How to Craft a Miniature Wizard's Wand

What's a wizard, warlock, or witch without an implement of arcane power?! In this video I show how to craft a miniature wand through an incredibly simple process. When making a mini wizard's wand with my process, there's plenty of room to customize the wand and make it unique to whatever wielder of wyrd eldritch power you like, whether that's Harry Potter or Gandalf the Grey (or White).

 

How to Craft a Miniature Wizard's Wand

 

This wand was crafted with an art doll in mind that was actually a character I played in the Pathfinder role-playing game, Fabian Faust, a conjurer of devils and demons with a snide, sneering disposition- safe to say he's a bit of a jerk (I'd imagine him talking like Timothy Spall, the actor who played Wormtail/Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies). I'd made an art doll of the character some time ago and decided it was time Fabian had his arcane armament.

 

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

Having a Growth Mindset as an Artist

For some reason we give ourselves the permission to try new things and grow in our capabilities in them as a child that we don't as we grow older, even if we're trying to acquire a wholly new skill set. It's madness to think that simply by virtue of your age you're entitled to some virtuoso talent at a novel, new experience. There are two mindsets, one that's fixed and believes that your abilities are innate and then there's a growth mindset. I'm convinced that having a growth mindset for artists is the only way to be. Times and artistic tastes are going to change. Your work and how to best distribute it are going to change. To reject these truisms is to be at war with reality.

 

 

I certainly believe that people have predispositions to being skilled at a given task, what we would call talent, but it's routinely born-out in athletics and the arts, that those that are naturally gifted and strive to be the top of their craft frequently are. Innate talent can only take you so far and such individuals are likely to plateau without the disciplined work that's prerequisite to become a true master of one's craft.

 

If there's skill that you think would enrich your life for being adept at it, I'd urge you to take that child-like approach of the enjoyment of the activity regardless of the outcome and to work through it to the best of your present skills. Think back to most things you may have tried in your childhood and you'll likely have produced nowhere remotely near professional results, whether that was drawing, coloring, or whatever creative expression you attempted early on, but you likely enjoyed making the art making process and maybe you were lucky enough to have some kind adults lie and praise what you were making. When attempting new art forms as an adult, after a multitude of tries, fifty, one-hundred, then you would have some grounds to honestly determine the effectiveness of your efforts because while your critical eye may be honed as an adult, your muscle memory for a new task is often just developing.

 

For all the myriad of ways you can spend your time developing new capabilities, there comes a time when you need to narrow-in and focus on an array of abilities that are the most worthwhile and fulfilling to you. You could learn how to code and make custom websites, but if just creating a website through a templated site such as this Squarespace blog you're currently reading accomplishes the vast majority of what you want it to do, then the choice is fairly obvious. While you can likely learn how to do a great many things, at some point you're going to have to pick and lane, a focus, and prioritize what capacities help reach your goals from that perspective. The number of distractions that you can find are infinite and many creatives find some amount of constraints to be liberating in their ability to focus on the important tasks at hand as opposed to the infinite canvas stretched-out in all directions.

 

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

Fan Art Illegal?! Things to Consider When You Make Fan Art

There's a range of opinions on whether artists should create fan art and the ethics of doing so. One might make fan art as a genuine expression of their fandom, as an opportunity to gain exposure for their art, to make money, or some mixture of all three motivations. I'm not looking to judge someone's choice in creating fan art, but from a strictly creative business stand-point, if you're making the majority of your sell-able artwork around intellectual properties that you don't own, this seems like tenuous footing for an artist to be in. Selling fan art's illegal and this isn't just some opinion I happen to hold, this is straight from the mouth of contract and intellectual property attorney acquaintance, Seth Polansky.

 

Watch Fan Art Illegal?! | Things to Consider When You Make Fan Art

 

Luckily few intellectual property holders crack-down on fan artists selling their work, but that's precisely the issue: if you make your living selling fan art based merchandise- you're relying on "luck" for your continued livelihood. I lurk an artist alley Facebook page and I've seen the occasional so-and-so animation studio's issuing take-down notices. And a take-down notice or a cease and desist form is a kind way for the copyright holders to go about it- who knows if we'll see an effort to slap-down this form of infringement in the same way that the music industry came down on some of those pirating music in the early to mid 2000's to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

EXCERPT ON FAN ART USAGE PER COPYRIGHT ATTORNEY SETH POLANSKY ON ONE FANTASTIC WEEK

 

 

With the risks that are stake, I simply couldn't see putting all of my eggs in the fan art basket. I may occasionally do a fan art piece if the mood strikes me, but I definitely intend to make that the exception rather than the rule. What's your opinion on fan art? Do these considerations make you any less likely to make it?
 

