The Child Catcher

Here is a piece I fancy sculpting myself oneday, a fantastic rendering of the evil Child Catcher from the classic film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Sculpted by Darren Harvey of DHEffects. The bust will be available to buy sometime later this year and I will put up further details about that when I have them. I personally would love to paint this guy up. I will be practicing shading black first though!

The character was played by Sir Robert Helpmann, an Australian dancer, actor and producer. He certainly has a haunting face. You can read more HERE.

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Obsidian Painting Videos

Just thought I'd share a video made by Obsidian Painting. It is a great little tutorial on wet blending painting technique. Enjoy the video, after purchasing quite a few tutorial DVD's downloads from Miniature Mentor and Natalya's DVD set (both of which I would highly recommend) its nice to sit back with a coffee and enjoy a freebie!! Cheers Obsidian Painting!!!

Cool Mini Or Not Annual 2009

I was quite surprised to find the magnificent looking latest Cool Mini Or Not Annual in the shop section of the website yesterday and what a pleasant surprise that was as I have not spotted any news on it for quite some time. For those who have purchased the 2008 annual, you will know that the CMON team did a great job putting together a magnificent showcase of the best miniatures of the year in a very well presented, quality book. It looks like the format has stayed the same, which is a good sign and allows me to recommend it wholeheartedly. Preview pages are available in the shop, along with a index listing its contributors if you need to check whether your submission was included. I made it in myself for a second year which is a pleasant feeling I must admit.

You can buy the book HERE

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Figure of the Week

This week I choose a Studio McVey piece as my favourite from the Cool Mini Or Not top twenty of the week painted by Iacton. Lots of other great stuff in the chart to, so always hard to choose, but this one jumped out at me most. Check out my favourites list to see a whale load of great minis all collected together for easy convenience. Its not exhaustive yet, but click on the Cool Sculptures Archive to get to the link and check out the work of some of the best mini painters in the world.

The Work of Adam Beane

A sculptor I admire greatly, his large scale statues are utterly perfect, clean, crisp and come with bags of character, movement and emotion - in short everything you need to make a great sculpt! Here is a little video showcasing his work. Enjoy!

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Alien Intelligence

After browsing the CoolMiniOrNot website over the last couple of days I came across a stunning bust sculpted by the ever amazing Jordu Schell (http://schellstudio.com/) and painted by the painting machine that is "Jarhead" (Roman Lappat) of CMON. You can check his impressive group blog here - http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/ and please do, it is one I always enjoy reading and there is plenty of stuff to learn and plenty of eye candy to blow your eyes from their sockets. It is run by a small group of fantastic painters, not just Roman, so features work from several artists.

Today I finally started some sculpting again. I was just playing about - doing some alien face sketches when I hit a shape I liked and I kept going at it. Its nearly finished and now I need to figure how to use it in a sculpt. It is a withered face, very much Drow like so I may get it cast and try a few designs out. I like the idea of a warrior and a wizard character, so watch this space.

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Fantasy Garden Sculptures

Today I have discovered a few more gems and I must admit some jealousy here as I am sure would many others reading this. This post is dedicated to the work of artist and sculptor Bruno Torf who's fantasy sculptures populate some wonderful gardens in Australia. Here is a bit of information from his website....

"After several years of this lifestyle, Bruno and the family made a decision to pack up and move to Australia to create a sculpture garden that he would run as a permanent attraction.The family arrived in Melbourne and shortly after had found the perfect place in the small Victorian village of Marysville. The luscious sub-alpine forests of the surrounding area – were the ideal setting for Bruno's plan and luckily the property he purchased he a large section of rain forest attached. After five months of backbreaking work Bruno's art and sculpture garden was opened to the public. Also on the property was a gallery that housed over 200 of his artworks brought over from Europe that included oil paintings, sketches and smaller sculptures.



The garden began with just fifteen life sizes terracotta sculptures, today there are over one hundred and fifteen pieces on display and Bruno is still making regular additions. The unique experience of the garden and its wondrous inhabitants attracts thousands of visitors a year. Bruno and the family still live there and always take great pleasure in being able to share their magnificent art treasure with all that come."

Very Impressive work I'm sure you will agree.

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