THE OFFICE / BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Mash-Up at the Fur Ball

Saturday night was the 2nd annual Fur Ball at the Skirball and Akiko and I had a great time. The Fur Ball is a celebration and fundraiser for an amazing organization, Kitten Rescue. Please take a moment to click on the link to find out how important they are to LA.
Hosted again this year by a Kitten Rescue volunteer since 2001, The Office's Jenna Fisher (Pam.)


Jenna talking about her rewarding experiences from fostering cats to answering the Help Line.

Also at the event was 3 members from Battlestar Galactica. Tricia Helfer (#6), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) and Tahmoh Penikett (Helo) were there to add star power to the festivities.


Akiko with Tricia.


Helo and Starbuck ... in a picture from the show, not the event.


Tricia and her husband auctioning off a vacation package to Panama.

For more photos, check out Kitten Rescue's Facebook page.
Fun time and we're already looking forward to next year's event.

Thor and Gamora

Been very busy working on sets for the upcoming THOR movie and yes, the hammer they have designed for it is sweet.

Also putting together a final version of the Vartan maquette, illustrating another disc golf graphic and playing volleyball with Akiko. Lots of stuff going on, but all is well.


Latest Track 56 cover featuring Marvel's Gamora.

Age Of The Comic Book Movie

If you hadn't already noticed, we are living knee-deep in the Age of the Comic Book Movie. If you thought movies based on comic books have run their course, you better take a seat because there's plenty more on the way.

Both Iron Man 2 and Jonah Hex have wrapped shooting, I just spent a month sculpting on Priest which is now filming, Thor is in the construction phase and Spiderman 4, Green Lantern and Captain America are ramping up quickly.


Priest is based on a Korean comic.

The geek in me couldn't be happier, bring 'em on.

Roch

It was a real bummer that Akiko had to cancel due to work, but the trip back to Rochester, NY to see family and friends was a fun time.


Brighton '81 unite!


The family at "The Old Man's" house.


Sara and Taryn.

And one of my main goals for my visit, besides eating Country Sweet wings, was to play some Disc Golf. The morning round on a gorgeous September day was at the new MCC course. A well groomed, challenging 18 hole course with water coming into play on 8 holes and dense woods on most of the others. Thankfully, I had drawn up a map of the holes the night before from the internet because there were very few clues to where to throw on many of the holes.


Make sure you clear the water or your disc is gone.


Mike is facing the wrong way, but ready for the next green.

The afternoon match was at the world class course at Ellison Park. Some very long holes and a lot of hiking up and down the hilly landscape.


Yes, that is the basket way the F down the hill.


Shorty striking a pose at Ellison Park.

Jetsetting again.

Sorry for lack of updates. I just spent the last 3 weeks in Oahu sculpting sets for the season opener of LOST season 6 and let me tell you, they are definitely not holding back for the series' final season.


They changed the hotel where they put us up to right in the heart of Waikiki and I gotta say, after a 12 hour day, it sure is nice to sit and stare at the ocean.


Part of our crew: Kemo, John, Val, me, Uncle Herman and Scratch.

Tasteful Centerfolds, Cirque Berzerk and Wolfhound

For anyone who Googled "centerfolds" and ended up here, I'm going to break it to you up front. The are no naked women here, just cats with no clothes on.


Gizmo posing.


Furbert and his sun patch.

Akiko found out about it and got us tickets to an event that was a completely awesome entertainment package, Cirque Berzerk. Everything about this Creepy Carnival of the Dead was successful. Outstanding acrobatics, great music being played live during the show, ghoulish design and the New Orleans style Vaud And The Villains band that played during the intermission. Really fun time.


I recommend (to those who like this kind of stuff) Wolfhound, a Russian barbarian movie. "In a time when Gods walked amongst men..." and a group of evil marauders slaughters the entire Clan of the Grey Dog, save one boy who is taken in as a slave. About 7 minutes in, the boy now grown and bent on revenge, ready to wage siege on a mountaintop castle with his trusty bat companion, Ragged Wing. He is known as WOLFHOUND! Very fun Sword and Sorcery film that is not only epic in story, but in length as well at almost 2.5 hours. Hang on till the end because one must bear witness to the Mighty God Sword. Sweet.
Big, pissed off bad-ass with a broad sword strapped to his back and bat-buddy on his shoulder, what could be cooler than that? They call me WOLFHOUND!

