Official Tim Bruckner Shop Officially Open!

If you've enjoyed reading Pop Sculpture, then you've probably enjoyed seeing the various sculptures of co-author Tim Bruckner. Not only has he been incredibly prolific in his professional career as a sculptor, he's just as productive in his spare time, creating nearly as many personal pieces as he has commercially available products. Now, for the first time, both are available in one place! The official Tim Bruckner Shop carries many of Tim's most popular pieces from DC Direct, Dark Horse and others, but it also offers some of his personal work as both unpainted model kits and painted limited editions. So if you're looking to pick up a garage kit of Tim's take on Frankenstein's monster, or a finished rendering of Cyrano de Bergerac, head on over to eBay and check it out.

JONATHAN MATTHEWS: ADDING DIMENSION TO 2-D ART

My work at DC has included a little of everything, from statues to action figures... both from my own stylings and from specific comic artists' styles. I think some of my most successful pieces, from both fan reaction and personal gratification, are the ones I've sculpted to capture a comic artist's two-dimensional style in three dimensions. I loved working in Mike Mignola's style, and, judging from the pricing on eBay, the Batman Black and White statue I did from Mignola's art is a fan-favorite. ...Of course, that could have to do with low production runs. I'll tell myself it's fan popularity, though. Makes me feel better.

This particular Batman piece was pretty challenging. Mignola's artwork is highly and wonderfully stylized. It looks great on the page… it also happens to be difficult to translate into three dimensions. I'll assume Rubén had the same difficulty (and similar success... love the Lobster Johnson statue, Procopio!) in rendering shapes that don't necessarily belong in the three-dimensional world. I had to cheat angles, add planes where they wouldn't normally work, and generally throw all the knowledge I have of three-dimensional realistic anatomy out the window. The result in painted prototype form is a statue that reads as two-dimensional. Granted, I painted differing light and dark areas onto the statue to enhance the effect, but I remember reading forums where collectors honestly didn't believe the statue was anything more than a cardboard stand-in for what would be the final piece of sculpture. Pretty funny, actually.

I've also had the honor of working with Darwyn Cooke on the New Frontier action figures. I remember beginning the project and being introduced via email to Mr. Cooke; he forewarned me that he's a bear to work with. I've worked with some prima donnas in my time, so I assume if the guy's telling me he's hard to work with it, can't possibly be anything but a nightmare. I'm expecting revision after revision, mid-progress changes, the works. It turned out he was one of the easiest artists to please that I've ever worked with. A true professional. He gave my art directors beautiful and fully realized turnaround artwork for the figures, plus we had his whole New Frontier graphic novel to pull from for stylistic reference. Mr. Cooke was well pleased with the result, and I was honored again to be thanked for the effort in the "Absolute" edition of New Frontier.

Finally, I did action figures of the New Gods, based on master comic artist Jack Kirby. This was a similar challenge to the one I faced with Mignola -- a whole lot of artistic license is taken to get the effect Kirby wanted on the page. So, tear out the first chapter in realistic anatomy. No smooth transition from one muscle group to the other, and how the @#$% do you translate all that ultra-bold ink work into three dimensions? Unfortunately, Mr. Kirby wasn't around to help us nail down the style, but we did the best we could, and I was pleased with the result.

Cheers,

Jonathan Matthews

www.matthewsculptor.com

jonlmatthews@insightbb.com

JONATHAN MATTHEWS: SECRET ORIGINS

Translating a piece of 2D art into 3D is a challenge every hands-for-hire sculptor faces throughout their career. The nature of the art, and how stylized or impressionistic it is, often determines how successful the translation, but to translate a piece of 2D art into 3D and perfectly maintain its 2D character is damn near impossible. Jon Matthews achieved the impossible in sculpting Mike Mignola’s Batman for DC Direct’s Batman Black and White series. When I first saw the solicitation picture, I thought, like most everyone else, that I was looking at a Mignola illustration. Maybe Jon didn’t have time to finish the piece and so they used Mignola’s art in the interim. When I learned that I was looking at the actual statue, I was gobsmacked, as the English say. It's a brilliant piece of sculpture. I’d never seen anything like it. His solutions to a variety of difficult problems were elegant and inspired. Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, it is my pleasure to introduce Jonathan Matthews, Master Sculptor. - Tim Bruckner

Greetings all...

