Wednesday 29 June 2011

Death From Above

The Shiflett Brothers are working are a rather awesome sculpture entitled "Death From Above" when I saw it I was actually looking for an idea of something to practice drawing - so I chose this. Here is a picture of the sculpture itself and of course the drawing I did of it.

Thursday 23 June 2011

Russ Nicholson Fantasy Illustrator

I know this blog is usually dedicated to great sculptures and paint jobs and so on. But these 3D works are more often than not inspired by 2D work - be it inspiration from a movie, a book, comic book, concept art and so on. So I am going to show a little love to the 2D guys as well from time to time on this blog and I am kicking off with the magnificent Russ Nicholson. Russ is renowned for his black and white pen and ink illustrations, which is one of the main reasons I love his work as this is my own preferred medium. Russ does colour illustrations to, but is particularly known for his black and white Fighting Fantasy gamebook illustrations for Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson as well as working for the likes of TSR and Games Workshop amongst others. Many of you will remember The Warlock of Firetop Mountain - the very first Fighting Fantasy book, and one that was illustrated by Russ and I am going to kickstart the pictures with an awesome picture of an alternative entrance to Firetop Mountain that was not actually used for the book ( I think it is better than the one they did use).















So, plenty of great illustrations for you there. I have a few more up my sleeve, but the best thing you could do would be pick up some of these old gamebooks from somewhere and admire them in person. My own collection was partially thrown away as a lad, but I repicked up most of them from ebay. And Play.com recently had signed copies of an anniversary edition of the Warlock of Firetop Mountain which I bought as well.

The work of Russ Nicholson has definitely been a big inspiration for me on a personal level, these gamebooks served as my introduction  to the whole genre of fatasy gaming and it was Russ' illustrations and the basic D&D cover artwork that got me into loving fantasy art. I got the opportunity to send a personal thanks to Larry Elmore on Facebook a while back, so this is a little tribute to Russ for the enjoyment given to me as a kid when I played the books, and now when I look at the art and appreciate the skill.

EDIT: I'd just like to make a small ammendment to this blog post rather than make a new one and cause "clutter" so to speak. Following on from the Russ Nicholson illustrations from the Fighting Fantasy Books I have managed to locate a few interviews with him from other sites so here are a few links if your interested to read a little more about him.

Fighting Fantasy Interview

Sci-Fi-O-Rama




dfb

Monday 20 June 2011

Joseph Tsang Predator for Hot Toys

As promised, the uber talented Joseph Tsang Predator sculpts. This is but a small sampling of his work. He does have a blog which will linked at the end of the post. Enjoy these pics though...







Joseph Tsang Blog HERE

dfb

Friday 17 June 2011

Portal 11 Out Now!!

Always up for a freebie, here is the lovely e-zine Portal. Head on over and check it out!!!




Download it from the WAMP site and enjoy folks.

dfb 

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Ghostrider Bike

Please take a look at this wonderful video of the sculpting of a 12" Ghost Rider action figure, I am sure you will enjoy it....




To add a little more info to this post the name of the sculptor is Joseph Tsang, a very talented and amazing sculptor - he has done some great Predator sculpts so be sure to look out for them when I add them to the blog. I believe I have come across Joseph before, he hangs out on the Clubhouse forums and he has a blog also, which is great if you can read Cantonese. But dont worry, the pictures are in English :)

dfb

Thursday 2 June 2011

A short while ago I posted some steampunk sculpture. Well I would like to continue that theme with the work of many talented artists on Deviantart.com. It may not technically be sculpture, but there can be no doubt of the skill involved and the fabulous craftsmanship and artistry put into the pieces. If it's cool - it's in as far as I am concerned. Here we go.


New Steampunk Utility Corset
by *LillysWorkshop



Steampunk Crab Sculpture
by *CatherinetteRings


Steampunk Leg Finished
by ~Skinz-N-Hydez





Steampunk Arm Finished
by ~Skinz-N-Hydez

Pilots Steampunk Time Piece
by ~Skinz-N-Hydez




Steampunk Helmet Front View
by *TomBanwell


Steampunk Ray gun 2
by ~Diarment


Well these are just a few things I found. I could carry on posting all night, but I think that will have to do for now.

dfb

A Flight of Dragons and Stories To Be Told

No sculpture today, but still essentially on topic...

I recently have been thinking nostalgically back to fantasy films I enjoyed in my youth and a couple in particular stuck in my mind. Such things serve as the inspiration of our works and I personally hold such memories dear. So here's a couple I have been trying to get hold of on DVD.

The StoryTeller by Jim Henson - a series of short, dark fairytales from various cultures which was told in a slightly unusual way of blending in the action within the setting of the StoryTellers immediate enviroment. Utterly fantastic costumes, monsters and stories featuring many famous faces including John Hurt as the Story Teller himself. One tale even featured Sean Bean! There was a short follow up season based around Greek fables and starring Michael Gambon as the Story Teller. The big crime here is that they are very hard to get hold of in DVD format and certainly not widely available in the UK after a hunt on ebay and other online stores. Luckily these shows are available online, as dodgy as that may be, these shows are great for fantasy fans and not to be missed. But if you do spot them in a shop be certain to snap them up.





The Flight of Dragons was another classic cartoon that is again, unfortunately very hard to get a copy of if you are in the UK. Customers in the US are more fortunate however and are able to order it via Amazon. It is oddly manufactured to order and comes as a direct no thrills attached copy of the VHS version. But for the folk who cannot order it, it to is available to watch online and if you havn't seen it, I recommend it as a good classic fantasy cartoon.