Welcome to BITTER ANGEL STUDIOS.
I'm adding more pictures and content as I
have time so stay tuned for updates!
My new personal myspace page can be found here .
(GOOD GRIEF! I just re-read my write up here and fixed all of the typos. I'm not illiterate I just don't not tipe two g ood. LOL)
Yes, I'm finally getting around to setting things up around here. Busy, busy, busy... So let me tell you about myself (just in case anyone cares).
I feel at the very core of my being that I am an artisit. I've been drawing since I was a kid, I began exploring painting about fifteen years ago, started sculpting about ten years ago, worked for a while as a tattoo artist, and am recently experimenting with digital art and making assemblage art pieces. I also dabble with writing both prose and poetry. Regretably my complusion to create art has always had to take a second seat to work and other frivolous things.
In regards to art I'm basically self-taught. That is, I've taken no formal classes. I do regret not going to art school, but at the time it just wasn't an option. Most of my education has come from books, talking and comparing notes with other artists, and lots and LOTS of trial and error. What I really need is practice so I'm hoping to remain active and produce pieces on a regular basis instead of sitting down once or twice every six months or so to work on something.
It's a dream to one day pursue art on some professional level. Working in movie special effects is my ultimate dream and is something I have my eye on. However, I need to polish my skills quite a bit if I want to make art the center of my life. As such I've finally started to take myself seriously and put some real effort into my creative ventures. At present I'm focusing on sculpting, but would like to get back into painting again. I've also been spending some time with larger assemblage pieces. I feel I have potential, but I need to keep working in order to find ot what I'm truly capable of. I think I was blessed with a considerable amount of raw talent and I don't want to waste it. I welcome input and constructive criticism from fellow artists and would be happy to "talk shop" with anyone who has similar interests.
Thanks for stopping by. Take a look around and let me know what you think.
Here are a few sneak peek pix of one of my current projects - CHARLOTTE THE SPIDER BABE. Stay tuned for updates on her progress.
Below is my most recent sculpture - SOOZEE THE GOTH FAIRY. This is my homage to all of the lovely and lethal goth chix of the world. I don't mean to create a label in saying "goth chix" so don't get bent outta shape thinking I'm trying to pigeon hole anyone. By saying "goth chix" I'm referring to all of the "alternative" women I've always admired for their style and attitude. Unfortunately women like this are few and far between where I live. :(
Anyway, Soozee is the smallest figure I've attempted at about 5 1/2" tall. For me Soozee was an exercise in detailing small figures and as you can see I went all out! I had a lot of fun adding the detail in her laces, rings, and piercings. Soozee is made of Super Sculpey over a wire armature and is hand-painted with acrylic paints. Her wings are made of vellum and sealed with several coats of clear coat enamel.
This angel was an experiment in sculpting smaller figures. She stands 8" tall which was considerably smaller than my previous sculpts. The entire figure is about 12" tall with base and wings. She's made of Super Sculpey and hand-painted with acrylic paints.
The unicorn/pegasus creature below was my second commissioned piece. A woman I worked with asked me to create this as a birthday gift for her soon to be thirteen year old daughter. Unfortunately the process took longer than expected and it turned into an xmas gift instead. Oops!
This is a non-scale figure that stands about 11" tall with base and has whopping 18" wing span! I wanted the figure to be large, but didn't really plan ahead as to how large the wings would be in proportion which led to a few structural challenges. As with most of my sculpts I want to create something that's interesting to look at aside from detail. With this in mind I decided to raise the figure up on its hind legs to add more action to the pose. Again, this made for some extra work, but I feel the end result was worth it. The figure is made primarily out of Super Sculpey with epoxy used over a double strand wire armature. The wings were sculpted seperatly and are detachable. The biggest obstacle I came across was finding the center of balance for the weight of the wings so they wouldn't put too much preessure on the hind legs causing stress fractures. The final piece was hand-painted with acrylic paints.
In addition to design challenges this was also my first attempt at an animal! I've studied human antomomy quite a bit, but this was something new and exciting. Overall I think the sculpt turmed out pretty good. I'm sure some people could pick it apart, but the majority of people can see that it's supposed to be a horse and not a pig or giraffe. Most importantly the woman I made it for and her daughter both loved it. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!! :)
This is my favorite sculpt to date and was my first commissioned piece. A girl I worked with wanted me to sculpt a figure based on the picture at the left for her fiance who was huge fan of Marilyn Monroe and Disney's Gargoyles cartoon.
I had ALOT of fun with this piece! The gargoyle babe herself is 10" tall and the entire figure is 14" tall with wings and base. This sculpt was challenging because I wanted the figure to keep the cartoony look of the original picture. I also wanted to keep the figure's sleek lines amd movement by mounting her to a narrow base and having her wings sweep around her. To do this I sculpted the wings seperately and only finished them after the main figure was balanced and could support the weight of the wings. Again I like going out of my way to have a sculpt be fun to look at so it's worth the extra work involved. I'm really very pleased with this piece. She has one of the best faces I've sculpted so far and I think the overall appearance of the figure kept it's stylized look while being still being balanced and proportionate. This is one sculpt I would have liked to keep.
The figure is made of Super and Regular Sculpey and hand-painted with acrylic paints.
Here is my 3D rendition of the cover art for issue #6 of Joe Linsner's DAWN series. I love the Dawn character for her depth and symbolism. Instead of using the outfit she's wearing in the cover picture I opted to gve her a slightly different outfit from some of Joe's other work. The white outfit looks geat in contrast to the black background, but as a stand alone piece I thought a green outfit would be more striking in contrast to her firey red hair. There were alot of other things I had to change in regards to her pose as working in 2D allows for alot of rule like perspective and proportion to be broken without beng too noticeable. However, in 3D things just didn't look natural, realistic or even possible. I sent pictures of my finished sculpture to Joe Linsner (several years before he comissioned Gabriel Marquez to sculpt the same image for Diamond Select) and he actually wrote back to me!! His reply was little more than a thinly veiled threat against copyright infringement (which I thought was ironic considering the trouble he got himself into with Disney), but it was nice to hear from him personaly.
I wanted to try a larger piece this time so Dawn was sculpted at roughly 1/5 scale. I really liked how Dawn was hovering over the surface of the water and tried to create the illusion in 3D. It took alot planning and extra work, but I think I pulled it off rather well. The finished piece is 18" tall with base. She's made of Super Sculpey over an epoxy reinforced wire armature. The finished piece was hand-painted with acrylic paints.
Here's another piece I did for G-Bo. More experimenting with techniques and composition. I like the pose, but again at the time my skills weren't developed enough to make the most of the idea.
My second attempt at sculpting was much more ambitious. I made this as a wedding gift for some friends of mine. I really like the concept, although my skills at the time didn't make the best of it. Oh, well. It was still better than my Jack in the Box.
This was my first "serious" attempt at sculpting. I made this for my buddy G-Bo for his tattoo shop. I don't think it's too bad for a beginner. I want to sculpt this guy again now that I know more and have polished my skills a little. I think it would make for an interesting "then and now" comparison.
Below are some jackets I've painted over the years. All are hand-painted with acylic paints, heat treated, and sealed.
Here are a few of my paintngs. All are acrylic and ink on canvas or art board.
Here are a few of my assemblage pieces with words written by me.
I edited my profile with Thomas€™ Myspace Editor V3.6 !