Skulboy Lives!

Big thanks go out to Akiko for redesigning my website and getting it back up and running.
It is set up as a portfolio so if you would like to see the sculpting work I've done over the years without having to wade through vacation photos, head over to skulboy.com

SDCC 2009

After skipping the event last year, Akiko and I went down to San Diego for the Comic-Con and had a great time. Saw some friends, attended a few panels and got some very positive responses from showing our portfolios.
The place was packed, but fun.


NERD!


Akiko waiting for her Disney portfolio review.


The black beauty from next summer's Green Hornet movie.


My Con booty.

Molding Vartan

With the figure sculpt complete on the Vartan maquette, it's time to make a mold in order to create resin prototypes for manufacturing. I decided to make the mold myself, but huge thanks to Colin for letting me use his shop and advising me on the process.


With the cape and hand holding the helmet removed, the sculpture is laid down and fixed to the turntable.


A foam core platform is hot glued in place to allow for WED clay to be built up to the parting line.


The WED clay here is to represent the plaster flange along the outside and silicone with registration keys over the figure. I made a few mistakes claying this up, but we'll make it work.


The plaster jacket.

REVENGE OF THE TRANSFORMERS

Whether the film is considered great or terrible, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen was very good to me. I spent 4 months sculpting on it and got to work on things I usually don't get a chance to like ornament and scale maquette-models for some of the sets we were building.
-following photos will contain SPOILERS.-


By the time I was hired, all the math had been figured out to create this column, but I did get to help shape, detail and carve hieroglyphs on this 30' tall polystyrene beast.
Over 14 copies were made of this so Mr. Bay could blow them up in any manor he chose.


Another sculptor did the eagle statue (that got blown up) and I did the eagle talons and seal underneath it that was seen in the college library scene.
The painters did an amazing job making this look like marble.

Next I got to work on the maquette for the Tomb of the Twelve. It was a cramped set loaded with dead, corroded robots who had been there for thousands of years. The Production Designer and Michael Bay wanted a combination of organic bone shapes and decaying alien robot parts.


This one shows real animal jaw bones with teeth, casted spine and lobster parts and oil based clay.





The following are the finished set.




Hope you enjoy the photos, it was a fun project to be a part of.

Recent Stuff

For all of you that know me for the Comic Book Geek that I am, I can now say I worked on a Marvel film. It was only for a couple of weeks, but I just finished working on a set for Iron Man 2. I'm legally obligated not to say a word about it and before you ask, I did not see any of the stars.


Akiko and I went to the Huntington to see the Titan Arum or "Corpse Flower." It only blooms once every several years and when it does it only last for a couple of days and produces a rotting meat smell. The photo above was taken about a week before it bloomed.

We also spent a day at San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. We were really impressed with how much area these animals had to roam around in mingling with other species as they would in the wild in Africa.






We also took a behind the scenes tour and got to see this Cheetah up close. "Remember kids, stay behind the red line."


Look Out.... Behind You!!
They also had a temporary exhibit, Dino Mountain, with some nifty animatronic dinosaurs.

And what update would be complete without a pic of The Boys?

Ikon Flight

Here's a graphic I did for the Rico Bros. Disc Golf line, Ikon Flight.


Me drawing skulls, hmmm... who would have thought?

Land Of The Lost

I see Land Of The Lost didn't do so hot at the box office this weekend, but I did spend several months working on the sets.


This is the outside of the "home cave." We sculpted the entrance to match the one form the original TV series.


In progress shot of a set used throughout the film.


Close up of some of the rock work Dave Tye and I did.

Akiko and I saw the movie Saturday night and thought it was an entertaining movie for Will Ferrel fans. Goofy-fun with good CGI and a thumbs up for Chaka.

MONSTERPALOOZA '09

Finished a couple of weeks of sculpting on sets to be used on Michael Jackson's upcoming London concert tour. No, I did not see Michael and no, I cannot tell you what we built.
So, moving on....

This weekend, Akiko and I attended MONSTERPALOOZA. On display were some amazing sculptures of monster masks, heads and figures. Great stuff. Got to see Margot Kidder and a few icons of the genre.