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

Getting Ready to Show at My First Art Booth! | Art Star Craft Bazaar in Philadelphia, PA

This Saturday I'm taking a leap that I've put off for some time in years past- I'm getting ready to show at my first art booth at the Art Star Craft Bazaar here in sunny, hot, humid Philadelphia! Art Star has been running successful arts and crafts shows for several years in the area and I feel like I'm in pretty good hands. This is a pop-up show, which means it's only one day for a few hours. The first date for it is Saturday, 7/28/18 from 12-5pm.

 

There's a few reasons I've put off boothing at art fairs, but I think one major one was not feeling like I'd ever had a large enough body of solid artworks to show. I don't feel like you can do this sort of a show without 10-12 images you feel strongly about. There's also a fair amount of start-up costs to running a booth- there's the cost of inventory (and the packaging of said inventory) and the display and booth decor items aren't particularly cheap if you don't happen to have what you need on-hand and want to have a certain level of professionalism to your presentation.

 

WATCH MY THOUGHTS ON GETTING READY TO SHOW AT MY FIRST ART BOOTH | ART STAR CRAFT BAZAAR IN PHILADELPHIA

 

 

Speaking of professional presentation, there's a few people I'd like to thank for inspiring me with best practices, either from watching their content or sending them the occasional frantic Facebook message. I've been following the independent genre artist podcast One Fantastic Week's YouTube content for a couple of years and I think there's few better resources for entrepreneurial artists and they've a great community of like-minded people. I also owe Pete Mohrbacher a beer for recommending El-Co Color Labs- they've produced some really fantastic prints of my art. Crystal Sully, creator of "Untamed Beastiary", was also super helpful in helping me track down a couple of vendors for booth supplies. Rather than have you track Crystal down, I'll list the vendors I've used for booth display.

 

Craft Show Vendors

  • Printing: http://www.elcocolor.net/

  • Banner: https://www.nextdaydisplay.com/product/fabric-wrinkle-free/

  • Print Bags, Cardboard Backing, & Shopping Bags: https://www.clearbags.com/

 

I'm doing four of these shows and I'll let you know how they ultimately went- fingers-crossed that it was worth it! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

Greetings & Welcome to the Dream Syndicate Art Dolls

How rude of me- I've yet to properly introduce my YouTube channel. In this video, I do just that by giving folks a taste of what they can expect from The Dream Syndicate Art Dolls with this channel trailer.

 

WATCH WELCOME TO THE DREAM SYNDICATE ART DOLLS

 

Throughout my videos, I share the process I use in crafting fantasy art dolls, showing you how I sculpt, paint, build, and paint them. I also show how some of the props are made for a photo shoot and a glimpse of what the photography sets look like for my dimensional art doll illustrations. When I'm not creating videos about making art dolls, I make videos about the arts, whether it's culture or thoughts about what it's like to be a professional artist today.

 

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next time: Make. Believe!

The Devil May Cry with this Devil Art Doll Repair 👹

This devil art doll's name is Diavolo Malvolo and he fits that old wedding tradition of something old, something new, something borrowed, and something new as the blue devil himself is an older work, the illustration's new, I borrowed some dry-rotted wood to make the "cliff" he's standing on, and well, the blue part's pretty obvious, isn't it? In this latest video, I take the devil art doll that's been sitting on my shelf and reveal his dark, disturbing secret... no, it's not that he's a devil- that much's obvious! The secret is this: he has crevice along his horn and ear- he's damaged goods. Over the course of the video I try to repair him, but do I succeed? Watch and find-out good viewer!

 

WATCH DEVIL ART DOLL REPAIR 👹

 

As you might have seen if you made it to the end of the video (I say in an accusatory voice), I made an dimensional illustration with this handsome devil art doll. If you'd like one to hang on your wall, you can order a print from my Etsy store.