When I was asked to contribute to the upcoming Pop Sculpture book, I was both flattered and a little daunted. I've never spent a lot of energy trying to put into words what I do as a professional collectible sculptor. I've always been the kind of guy who'd rather show someone how to do something than explain it. Not my talent. That said, I've got the utmost respect for anyone who can describe in detail a process that most folks have no point of reference for and no experience in. I would have killed for a "how to" book back when I was starting out. I've been asked countless times how to get started in this biz and don't ever have a good answer.

I started in this job on a whim, really. I had a couple friends that designed toys right out of college at a collectibles company. At the time, I was working as a grunt in an ad agency. I'd just gotten to where I was using some of my illustration talents -- which I had spent my college years honing -- when these guys I know told me they had a position as a sculptor opening at their company.

I was on the fence about joining them, initially. I was an illustrator, after all -- what business did I have showing up and interviewing for a job sculpting? My portfolio had a piece or two of figurative sculpture I'd done as parts of projects for school, but enough to show up and interview at a toy company? I didn't think so. Turns out these few pieces were exactly why my pals had called me. They remembered me doing some sculptural stuff in school and thought I'd be a good fit. The designers at the toy company looked over my portfolio and gave me a project that same day. It was a trial project, one for which they'd padded the due date, in case it had to be redone, but a paying project all the same.

I worked on the project in the evenings while working my ad agency job. They hired me, but only lasted another year or so before having to close shop. I only worked there a year, but I gained the experience and contacts I would need to continue on as a successful freelance collectibles sculptor.

To this day, I work with some of my co-workers from that first sculpting gig. When the company went out of business, my fellow sculptors, prototypers and designers all ended up in different places and took my name with them in their Rolodex. I ended up working for Palisades, Wiz Kids, Diamond, Plan B, Graphitti and DC Direct, where I'm currently on exclusive contract.

I've met a group of talented and generous people since signing on with DC. I've learned a lot about how my colleagues work and gotten tips and tricks from some sculptors who've been doing this job way longer than myself. I've always felt that if you've got confidence in what you're doing, you should welcome the opportunity to share your craft... particularly with someone just starting out.

When I was first starting out, I had met several sculptors and guys who ran sculpting houses and always found the meetings uncomfortable and even adversarial. Any questions I asked about process or materials were met with blank expressions and the old "That's a trade secret!" wink-and-nudge routine. In my early experience, it was like pulling teeth to get any kind of information from another sculptor about how he/she got their results… very frustrating for a young guy starting out. I vowed to myself never to be like that. If someone wants to know how I achieve a certain result, or about my process from start to finish, I'll tell them without a second thought.

Based on this early experience, I was surprised at how welcoming and willing to share knowledge the other contract sculptors at DC Direct were. Tim Bruckner, in particular, was willing to share techniques and often opened discussions to that effect. It was so refreshing to find a whole group of professionals who were not only willing, but eager to talk about and share all their tricks, tips, and everything in between. A great group of talent to hang out with.

There are so many different ways to do a job for the collectibles market. I think it's safe to say that all us old horses use multiple materials throughout our portfolio of works, but most of us have a favorite. The beauty of having such a choice of materials to sculpt with is that there's something out there for everyone who has the inclination to start down this path. I've tried both soft and hard wax, but I've put in the time with Castilene and am most comfortable using it. Sure, I'll substitute different waxes if I can't make Castilene work, but I know I'm an old dog now. No new tricks for me!

 So... how do you get started in the collectible sculpting business? Now I can tell people to check out the textbook. No teeth or punches pulled. Kudos to Tim, Zach and Rubén.

Pre-orders, everyone! Enjoy.

Cheers,

Jonathan Matthews

www.matthewsculptor.com

jonlmatthews@insightbb.com

Check back next week for another posting by Matthews, in which he talks about his experiences translating the 2-D art of Jack Kirby, Darwyn Cooke and Mike Mignola.