What is your age and date of birth?
32, I was born June 20, 1962.
Tell me a little bit about your background and
where you get your artistic talent from.
Well, I had an uncle that used to work at
NASA in Florida working on a lot of the early presentation
work, and art talent runs in my family. My older
brothers are artistically talented.
What are some of your influences?
King Kong and comics & monster movies.
How did you get into model work?
I first saw kits like the Screamin' kits in the earls 80's (Jason
and Freddy, etc. ) also Horizon kits. I decided to try my hand at
sculpting. The first kit I did was a small Clint Eastwood bust being
released by Jayco Models. I had seen Paul Gill's name & picture in
the model magazines, and one day I happened to be in Village
Comics in Manhattan. Paul came in with his partner, John Diaz of
Jayco, and I recognized him. I introduced myself. I guess I kind of
forced myself on them. That's kind of how we got together.
Every time I saw him after that, I made sure I always said hello.
When I got this thing started, this first bust, I just happened to
run into them and showed it to them.
It was already done when you saw them?
Yeah. It wasn't a commission at all. I had had this thing and
I thought, what the hell, let's see if they'll cast it for me. I was
actually going try to do it myself.
You didn't know how to make molds at that point?
I still have never made them myself. I know the basic idea of
it; I could probably do it, but I'm still a little nervous about that
part of it. I'm still debating about trying it on a little piece I have,
but as of yet I haven't done any casting. It just kind of like
happened. They liked this piece, and they talked me into doing
another piece. One that was basically a commission. That was the
Outlaw kit, which was my first full
figure. That debuted at the last Chiller
[Theater Con] which was Halloween.
That was the first time I had anything
at that show. In fact the bust of Clint
Eastwood sort of debuted then (as far
as any kind of mass market.) It had
only been cast a few months before, so
it was still kind of fresh. So this one
that I'm doing now is my third one,
second full figure.
So tell us about this one.
Well it was an idea that Paul Gill had. Maybe he and John
Diaz had talked about it. They felt that I was right for this piece.
They talked about doing Uncle Frank. I thought about it and
decided, this would be a good idea . It was something that I was
interested in. I didn't want to do just anything they suggested, but
this was a good idea, I thought. I felt I could do well with it because
of the human aspect of him, the realistic anatomy. It was something
that I was interested in; I thought it could it be a really
dynamic piece. There were some things about that character that
lent itself to more than just a visual photograph in 3 D. A lot of
kits are, they are just like, this is what it is or less. They look like
they're standing there like mannequins, not moving sometimes.
Although some of those tend to be the best likenesses, they are also
kind of the dullest. This guy I felt lent himself to a good interpretation
without having to be completely literal to what's seen in the
movie. The kit is 1/6th scale, more or less. I based it on, I think
like everyone, a lot of the kits that are already built. That seems to
be the standard now. I don't know, it may have just happened but
everyone but Screamin' does pretty much the 1/6th scale.
It's a good size for the shelf.
And it keeps everything in scale.
People can create dioramas, it's not
too big. Especially for the people who
are pouring resin. I understand that
once you start getting into that size, it
starts getting expensive for the mold making. This size
can be worked with. We had discussed going larger, but
we felt that that might be a little too much. Especially for
the weight of the resin and things like that. We kept it at 1/6th.
What did you use for reference?
I actually put on my suit, got a box of about the right
size. (I didn't have the Screamin' puzzle box, yet) I did what
I thought the pose was. I had a few small sketches. So I did
the pose and just had my girlfriend walk around and shoot
me. Basically I told her, here's what I'm going to do, get over
there shoot from that side now. I used a lot of that as
reference. Plus some of the pictures from horror magazines
for some of the other detail, but for the most part I used
myself. I tried to make it fit the statue of the actor playing the
character. He's supposed to be very thin, probably a little
thinner than I am, but that's where the artistic license comes
in. I can trim it a little bit, idealize it.
Did you try to go for a facial likeness from the photos in the
magazines?
To an extent. I
used the magazine to
get the general
likeness of the face,
the proportions.
Then, it was kind of
a dilemma at that
point. Should I make it look like
him from the movie, which
changed every ten minutes on film.
The way he looked was evolving
through out that. In the scenes
which had the suit that we wanted,
he was a little more progressed and
basically it looked like the make up
was a lot of ooze, a lot of red. I
felt that was kind of tough
to get past, plus there
seem to be a lot more
people that are getting
involved in realistic
anatomy. So I got out the
reference books. I even got a few
medical books. I used cadavers as
references, you know, photographs
from one of the libraries where I
work. I pretty much started
working with it from there. I had
the basic thing sculpted. I had to
get the rough likeness of him, but I
didn't go for a photographic likeness
from the movie because I wanted it to look more real. Like
he might really have looked. I went with more the way the
muscles should look on the face. It wasn't too bad of a movie
but there were some places where it looked like they made
things up, which is nice for film. But when people start
examining it, they say, wait, this is wrong. So I tried to keep
it a little more realistic. I thought maybe it would be more
interesting in the long run to people. I think the pose on it
was much more dynamic than any of the scenes in the movie.