 

You can bring this handsome devil home from my store.

You can bring this handsome devil home from my store.

Just in case you're still in suspense- I was able to repair Diavolo after all through the use of plumber's epoxy and epoxy resin as well as a fresh coat of paint. Huzzah! I hope you enjoyed your chance encounter with the devil! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make. Believe!

HOW I STARTED MAKING ART | MY JOURNEY AS A CREATOR SO FAR 🎨🖌

This a brief recap of how I started making art, which I began probably around the time that I could hold pencil or crayon to paper. I'd draw the characters from my favorite cartoons and video games and because others noticed what I was doing, it fueled me to do more of the same. I drew, colored, and later even expanded my repertoire to occasionally include other mediums such as pastels, charcoal, and learning the basics of Photoshop and a 3D animation software called Bryce (a part of me wonders if anyone's still using it) in my K-12 education in southern New Jersey in the U.S.

 

After high school, I went to the University of the Arts in 2002, and aside from the fair amount of debt that comes with a private college education, it was a mostly good experience. I was surrounded by an atmosphere of people that were as enthusiastic about the visual arts as I was from my peers to much of the faculty. I'd made some lifelong friends and even a couple of mentors. With all this in mind and with so many art education resources available that weren't at that time such as Schoolism, SVS Learn, SmArt School, Udemy, Skillshare, Linda.com, not to mention the countless hours of free tutorial content you'll find on YouTube and elsewhere online, and the ever rising cost of college tuition, I wouldn't recommend art school for most young people these days. Instead, consider what resources you can find in your local community and online. 

 

 

WATCH HOW I STARTED MAKING ART | MY JOURNEY AS A CREATOR SO FAR 🎨🖌

 

 

The route to earning a living off of art can be a long, circuitous one and longer still when your passions lead you in the direction of fantasy art. I'd occasionally send-out my work, which wasn't good enough at the time, to art directors and then I sort of shifted to sending-out art to galleries. It was largely my photography that was lacking in my work- the art dolls that I make were good enough to earn the interest of a few art gallery owners around the U.S. and Canada. The downside to the gallery world is that the economics didn't seem sustainable to me (i.e. getting to a point where you can live on the money you earn) and so when my brother and I began talking about creating a role-playing game oriented YouTube channel, I was open to the suggestion.

 

In March 2014, my brother Dave and I started the Nerdarchy YouTube channel (in short order we added Ted, Dave's brother in-law and later Nate, who are both friends and people I've spent many an hour with at the gaming table). During this time, my art largely took a hiatus- I'd create art assets and do graphic design for the channel, but my art largely took a backseat to the other demands of being a YouTube creator. It was slow, tedious at first, with the channel getting very few views, but by that summer something fantastic for nerd niche channel happened, a large scale play test document was released for Dungeons & Dragons, arguably the biggest player in the tabletop role-playing world, and our channel honed-in on covering and playing this 5th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. And with that, our channel started to gain some momentum, not meteoric as happens with some personalities on YouTube, but at a steady enough growth rate to assure us that we were on the right track. A fantastic community started to build-up around Nerdarchy and our content- people would send us stories about how we brought them back into the hobby or just how much they enjoyed our videos, valued our opinions, sometimes even wanting an opinion on specific issues that were having at their gaming table. We carried-on at a frenetic pace for the better part of two years, uploading 12-13 videos a week and recording our D&D sessions while also trying to figure-out how to make this whole thing make sense as a business venture. About two years into my involvement with Nerdarchy, I'd had the nagging feeling that though we were succeeding at building this business around a hobby we all love, I was feeling that for myself, I was succeeding at the wrong thing. The way the business was growing and the roles that I would have to take-on weren't what I would choose for myself and with it still being a side-business in addition to my full-time job, if you aren't passionate about a side-business, a passion project, then there's no reason to continue doing it. And besides, I was thinking of how much I missed actually making my art.

