Back to Business.....

Well, I'm back from Kefalonia (Greek island) where I was photographing a friend's wedding. 7 lovely days on a lovely island with a lovely wedding in the middle. I'm sure I'll put a few pics up once I've edited them all down. (we took over 1,000 of the wedding itself, and about the same of just the island!)

Anyway.... back to work now. I've got 27 commissions that have already been paid for that I have to get on with, some will take me about an hour or two, and some I've already spent months on.... so leave me alone and let me get back to work! Dont you know I don't have time to be sitting here typing?? hehe

On a side note (but still kind of toy related) I'm not sure when we'll get to see this in the UK, but I cannot wait to see this Robot Chicken Star Wars special. It looks hysterical!

Normal services will resume on Monday 28th....

Hi folks, this is just a short message to let you know that I will be unavailable for the next week (I have to go away to photograph a wedding so can't be in my studio) so any people who are waiting on commissions and haven't had them yet, I apologise. I'll be back in my studio the very next morning after I'm done. People are free to leave me any messages or emails, and if I can get to my computer during the week I'll get back to you, but if not... then I'll reply to you all once I'm back

Speak to you soon!

Darren

The first of many 'guest artist' articles....

'morning everyone! (well it's morning here anyway)

Today I'm starting a regular recurring item, called simply 'Guest Artist'. Every few weeks or so I'll have an article written by various talented artists showing one of their favourite 1/6 customs that they've done, with a few words on how they went through the process of making it. It should be an interesting peek into the creative process of many of the great artists out there.

And obviously, we'll get to see some fabulous 1/6 customs as well! Today's guest artist is Josh (known as DarkArtist81 on the Sideshow Collectors forum), who has kindly taken the time to tell us about this Star Wars 1/6 scale Mustafar 'burnt' Anakin which he customised from a Sideshow Anakin. I'll hand it over to Josh now...

Hello Everyone in Darren Land, this is DarkArtist81 or as my parents and friends call me... Josh. I was given the honor of coming on Darren's blog and giving you all a look behind the curtain, so to speak, in DA's studios!

Well, not really a studio... More like a kitchen table, lovingly covered with a paint splattered tablecloth... set where I can see the TV and get my mojo going.



I use Model Master Acryl and whatever brushes I can find for my work. Not really picky on what kind of brush, just as long as it is round and small I can get it done. I water down my paints, as many other artists do... simply because it aids in application and lends itself to better blending. At least in my experience.

Now on to what this segment will be showcasing... My famous Mustafar Anakin custom. This figure was never really intended to get me any recognition or get work coming in... it was just a fanboy's sick dream. As soon as SSC announced the figure, images swam in my mind... I wanted the full on Evil and slightly charred Anakin at the end of the fight.... sweaty and angry. Once I had the figure in hand, I realized that many changes would have to be made to make this dream a reality....

To start I laid down a basic coat for the skin tone, starting with a medium color... not too dark or light... just to use as a jump off point... add definition later.



From here I mixed a slightly lighter shade and a slightly darker shade of skin tone... to add said definition and give the head some depth and creases. The thinner the paint the better for this step, it blends better as I said and just looks more clean in the end. I also went with a darker base for the hair and came back to add dark brown highlights using a drybrushing technique. Also painted in the whites (or rather...off-whites) of the eyes and prepared for the final touches.



From here you will be just adding the final touches... cleaning up overbrushed areas and adding the details like scars, lips, eyebrows and eyes. I paid close attention to the reference material I had gathered and painted his eyes several times until I had the attitude I really wanted.





The eyes took several layers... I started with a stark red, over that I put a thin coat of orange and faded that into bright yellow. It's always hard and sometimes you have to go back and redo the entire eye, but in the end I was very very pleased with the results.

Costume was the next challenge. I wanted it to look burned.... and not just blackened... but burned. So I did just that.... lit a lighter and carefully added the fire where I wanted the damage. The pleather was tricky... burn it too long and it just flakes away, burn it not long enough and it just gets warm. Took a little playing, but in the end I had it down to a science. The tunic was another challenge because it is really thin and just wants to go up in flames like an old T shirt covered with lighter fluid. So I had to be very cautious and put out the flames very quickly.



After that was accomplished I did a grey drybrush on all his gear... pants, boots, tunic, tabbards... belt... the whole deal. Also did another drybrush of black as well to darken everything. I wanted him to look as bad as he possibly could before he burned up at Mustafar, so these layers were essential to sealing the deal and making this custom work.





This figure took me a long time to get to the customer and in the end it was one of the most rewarding figures I have ever done. It's made the trip from FL to GA to visit the home of the Figuremaster... it's made it all the way back to England from which it came. This figure was really the start of an era, the beginning of my shift from "casual repainter" to full on Custom painter. It changed everything about how I do business and how I paint in general. I'm proud to have had the chance to share it's creation with you guys and Darren in this blog!

