Return of the Space Kid & some enjoyable influences

I finally finished painting my first maquette. It's been over a frikkin year!
"Holy crud there is a giant cat outside the window!"

He's laughing at you, not with you.



For better or for worse, I stole the colour combo from Tove Jansson's Moomin picture book "Kuinkas sitten kävikään" ("The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My").

To phrase it diplomatically, Jansson's books have influenced me in artistic, literary and the-devil-knows-what-other ways since ...always. "KSK" had an electrifying color scheme, in which the combination of purple, orange and black played a major part. And which I've often shamelessly copied since then.

That reminds me of another artist without a blog or site to speak of who inspired me as a child: Jean-Jacques Sempé. He's mostly known for his few-worded comics, his work for the New Yorker, and (my particular inspiration) his illustrations for the "Little Nicolas" -books written by another hero of mine, René Goscinny.
Goscinny, for his part, was the writer of the comics "Asterix" (original artist: Uderzo) and "Lucky Luke" (original artist: Morris), two other MASSIVE influences on me.

Did you miss out on childhood? Or did your childhood suck? Good news: it's never too late to get one. A GREAT one.

Don't let the lack of an internet presence discourage you from checking out these people's work if you have a little time to spare for book-searching. Especially if you like good children's books.

Ma première maquette

Well, why not? Maquette's French. I can also say Super Sculpey in French: "Sculpey Super."
...That's probably not true.

I took my sunny time with our first sculpting assignment. I was going to post it when it was finished, ie. painted -- but considering my pace so far that might take weeks, and I can't possibly make my adoring fans (read: RELATIVES) wait that long.

I like sculpering. When you get to the carving and poking stage of it, it's exactly like knitting, by which I mean it's super relaxing and perfect for a little tinkering on the side while you're watching TV etc.
It was so soothing and addictive that I'm planning to start another maquette after this. And I have a ridiculously ambitious idea for it. I'm not really a figurine person, but there's one show I've always wanted that stuff of, and that is The Young Ones. Since, devastatingly, no official TYO figurines exist, why couldn't I at least try making some for my own amusement?

Meanwhile, here's... um, "space kid", only waiting to be baked and painted:











Turnaround:


One of the numerous things I learned was that carving/sculpting open mouths is actually A BREEZE! I was so intimidated by that before I started, but literally all it took was thinking through the parts of the mouth a little, before you grab the sculpting tool. "See Tim, that's the difference between you and I. Organisation. Careful thinking. Forward planning." (HELLO I just referenced Spaced in the same post I mentioned The Young Ones! On a roll today, boy!)