 

I'd acquired a ton of knowledge about how YouTube worked- from content creation, to thumbnail design, to nitty-gritty things like Search Engine Optimization on the platform. I also knew that there are few better ways for independent creators to reach people today than making YouTube videos. With this in mind, I re-dedicated myself to once again creating my dimensional illustrations and documenting the process in videos on my new channel The Dream Syndicate Art Dolls. And once again, starting a new YouTube channel's slow and tedious, but I've faith that it will take me places that I want to be in the next couple of years.

 

If you want to watch where the journey takes me, you can subscribe and hit the bell icon to get notifications from my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. Until next time: Make. Believe!

Making Fun: The Story of Funko Pops on Netflix

I recently treated myself to a couple of hours to check-out the latest toy-themed documentary, Making Fun: The Story of Funko Pops on Netflix (as I write this, I'm still making my way through season 2 of The Toys That Made Us). There's a couple of things I'll have to confess before I go any further into this post: 1. I'm not a vinyl toy collector. There are a few toys that I think have a fantastic design and certainly wouldn't mind owning, but I also aspire to a certain level of minimalism in my life (I'm not great at this mind you, hence it's being aspirational). 2. I'd always taken Funko as some sort of corporate juggernaut, but the company's origins were a lot more DIY than I would've guessed. It didn't take long into the toy documentary before I was happy for the success of Mike Becker, Funko's once Chairman of Fun, and the scrappy little art toy start-up he'd built, Funko.

Watch Making Fun: The Story of Funko Pops Here

I had such a good time watching this Funko toy documentary and wanted to share it with you in my Making Fun The Story of Funko Pops review on Netflix.

 

I found myself delighted by the delight and passion of Funko's fans, self-identified as Funatics, and in such trying times as we now exist in, basking in this global community's collective joy was a welcome breadth of fresh air. What I enjoyed about Mike Becker and later Brian Mariotti's running of Funko was that they approached their stewardship of the company largely as fans first, steering the company in directions that has consistently make their collectors thrilled with Funko.

 

While I'm not likely to rush-out and buy a mountain of Pop Vinyls anytime soon, I'm glad that they can make so many fandoms happy with their little beady-eyed, square headed art toys. The Netflix toy documentary had a couple of emotional moments, but it was a "feel-good" piece through-and-through. If you could two solid hours of joy and camaraderie and you might enjoy a toy documentary, I definitely recommend you give it a watch!

 

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

The BEST Art Advice that You RARELY Hear

We live in a landscape of seemingly inexhaustible "experts" when it comes to the creative field (heck, when it comes to most fields). Where many are pushing their opinions without your knowing their credentials. And that is crucial, if you can't verify why someone's opinion is more valid than any other person off the street, chances are it isn't. We live in an era where most everyone feels they need an opinion on most everything, no matter their lack of expertise on the subject-matter, to feel validated as a human being. With that, my old time-y wisdom to you, the best art advice that you rarely hear is this: always consider the source.

 

Watch The BEST Art Advice that You RARELY Hear

 

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

BRAMBLING 🌲| Making a Fantasy Art Doll

And finally, a brambling is full born... or is it sprouted from a little acorn? The biology of the little fae creatures aside, this fantasy art doll is completed! All told, he probably took around 16 hours to craft (including accidentally sculpting two right hands for him! Unfortunately, not the first time something like that's happened, I assure you!). In prior videos I shared the process of sculpting and painting him in-depth and in this most recent one, I sew his clothes and show-off a bit of the staged set that went into making the finished dimensional illustration.

 

Watch Brambling | Making a Fantasy Art Doll

 

I enjoy characters with fanciful clothing and while the brambling's clothes are meant to have a utilitarian, rustic look to them, I was able to add some visual interest with the fae creature's asymmetrical, tattered cloak. The clothing was distressed by wrinkling, staining with acrylic paint, sanding, and then hand-sewing the fabric directly on to the art doll's body. I usually make a point of distressing an art doll's fabric as i like the viewer to imagine the secret life that the art doll has when they're not around. A life with a bit of mystery and magic's a better one! Lastly I set-up the scene by arranging fabric, vines, butterflies, and even used some small tree stumps! I photographed this mixture of found objects and then spent a little time post-producing the image in Photoshop.