Thanks again Darren, Keep up the fantastic work!

Sith Anakin/Vader using my Sideshow resculpt

Over on the Sideshow Freaks forum Customikey has repainted my 1/6 Sideshow Anakin resculpt into a truly evil looking Sith Anakin/Vader version complete with yellow Sith eyes. To say it looks amazing is an understatement. He has managed to create that tired/teary eye look extremely well, and I can't wait to see more images of this, and of anything else he does in the future. Have a look at the images below (click for larger version) to see for yourself, and when you're done have a look at Michael's other repainted pieces HERE. Well worth half an hour of your time.

Ghost Anakin using my Sideshow resculpt

over on the Sideshow Collectors forum, pixletwin used one of my Anakin heads to make this fabulous one-off 1/6 custom of Anakin Skywalker as he appears at the end of Return of the Jedi. This was a great idea for a custom, and I just love how this looks, it worked out much cooler than I imagined it could, and I think he should be very pleased with the cooler than cool item he now has in his collection.

Getting to know each other

I've spent a little time now going round various websites and blogs looking for information, news and tutorials on anything to do with toys, collecting, 1/6 scale figures, head sculpts, art and action figure customising, and I've realised that I've been missing out on a very important section of the website/blog community.

The people that I talk to on forums.

Most of the main websites/blogs that have anything to do with toys, customs and collecting are all linked together, and eventually you end up going round in a circle. It's the same collection of sites that you end up seeing as links on all the other places you visit. This is all very useful of course, and many of these sites are fantastic resources on making your own customs whilst others are entertaining news portals on toy collecting.

But what I really want to see are the websites that my fellow customizers, collectors and artists have. These might be blogs like mine where they show on a regular basis the works that they do, or it could be a traditional website with previous customs to view, or articles on anything related.

If you have a website that isn't related to toys/sculpting/collecting but it's yours nonetheless... I'll include those too.

In order to fix this I thought I'd start a 'getting to know each other' post. Basically the idea here is each of you who come here who have your own blog/website post a comment onto the end of this post, with the address to your site/blog, and I will edit that into the main text of the post here for all to see.

To take part in this though you have to visit the other websites/blogs as they appear... read through them, link to them, speak to the people involved, comment on their work etc. Hopefully out of this we will all get to see some websites or blogs that we didn't know existed, or maybe get to see some 1/6 customs, resculpts or repaints (or any other scale customs) that we haven't seen before.

At the very least hopefully what we will all get out of this is a little more traffic to each of our websites/blogs, and maybe make a few more contacts.

I'll get the ball rolling with my other websites..... and now it's up to you. Comment on this post leaving the details of your site (and address, obviously) and I'll edit it here into the main text.

Let's get to know each other!

• www.pennylanepictures.com - art/photography website of Darren Carnall
• www.blobgoesto.com - photo record of all the trips and adventures I've been on with Jane (and Blob, our Smart Car)
• http://vtmj.blogspot.com/ - cool blog of WritinMan, featuring 1/6 customs, artwork and general rants. Lots to look through.
• http://www.startrek-collection.nl - data_2006 on the TrekToy forum large and comprehensive collection of Star Trek figures, statues, books, autographs.... well, pretty much everything really! A huge amount of things to look through. Some customs in the action figures section.
• http://www.gkmm.homepage.t-online.de/ - LocutusOfTuborg at the TrekToy forum again has this stylish site showing his collection of Art Asylum/DST Star Trek figures and customs. Great photography and good simple scheme throughout the site. Some good custom work, well worth looking through.
• DavAnthony at the same forum has submitted these two sites. First up is this site where he shows his custom figures from various franchises from Batman to Star Wars to Lord of the Rings. Secondly is this thread in the forum where he shows some work he's done on a Captain Picard and a Commander Riker figure.
  
• http://www.myspace.com/thedarksideofgenius - And finally something a bit different. This is from FHC at the same above forum (seems the TrekToy forum people are very good for replying to things like this!). It's his MySpace page for his band. It's the only band here so take a few mins to have a look!
  

Almost finished....

My latest two Obi-Wan paint ups of my resculpt are virtually finished now. (They'll be done tomorrow... then some varnish and dullcote and they'll be ready to go to their new homes)

This was how you last saw them.....



And this is how they are today (ignore the nasty flash pics, makes everything all bleached out, but lets you see the detail quite well)

My resculpts and repaints so far......

Just another couple of shots of my resculpts and repaints all grouped together for the first time (only the finished ones... not including Boromir, Arnie, Ripley, Qui-Gon etc)