as we had hoped metal armature. Under all the damaged clay and wire we discovered that the central 2 inch steel supporting pipe had broken under the weight of the clay. This time around we welded additional steel support bars onto that pipe as well as the much more solidly constructed metal framework. This was again covered in layers of rolled newspaper then shrink wrap and wax to prep it for the re-application of all that clay. This time our metal skeleton held up and after another two months of patient manipulation of clay Titania began to take shape. Again! She’s looks sort of like an Alien Queen here, doesn’t she? The only piece we had managed to save from her previous incarnation was Titania’s face which I reapplied to the figure. Now all she needs is a bit of hair to cover her brow… Lordy, is that leg wrong! David Spence, my co-sculptor worked

Okay, we’re only a few months away from the official unveiling of the sculptural fountain based on ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ that I designed quite some time ago and have been talking about on this blog ever since. The concept started as a drawing that my co-sculptor, David Spence and I worked out over several weeks time. Here is both a front view: And the back: These drawings were followed by a small 3D sketch, called a maquette in sculptural terms and executed in sculpy: These were submitted for approval to both the institution that commissioned the piece, The Barter Theater Foundation and the Architectural Review Board of the town of Abingdon VA where it will be built. About two years ago we began the long process that leads to a finished bronze. David decided rather than cut granite being used for the various boulders around the structure that we would use real boulders and make casts of those, to later be poured in bronze. A great idea that later became both a blessing and a curse. Here’s assistant Bill Thompson with the chosen boulders. He and David then covered these stones with rubber molds from which, at a later

In the comments section of the post below I was asked if I’d ever tried watercolor as a medium. As I explained, I had, but only once. Here is that piece: ‘A Gift from the Spring’ was as it says a birthday gift to my friend, the writer, Delia Sherman. As it happens she just wrote about the piece on her live journal:  http://deliasherman.livejournal.com/26542.html The painting and the short story written for it are a part of a series  of art and story collaborations by some of my favorite authors that have and will be running, as each short story is completed, in Realms of Fantasy magazine over the next year or so. The  authors so far include Charles de Lint  (June 2007), Holly Black (October 2007), Delia Sherman (the current issue , April 2008), Elizabeth Hand, Jeffrey Ford and Neil Gaiman. Enjoy, Charles

I thought that you might get a kick out of seeing this piece. ‘True Thomas’ was a private commission from a ballad enthusiast who’s had very few stipulations except that I select my image from out of one of those same ballads. I choose a favorite scene out of a favorite Scottish border ballad, ‘Thomas the Rhymer’ wherein our hero first meets The Queen of Fair Elfand . She will then take him across the river of all the blood shed on earth into her fae kingdom and there Thomas will live for seven years. When he, at last, returns to this earth The Queen will have gifted him with a tongue that can only speak the truth, for good or ill.  With Robin Williamson’s lovely version of the ballad playing on my CD I happily sat down at the drawing board and this image just flowed off my fingertips. Not something that happens very often but you wont catch me ever objecting when it does. A gift from The Kindly Ones as it were. Here’s my initial pencil drawing: And then my inks. Here I tried out a dry brush technique using a hand made mixture of brown and