 

Here's the finished dimensional-illustration:

You can find a print of this illustration here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/601530840/brambling-fey-fantasy-fine-art-85x11?ref=listings_manager_grid

You can find a print of this illustration here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/601530840/brambling-fey-fantasy-fine-art-85x11?ref=listings_manager_grid

 

I hope you enjoyed exploring this magical fey creature as much as I have! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

Should I Be a Specialist Artist? A Response to "Your Value in Art" by Bobby Chiu

I came across a video by Bobby Chiu entitled "Your Value in Art" and my curiosity was piqued. Being the even-keel, zen-like soul that Bobby Chiu is, he didn't place a value judgement on whether one should be a generalist or a specialist artist, but (perhaps because I'm less even-keeled) I definitively believe that a long-term career favors the specialist artist.

 

Watch Your Value in Art by Bobby Chiu

 

Watch Should I Be a Specialist Artist Response Video

 

First, it would be helpful to establish a definition of both generalist and specialist artists. A generalist artist dabbles in any number of genres, styles, or niches of art making. A "jobbing artist" that goes from project-to-project, competing with several other well-qualified creatives to do so, perhaps a toy design one week, storyboards the next, and then a couple of weeks illustrating a book cover. A specialist artist narrows-in on one artistic field, medium, or overall aesthetic and produces work in that vein. The specialist artist is often brought into a project because they were one of a short-list of candidates who could properly envision the project, whether that's designing characters for film or television or creating work for print media.

While artists can make a living as a generalist, a generalist artist is a commodity, like a bottle of orange juice you'd buy at the local supermarket, easily replaced (and in the times we live in, easily outsourced if communication barriers are minimized). When their skill set is in alignment with what's desirable in the creative market place, a specialist artist is actively sought-out for the specific thing they do and therefore has a much easier time standing-out among a field of generalist artists.

If two artists were competing for the same job to design environmental concepts for a video game studio, who's most likely to get the job? The artist with the portfolio of character, vehicles, weapons, and environment concepts or the artist with the same number of pieces in their portfolio, but every single piece of the portfolio shows that they want to do the job their trying to get hired for, each piece shows a game environment concept? I don't know about you, but I'd say the smart money's on the second candidate, the specialist.

There's also the level of niche-ism that surrounds us today- an artist that may not have gained support through the conventional route of publishers can now go directly to the public if they're willing to become savvy marketers of their work. Services like Kickstarter, Patreon, YouTube, Instagram, and the like give artists a multitude of platforms to try and connect with an audience. Add to this that in most countries, there's fan conventions for any kind of niche you could imagine- everything from fantasy/sci-fi, to comic books, to My Little Pony, to... furries.

But isn't there a danger of being too specialized? Frankly, there's risk in any field one could choose to invest decades in that the market could shift and the only thing one can do is shift with it or perish. Commercial airbrush artists were in demand from the 60's through the 80's, but once the art market shifted, many of them either had to pivot their artistic skills to another medium or no longer work in the creative field.

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

Make Better Art By Caring Less? 🎨

Is it possible to make better art by caring less? In my latest video, that's exactly the thesis I posit. As with any craft- playing music, dance, or the visual arts, once you get a firm handle on your rudimentary skills, you can accomplish greater works by not putting too much pressure or importance on any one individual work. If you're thinking beyond being in the moment of what you're doing in the present, you're hindering your ability to reach a flow state.

 

Watch Make Better Art By Caring Less

 

Flow State: In positive psychologyflow, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting loss in one's sense of space and time.

 

When I was younger, in art school and earlier, I'd often be paralyzed by the potential of things "going wrong" in a piece, which was an impediment to artistic growth. Had I adopted this Stoic-like philosophy of "is this the condition I so feared?" much earlier in my art-life, I'd likely be happier for it. Not to spend too much time on roads less traveled because on some level I wasn't ready to receive this life lesson, but within the last few years, I've become ready and that's ok too, to borrow another bit of immortal wisdom, "When the student is readythe teacher will appear.", and to a large extent that teacher was time and experience.