Here I am with none other than Dr. Satan himself, Walter Phelan.


I've been caring around this photo of a tombstone I carved for Rob Zombie's House Of 1,000 Corpses and it finally paid off. Several years ago at a Comic-Con, I had gotten the signature of Bill Moseley (Otis) and this weekend got both Sid Haig (Captain Spalding) and Walter Phelan (Dr. Satan.)

Couple of shots from the Monster Museum.

Glyph?

Many LOST fans have been deciphering the hieroglyphs that have appeared on the TV show.
Well, here's one that they may not be able to find in the history books. The circled glyph that is in the panel above the Smoke Monster offering hieroglyph is known as...


Skulboy Strikes Again!

Little Down Time

What?!??

Finished sculpting for a DAY ONE set on Friday. It was a very hectic schedule with lots of changes and surprises along the way, but the Production Designer was happy with the results and they got a pretty major set for a TV show. Look for the pilot to air on NBC after the Winter Olympics.
Those who think I have a dream job, here was daily routing for this job: Up at 4:30am, out the door at 5:20am, work from 6am to 5:45pm, driving through downtown LA and getting home around 6:45, shower, dinner and in bed by 10pm. And that was a straight 2 weeks without a day off. I'm not complaining, but it is a demanding job. I think I'll sleep now.

Here's another LOST shot from last Wednesday's episode.

Worldwide Fame!

I guess we can chalk it up to the internet world that we live in these days.
I usually get about 6 to 10 visits a day at this blog so imagine my surprise when I turn on my computer yesterday and my Sitemeter desktop widget tells me that my blog had over 800 visits. In One Day!
Turns out that a fan of the much discussed LOST hieroglyphs that I worked on, had found my in progress photos of them from a Google search and linked my blog to a LOST forum. Then linked it to few more and before you knew it, my pics were all over the internet.
It's been linked to German, Korean and other sites, but I think this one from todoseries.com is my favorite. I can't read Spanish, but they have screen captures of "El Templo" from the show with my pictures along side them. Sweet.

Stay tuned for for my autograph signing appearance announcements.

Day One

Bad news is, I haven't had much chance to update this blog. The good news is, I haven't been able to because I've been working. Have been sculpting on a set for a pilot for the TV show DAY ONE.
In other bad news, the movie I was scheduled to work on next, BIOSHOCK, has been canceled. It's been way dead for movies being made in LA for about 10 months now and I was really looking forward to getting on a big show. If they make BIOSHOCK at all, it won't be made in the US.


Brewery Art Walk

Temple of the Smoke Monster

This week's LOST episode 5.12, featured the sculpting I did on my first trip to Hawaii this year.


After Ben and Locke walked through these stone tunnels, Ben fell through to the temple.


A distressed wall in the temple in raw bead foam.

And at the alter of the Monster...


Offering to the Smoke Monster hieroglyph.


Placed with other panels and blended together with cracks.


Sealed, painted, installed and ready for camera.

What do the hieroglyphs mean? I'm not sure, but the fans are certainly trying to figure it out and given this panel a lot of discussion over at Sledgeweb's LOST...Stuff and at The Fuselage.

Yes, Los Angeles has a river.

Akiko and I went on a FoLAR (Friends of the Los Angeles River) car tour of the LA River. we started at the Sepulveda Basin, made several stops and ended up Downtown. We got to hear about the history of the river and the ambitious revitalization master plan. Fun day.

Back from Oahu

Hawaiians Love Spam!

Just got back from my latest visit to Hawaii to work on LOST TV show. This time it was for the season finale and as usual, it was a lot of work crammed into a short amount of time. Looking forward to seeing what makes it onto the screen when it airs.


Mmmm... Dharma beans.

And the winner is...

After running a poll at Statue Forum and asking for help choosing what character to sculpt next on Facebook, the Cat warrior beat out Peace Machine.
Below are some Work In Progress photos. She is 1:7 scale and made with Super Sculpey firm.




Still a lot of work left, but it is being put on hold as I head out to Hawaii once again to work on LOST.


Kinda hard getting cat action poses for reference from these two.

Faux Bronze

Colin Recchio did a really excellent job taking my blank hero figure and painting him with a faux bronze finish. Sweet.

