Here is a look at the first pull of the new My Little Arpie sculpt. He’s 2.5″ tall and I’m working on a couple of variations for sculpted eyes. I’m gonna do my best to have these available in a week or two. There will be some open editions (including gold), limited editions, and one-off’s. We’re looking at around a $15-$20 price point for the open editions. Stay tuned for official release details. A newsletter will go out announcing the official release.

I’ll also be releasing some unpainted Comic Con mini’s, I only have a few though. The SDCC painted versions are sold out. Thank you everyone!

This is the San Diego Comic Con version of the mini’s that will be available at Cardboard Spaceship’s booth (#4534). They will also have my collector card print available at their booth. I won’t be able to make it to Comic Con this year, but be sure to stop by their booth and check out all of their exclusives!

The beginning phases of the sculpting process:

Wire and aluminum foil are used to create the basis for the toy to be sculpted around. It’s very much like the gesture drawings you would do in any basic figure drawing course, just in 3D. Not only does it give a firm base when you’re mashing clay onto the sculpt, but it establishes the size of the final figure. If I have a target size, I will print out a rough sketch to scale to work alongside the armature.

Here are the beginning stages of the armature. I sculpt the head and arms separately, so i put them all together towards the end. That way I don’t put a thumb print in the head while trying to put counter pressure on the body. If the clay sculpt were the final piece, I would make a complete armature in the beginning so the result will be stronger. Since I only need this sculpt to last long enough to make a mold, I can afford to sculpt everything separately and attach them later.

Next step is adding clay!

This is my piece for the Meltdown show at Soyal Gallery in Arizona. Show opens on July 1st. Here are the other artists in the show:

Bwana Spoons • Le Merde • David Horvath • Sucklord
Martin Ontiveros • Koji Harmon • Kiyoka Ikeda • Andrew Hadle
Grease Bat • Brian Flynn • Josh Herbolsheimer
Oliver Hibert • Spencer Hibert • Jeremyville • INSA • COPE 2
Mark Nagata • Big Foot · CUPCO · Pinky · John Black · Naoshi
Kristin Bauer • Emmett Potter • Piper Ferguson • Tara Logson
Monster Hero • Miss Lotion • KILL • Grant Wiggins •
Tripper Dungan • Steve Agin • Mykil Zep

Here are some of the assets:

I’m giving away a San Diego Comic Con exclusive Arpie mini resin on Facebook. Just leave a comment on this post if you want to enter. Winner will be picked at random on Monday, June 28th. One comment per user, please.

You have to “like” me to be able to comment, you can do that here:

I will have a couple more of these for sale later, but this color variant is a very small run.

The very first step is deciding what type of character I want to do – whether it’s one of my signature characters (like Danny or Charlie) or something a little different (like Pepper or My Little Arpie). For this figure, I’m going to make one of my signature characters, and I’m gonna shoot for around 6″ tall.

Next, I spend about 30 mins to an hour looking through my folder of reference images and browsing fashion blogs (some favorites are Lookbook and The Sartorialist for street, The Fashionisto for editorial). For my characters the clothes play an important role (even if they’re very simplified), and I usually decide on their clothing before I decide how their faces will look.

After I decide on the general feel of the character, I do a couple of rough sketches (and I mean ROOOUGH):

That’s it, no joke. Because I’m in charge of the process from start to finish, there is no need for crazy detailed sketches – I know what I want to do – so at this stage I just do a couple of 30 second drawings. When drawing turnarounds for a client or another sculptor, the sketching and drawing process will take days of painstakingly detailed sketches from all different view points and pinpointed proportions and pantone colors. When I do the sculpt, my initial drawings are rough and dirty.

Usually I don’t decide on the name until after the first prototype is cast and painted, but for clarity’s sake, I’ve decided to name him now.

So stay tuned for the next step of the making of Arthur, I’ll be making the armature to begin sculpting.

Test pulls from the next batch of minis, thanks to Monstreuse Studios! Most of these will be available at Comic Con.