Tell me a little bit about the physical techniques
involved; what kind of armature did you
make; aluminum or steel armature wire? Did
you use Sculpy?
I tend to be kind of a mixed media
person. I used kind of a grab bag technique
which I did when I was in school. I learned
how to sculpt with regular earth clay and an
armature; you know, how you take an
armature and secure it to a board. I used a
very similar method to Randy Bowen; I got
galvanized steel plumbing pipe, about an
inch piping, and ran that up a board with an
elbow. That I basically place in his back.
The armature was kind of a mix of
aluminum and some gage wire. Aluminum
is easy to work with and to cut.
So you did intend to cut the original
sculpture apart?
Yes. Because the gage wire was so
thin, it was easy to cut. I used it on some of
the extremities, like the arms. I worked with Super Sculpy, but I
also used Promat (a professional version of Super Sculpy from the
same company which is a slightly harder variety.). When you take
a block of it that hasn't been handled, and try to pull a piece off, it's
not going to pull, it's going to break and tear off, like a wet piece of
earth clay. It will kind of crack, so you've got to use your hands to
warm it up. I've been mixing Promat with Super Sculpy to give it
more flexibility. Promat bakes more stone-like than Super Sculpy.
You have to bake it a little bit longer. You can get finer detail with
it. When you work with it for a while it does sort of get that
texture like bubble gum, but if you let it sit for a while it'll harden
up again.
Do you coat your armature with a thin layer and then bake it so
that it has thin covering, building up layer by layer; baking each one
so as not to mess up an area that you just completed?
I don't do it to make a stiffened layer, I do it because I don't
like it sliding around. I used regular Sclupy, the white stuff,
on the initial layer, because it's a cheaper (as the sculpture is so big.)
Actually I think it was a mixture of Sculpy and Super Sculpy. I like
to experiment, like Leonardo used to do with oil paints. It's also a
way to economize your materials. They tell me that this stuff hasn't
fallen apart when removed from the mold like the original Sculpy
did. I got the originals back of Clint Eastwood bust and the
Outlaw, and they've held up. There's nothing missing from them at
all.
Do you sculpt your heads and your hands separately?
Yes, I do. On this one I actually used little tiny armatures for
the fingers. The clay rolled a little bit on the wire, but it gave me
something to work with. It worked really well. I'm going to
continue to do that. The hands have a lot of detail. I like to do the
heads mounted on a small board so I can spin it around and
around, and work on it from all angles. I like to get the head done
before the body is done, so that I can match the body to the head.
The same thing with the hands.
Do you use little ball bearings or spheres for eyes?
I have not used those yet. On this one I got kind of lucky
and the eyes are actually round. It just takes a lot of work.
So how do you approach the planning for mold making and
cutting the model apart?
Well that's something I'm still learning about. On the first
one, the bust, that wasn't necessary. On the second one, I only
removed the arms. For this one, the head, the hands, and one leg
will be separate pieces. But for mold making I hand it off,
so that's the concern of others.
So what does the future hold for you, Mark? Do you plan
to stick with garage kits for a while?
For now, yes. I'm going to keep on doing it and see
where it takes me. I'm definitely not making a living from it
right now, so I guess it's a hobby. But I really enjoy it.
So what's the deadline for the kits? What's the price
range? Will instructions be included or color box art?
The kit will be debuting at the April Chiller Theatre
Con., they'll have maybe a dozen or more kits. They'll be
taking orders. I'm hoping it will sell well. The price range will
be competitive, but I'm not sure what it is. I'm going to be
doing the box art. It will be color. I was trained as an
illustrator. I've done my share as an illustrator, but I don't do
it for a living anymore. It'll probably be a mixed media
painting. My medium of preference for control is colored
pencil, with some oil on top of it to pull it together. It's an
interesting technique. Jayco doesn't usually provide an
instruction sheet, because the kits are pretty self-explanatory.
We're hoping that the box art plus common sense will do the
job. As far as the positioning of the hands, people will have a
choice. There are going to be two different hands; one will
have the puzzle box and one will have the switchblade. I'm
sure everyone has their own preference. I have mine, but I'm
not saying what it is now! You can have it look the way you
want it to. You can take that extra hand and stick it
in the middle of the back if you want (laughs).
Customize it!
Originally published in
Coenobium.
Reprinted here with permission. Thanks, Coenobium!
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