Let's put the number of works of art you're likely to make over the course of your life-time into perspective- let's say a given artist will average 1.5 pieces of art in a month, that's 18 completed artworks per year. Now let's say you'll have at least 40 productive years of making art- with that number of works and that time-frame, that's 720 finished artworks... and these are all using fairly modest estimates- there are plenty of artists that can and do complete 2-4 works of art in a month. Bearing that in mind, is the piece your working on right now all that significant in the grand scheme of things? If you let go and create without fear, it could be. It could be one of a handful of pieces of art that you're known for, but this becomes far less likely when you create in a state of fear and anxiety about the artwork's outcome. Hold-out for judgement on the outcome until your piece of art's completed.

Making art should be about making the best possible thing you're capable of creating in the stage you're at in your artistic journey at that moment. If you need to make bold changes, a drastic change in drawing, tone, or contrast, make it and go forward boldly, leave open that space for growth. And even if you fall flat on your face in the attempt, chances are, you've learned something that you can carry onto future artistic endeavors.

Painting the Brambling | Painting a Fantasy Creature Head

Now that the brambling's head is sculpted to my liking, it's time to lay down some paint! When painting a fantasy creature head, it's actually kind of important to ground yourself in realism because bramblings are elusive in the wild! I had to do the next best thing and bring a couple of tree branches into the studio. Who'd have thought realism's the best strategy when painting a fantasy creature head? By looking at this tree branch I could observe that it was largely a warm grey tone with moments of green and brown on it rather than that iconic brown Crayola crayon that we might all instantly imagine.

 

Watch the Brambling Head Be Painted with Acrylics Here

 

I used a range of earth-tones in painting the fey creature's head- siennas, umbers, ochers, and greens with touches of grey tones to dull-down the pigments. I also painted the head generally lighter than I would have naturally due to the fact that I was about to embark on trying my hand with an ink wash technique...

EXPERIMENTING WITH INK!

ACRYLIC INK

In painting this head, I tried a technique that was new to me: using an acrylic ink wash with dark toned ink. I had carved a lot of bark texture all over the brambling and I wanted a way to darken the recessed areas that didn't involve my painstakingly painting in dark tones and then carefully trying not to undo this work as I painted-in lighter tones. Before I used the technique on the actual fantasy art doll head, I tested on scrap sculpted piece I had (who'd have thought I was doing myself a favor when I accidentally sculpted two right hands for this art doll?!). Admittedly, I still feel like I can do a better job at highlighting sculpted details with this technique, but overall, I'm happy with the outcome.

 

If you would like a print of the Brambling final image, you can purchase it HERE.

 

I hope you enjoyed exploring this magical fey creature as much as I have! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

What's With #ArtVsHero?

If you spend time lurking artists on Instagram or Facebook or are an artist yourself, you may have seen #artvshero going around. The hashtag started with students of SVS Learn, which was founded by Jake Parker and Will Terry, and is a way for artists to see how they stack-up when surrounded by their art heroes. An artist places their work in the center of a 3-by-3 square grid and literal surrounds their work with the artwork of their influences.

 

Watch a Discussion on Art Versus Hero Here

 

I first found-out about this creative exercise on the fantasy/independent artist podcast One Fantastic Week when hosts Pete Mohrbacher and Samuel Flegal had Will Terry as a guest. And I spent some time thinking about it, I found that I'm as influenced by collaborative arts like stop-motion and film design as I am by individual artists and if you've followed any of these artists, there's a through-line, between many of them.

 

Watch the One Fantastic Week Interview with Will Terry Here

 

 

My Art Versus Hero Grid

ArtVs.Hero Will Terry.jpg

 

Going across each row, the artists (or production companies) are: 

Rednose Studio (an independent artist), Brian Froud, Rankin/Bass Productions, Laika, myself, Tony Diterlizzi, Jim Henson Company, Brom, and Dave McKean. I try to take little bits and pieces of inspiration from all of these wonderful artists with myself acting as a filter. This is by no means an exhaustive list of artists that have influenced my work- I also draw inspiration from many, many more fantastic artists.

Brian Froud worked with Jim Henson films to design the characters for Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal and I know these films were hugely influential on Tony Diterlizzi as early in his career he dreamed of working for Jim Henson. Rankin/Bass produced stop-motion films throughout the 1960's and 70's and it would be easy to see their work informing later animation studios like Laika or the work of Rednose Studio. I love the work of both Rednose Studio and Dave McKean because they've both shown themselves to be near limitless in their process to visually story tell. I also owe Rednose Studio a debt of gratitude for raising the bar for dimensional-illustration! There have been traditional photographed three-dimensional picture books in the past, but they had the unfortunate ability to be unintentionally unnerving (a college friend had showed me a "Goldilocks & The Bears" picture book from decades ago that was nightmare inducing).