The Next Sculpt

This Saturday I will be starting a new maquette in Jordu Schell's class. The big question is what I will sculpt. Below are the sketches for the 2 characters I need to choose from.


Feel free to let me know which one you like to help me out.

West Coast Reunion

Thanks to Facebook, I've been able to catch up with friends I grew up with. Some I've haven't seen or heard from in over 20 years!
Turns out some other Brighton High '81 Alumni are also living in the LA area. After some planning, 4 of us ended up meeting in Santa Monica at a Tapas bar. It was great hearing what everyone has been up to and testing each other's memories of what we remembered about The Old Days.


Dave Rosenthal, Hillel Elkins, Debbie Fogel and myself. (Akiko was taking the picture)

Chocolate-Fu

Do you like thought provoking plots and in-depth character development? If you said "yes," then this movie is just not for you. If you on the other hand like Martial Arts movies with bone crunching kicks, knees and elbows all done without wires, then rent or buy CHOCOLATE as soon as possible.



Chocolate, brought to you by the Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior Director, Prachya Pinkaew, is about an autistic young girl, Zen, who's special gift is to be able to mimic moves she has seen in Kung-Fu movies and from the Kickboxing school outside her window. The story serves the purpose of giving Zen the excuse to start kicking ass and not much else. And that's fine with me because the fight scenes are just amazing. I found myself giggling with glee as Zen just brutally destroys people.
The final 20 minutes or so are easily the most fun I've had watching a Martial Arts movie in ages. If you enjoy this type of movie like I do, don't miss this one.

Death Knight update

Extended his brow and put some more detail in the muscle areas.

The Dark Death Knight

This is the first project for the Jordu Schell class.
It's a mask sculpt that will be molded and then cast in latex.

I'll going to tweek him some more, but here is The Death Knight so far.

More Vartan

OK, here he is almost finished. One minor addition, some battle damage and smoothing down is all that is left.





Roger, the man behind EAST OF BYZANTIUM, has approved the maquette so I'm now moving on to the base of fallen Persian warriors.

Akiko's Site Update

I just can't get over how far Akiko has progressed with her artwork in just a matter of a few years. Click the link to Akiko's site to see some very impressive work.


As for me, Vartan maquette is coming along very well and I just had my first sculpting class at Jordu Schell's studio.
Now if the actors and the studios could come to some type of agreement so we can all get back to work, everything would be great.

And, the cats...


The horror... of not being able to give myself a bath!


ZZZZZZZZZZ

Vartan progress

Spent the day refining Vartan's cape. Following are a couple of pics of the latest update.




The cape was roughly put back on Vartan and why it looks unfinished around neck and shoulder.

Travel

Just a few days before Akiko and I were scheduled to visit family in frozen New Jersey, I got a call for some sculpting work. 2 days after the call I was on a plane heading to Oahu to work on LOST season 5.
This is now the 3rd time I've been shipped over to help out with a set. In season 3 it was the ruins and column that Locke's father was chained to. Season 4 it was the icy cave where Ben turned the wheel to move the island. And now in Season 5 it was the set where... sorry, you'll have to wait until episode 12 for the answer.

Batman's Ladies

This is an illustration I did for the Feb. issue of CAPA-Alpha fanzine.


A few swipes involved here. One is the classic Neal Adams pose that Batwoman is in and the other is from a John Buscema Avengers cover.

Teaser Revenge

Michael Bay has been stingy with releasing details and pictures for Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, so fans can now rejoice as they have set loose the first official teaser poster.


Sweet, our first look at The Fallen.
I'm a little partial, having worked on it, but I'm pretty pumped to see this.

So Long SL

After much discussion, Akiko and I decided to trade in our 2000 Saturn SL2 and upgrade to a new vehicle.


The SL2 was a reliable car and in 86,0000 miles, never had any major problems other than typical wear and tear.
As for sentimental issues, it was the first new car I had ever bought and was our first big purchase after getting married and driving across country to live in LA.


What I'm really going to miss is my Flaming Purple Skull bumper sticker.

The new car is an '08 Astra XR.


It's a mostly unchanged Belgium made Opel Astra which has been a very popular model in Europe for several years. Designed for twisty European roads, the handling has a tight feel and makes for a fun ride. Not going to win any drag races, but has a spunky fuel efficient engine. We like it.