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

Making a Brambling 🌲 | How to Sculpt a Fantasy Creature Head

Bramblings are fey creatures that wander the forest floor looking for mischief to get up to or something good to eat. They can helpful to a lost wanderer or a nightmare to those that break some esoteric woodling taboo. The brambling has been living in my sketchbook for some time and I'm glad to see it finally come to life. I see them as a species rather than any one individual creature and being somewhat wild and unpredictable.

 

Watch a brambling get crafted here:

 
BramblingCrop.jpg

 

 

This fantasy polymer clay sculpture was crafted with Sculpey Medium Blend, which is a mixture of Sculpey's regular and firm variety, and was my first test with that particular clay (Super Sculpey beige being my "go-to: polyclay). While I found it pleasant to work with, I thought it had a pretty similar consistency to my regular clay. At some point I'd like to experiment with Sculpey Firm and see how that handles. I really could have stood to use a firmer clay since the oh so thin branches are a very delicate aspect of this art doll sculpture. I could see trying Firm or trying my hand at Monster Clay, which doesn't require baking in the oven since it's a two-part epoxy.

 

I spent a lot of time during the sculpting process creating the bark-like texture of the creature, smoothing-out and trying to create the delicate lines of the branches. I also sculpted tiny clay-like hands. I typically craft art dolls with poseable paper mache hands, but in this case I didn't think I'd be able to get the jagged texture of the bark with such delicate material.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like a print of the Brambling final image, you can purchase it HERE.

A brambling in it's natural environment.

A brambling in it's natural environment.

I hope you enjoyed exploring this magical fey creature as much as I have! To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

Tiny Dragons Art Book 🐉 | Book Look

I'm excited to announce that the Kickstarter for the "Tiny Dragons" art book is going on now through April 12, 2018! It features a wide range of styles and mediums to make everyone's favorite winged magical creature and the work's by over 200 artists from around the world. The project is headed by long-time dragon art aficionado, Jon Schindehette of the ArtOrder and former art director for Dungeons & Dragons.

 

The Tiny Dragons Art Book is a collection of work by dragon fantasy artists from around the globe!

 

The styles of art range from traditional drawing and painting, cartooning, origami, and there's even some sculptural pieces. The art book Kickstarter's actually comprised of three books:  "Tiny Dragons", "Not So Tiny Dragons", and "Tiny Dragons by Tiny People". The "Tiny Dragons" book features dragons of a more playful, cute variety. "Not So Tiny Dragons" contains art that often expresses the more terrifying or dangerous aspects of these marvelous beasts. Lastly, "Tiny Dragons by Tiny People" are dragons created by the hands of young artists under the age of 13 that capture the imagination of the young at heart. Both "Tiny" and "Not So Tiny Dragons" are hardbound books of over 120 pages each, "Tiny Dragons by Tiny People" is a soft cover book and all three can be had for the great price of just $30 USD in a lovely, firm slip case.

 

This is a digital mock-up of what the books and slip case will look like.

This is a digital mock-up of what the books and slip case will look like.

If this project looks like something you or a loved one would enjoy, you can get your book or book set on Kickstarter here:  http://bit.ly/TinyDragonsYT through April 12, 2018. I'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider helping spread the word about the project with other dragon enthusiasts!

An interior view of a "Tiny Dragons" book.

An interior view of a "Tiny Dragons" book.

The Singing Bones 💀 by Shaun Tan | Book Look

Shaun Tan's the "The Singing Bones" is essentially a sculpture art book full of primal, even sometimes primitive looking figures that portray moments of Brother's Grimm fairy tales. Often a world of stark gray contrast with pops of color (usually a crimson red) that is equal parts humor and disquieting, threatening figures.

 

Watch a Flip Through of The Singing Bones Here

 

Get "The Singing Bones" Here

 

"The Singing Bones" is certainly not your conventional Grimm's fairy tale picture book as very little of the book's gorgeously illustrated pages are given over to story text, rather, a small distilled, snippet from an image's story is placed beside it.

Tan's small scale sculptures are often used to fantastic effect as he plays with perceptions of scale- mere pebbles that might be at home decorating one's lawn now become a vast landscape in the books title image, The Brave Little Tailor's giant takes on menacingly titanic proportions with a figure astride it that's barely larger than the giant's fist, and simple hardware, nails become deadly menacing spikes.

 

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts.

You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

Painting a Krampus Art Doll with Acrylic Paint

The color palette that I use varies widely depending on a given fantasy art doll that I'm painting. With humans you have a wide tonal range of flesh tones, but when you're painting fey, goblins, or other mythical creatures, there's really no limit!

Watch Painting An Art Doll with Acrylics Here:

To paint this art doll, I used the following color palette:

  • Titanium White
  • Yellow Ochre
  • Venetian Red
  • Raw Sienna
  • Chromium Oxide Green
  • Cobalt Blue
  • Raw Umber
  • Cadmium Red Medium
  • Alizarin Crimson
  • Phthalo Blue
  • Dioxazine Purple

 

After a few color studies, I decided a pink, chocolate brown, and maroon color scheme was the most interesting for me to make the Krampus art doll. You can see the design process here.

I quickly played around with some color schemes in Photoshop and my favorite one was the one on the far right.

I quickly played around with some color schemes in Photoshop and my favorite one was the one on the far right.

 

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

Making a Krampus Art Doll Head Sculpt 👹

I've a great affection for the Krampus holiday figure, so much so that I decided to make an art doll of him! In this video I share my process of sculpting the art doll's head and if you would like to see how I designed him, you can check it out here.

 

Watch the Krampus Art Doll Head Sculpt Here

 

The art doll's head was sculpted with Sculpey polymer clay, my hands, and some steel tools. I knew that I wanted to give him an exuberant, open mouthed expression so I could show off his nice pointy teeth and serpentine forked-tongue. Much of the design was based on classic renditions of the character mixed with my own sensibilities. I chose to give the head a round cranium, long, narrow face from below the cheeks to give the impression of a skull-like visage. Before I could sculpt the character's head, I had to first sculpt his horns on an armature base that I then baked. Krampus' ears were crafted by attaching light colored cloth around aluminum armature wire with Fabri-Tac and then using a water/Mod Podge mixture to stiffen the fabric around the armature ear form.

 

If you want to check-out a cool contemporary interpretation of Krampus, you should read Brom's (one of my favorite artists-turned writer) "Krampus: The Yule Lord"!

 

 

 

To be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!

Guide to Designing an Art Doll | Krampus 👹

If you've ever struggled to bring a concept to life, perhaps my Guide to Design an Art Doll video might be of use? In it, I outline my thoughts for how I go from imaginary to a reality in designing a Krampus art doll. I use historical references as well as contemporary influences to create an original interpretation of everyone's favorite Yuletide demon.

 

Watch the Guide to Designing an Art Doll | Krampus Art Doll Here 

The character of Krampus has captured my imagination since childhood and its been long over-due that I made an art doll representation of him. If you're unfamiliar with the lore, Krampus is a holiday spirit who's delegated to punishing naughty children. He'll leave a bad child a lump of coal, beat them with a switch called a "ruten", or even put them in his sack and drag them off to Hell. He's often depicted as a horned, devilish figure bedecked in chains and bells, carrying a sack or a basket strapped to his back, and carrying his customary ruten. Many interpretations have shown Krampus to be a fearsome devilish creature, but he's also been depicted in humorous or even cute ways. Scholars tend to think that Krampus' origins stem from a horned pagan male nature deity that Christianity then relegated to a punitive role alongside St. Nicholas, the basis for the popularized version of Santa Claus. You can read more on this fascinating character HERE.

 

Krampus bringing some unhappy children along with him.

Krampus bringing some unhappy children along with him.

 

 

If you want to be the first to know when I launch new polymer clay art videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell icon (but because YouTube's wonky, you can also join the newsletter). Catch all of my videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/thedreamsyndicatearts. You can also find many of the supplies I use in crafting here: https://www.thedreamsyndarts.com/supplies-gear/. Until next time, make believe!