Andy Hixon

Check out Andy Hixon from Manchester, UK! He weaves his images together beautifully using a combination of sculpture, mixed media and digital manipulation.

How did you start working dimensionally?
To start out with when I was studying Illustration several years ago the course I was on was heavily graphic design based, I initially wanted to work in paint and Photography just to be doing something a little different. I had all these great ideas in my head of what I wanted to achieve with my work and what I wanted the final piece of work to look like and what actually came out at the end resembled nothing of what I had originally intended. I felt like I wanted more control over the work I was producing at the time. From this I started experimenting in the Darkroom I really had no idea what I was doing, overexposing 3d objects on photo paper etc just experimenting really and steadily learning more about photography/lighting etc. Then the sculpture aspect came into play, along with that and the photography just clicked for me I guess.

What or who has influenced the way you work?
Initially I was a huge fan of the work of Henry Moore I used to go to the Yorkshire Sculpture Garden quite a bit that contains a lot of his work , I thought ’I want to do that ’ ( but smaller, less highbrow and not in a muddy field). Looking at his work along with Illustrators such as Dave Mckean and Jordin Isip helped shape the way I work today.

Please describe your working process.
Sketch, ball of clay or Polymer or Placticine for animation, model, dry, photograph, Photoshop- in that order. Although I have just began working using 3D Software such as Zbrush & Mudbox which I have found to be really interesting and gives some fantastic results. The sculptures I produce in clay are modelled in detail only on the side that is being photographed they are never a ‘complete sculpture’ and often get thrown away when I am finished.

What do you enjoy the most / least about working dimensionally?
The photography aspect in many ways I feel is just as important as the sculpture aspect especially if the work is in an Illustrative context .I feel that sometimes a camera really distorts the 3d objects hence having to take hundreds of photos with different lighting settings till I get the right one. Other than that it is a very enjoyable way to work in a style that really not too many illustrators are doing right now.

Check out Andy's stop-motion music video for the band Woven!

Andy Hixon
www.andyhixon.com
www.andyhixon.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/andyhixonart
images and content © Andy Hixon

Jon Knox

Hello, Brute is the creative work of Jon Knox, a designer/illustrator/artist based in Portland. He was born and raised in North Carolina, and lived in Perth (Australia) for the better part of 2006. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in graphic design from the College of Design at NC State, but spent his free time screenprinting, drawing, and painting. He lived and developed his work in San Francisco in 2008, then moved to Portland where his studio is currently located. His current work focuses on an all-boy crew who are often stuck somewhere between the best and worst moments of their lives. Jon's work has been exhibited around the globe, including solo exhibitions in Chicago and Seattle. One of his latest projects is a series of hand cast resin toys produced in limited editions.

How did you start working dimensionally?
I was in college in 2005 when a professor of mine introduced me to artist toys. I had played around with the idea of branding my portfolio and trying to find an artistic direction, much to the chagrin of most of my teachers. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I felt a huge sense of freedom working without someone breathing down my neck for process sketches and type studies. I really hated staring at a computer screen all day while my brain and butt went numb.
Aside from screen printing and illustration, I spent a lot of time painting on factory-made vinyl toys, but in the end wanted to work on a more detailed surface. A friend of mine coaxed me into learning how to make molds from my own sculptures, so I spent about a year learning and experimenting with sculpting and casting. Once I finished my first toy, I sold the first edition online. The toys have been pretty popular, so due to the amount of interest in them, I began working on them more and more. Now I find myself working on toy projects a majority of the time.

What or who has influenced the way you work?
It changes all the time. I'm sort of a fashion junkie and find inspiration in the clothes people wear, whether they're in vogue or not. I find beauty in people's quirks and insecurities. So when I'm designing the characters, their clothes, color schemes, and imperfections are the quintessence of who they are. As far as the way I work, I went to school for graphic design and it would be tough to say I didn't pick up a lot of habits from working in shared workspaces for 4 years. I am really messy and my studio is a wreck 99% of the time. I am one of those crazy people that feels comforted by clutter and I think my work is a reflection of my mess of ideas.

Please describe your working process.
I try and keep my process loose. Particularly when working in 3D, I don't like sketching and measuring. I like when the proportions are a little off and the sculpture is smattered with fingerprints. I hand make all of my toys and I think leaving the mistakes in them leaves more of my personality in there. I think people relate to it. I start with a wire armature and sculpt onto it with polymer clay. Once my clay figure is sculpted and cured, I make a silicone mold from it. From that mold I cast multiples using polyurethane resin. Those duplicates are then sanded, primed, painted, and varnished – all by hand in my studio.

What do you enjoy the most / least about working dimensionally?

Most: I have complete control from start to finish and there's a lot more room for experimentation.

Least: It's really messy and I think the chemicals are corroding my lungs.

Jon Knox
jonknox@hellobrute.com
www.hellobrute.com
http://hellobrute.com/blog/
images and content © Jon Knox / Hello, Brute™

David O'Keefe

Originally I had reserved Fridays for looking back at dimensional artists from the past, but I had to post this article after I read it in the Herald Tribune. David O'Keefe has always been an inspiration to me and a wonderful friend since I met him. I'll be posting his work and his interview answers in the coming weeks but for now, enjoy this article by Billy Cox, photos by E. Skylar Litherland.

Laid-off Tampa newspaper artist reinvents himself

By Billy Cox
When editorial cartoonist David O'Keefe got his pink slip from the Tampa Tribune it almost took his breath away.

He'd spent 27 years at the Trib, the first 10 driving trucks as he waited for a newsroom opening. Once inside the art department his flair for compressing politicians, entertainers and athletes into wicked clay sculptures and caricatures found a national audience. The likes of Time, Sports Illustrated, and Mad magazines showcased his work. His footing seemed secure.
"There's just no Plan B. It was gonna be this or nothing," recalls O'Keefe. "Or maybe a sign painter."
Then, two years ago, the Trib announced its first round of layoffs. O'Keefe's talents became a luxury item. In the blink of an eye, this middle-aged father of four with a penchant for elasticizing reality found himself in the midst of his own horrid cliche, a regular Wile E. Coyote in mid-air atop a fizzled Acme rocket.

But instead of whistling into the floor of the Grand Canyon in a poof of dust, O'Keefe has apparently landed on his feet -- at 12 North Boulevard of the Presidents, next to Columbia Restaurant on St. Armands Circle. The resurrection is under way at the newly relocated Wall Art Gallery, a collaboration between O'Keefe and Wall Art owners Chris Cinelli and Robb Makin. The energy on O'Keefe's end comes from business manager Wayne Curtiss, convinced that "David is just on the edge of really taking off."
The most ostentatious show of faith is O'Keefe's "The Godfather," the studio's visual centerpiece featuring the major goons and brains behind the Corleone family. Sticker price: $90,000.

If that sounds like a lot, consider that O'Keefe recently completed a "Caddyshack" assemblage (Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, etc.) for a commission well into five figures. His patron is Steve Garske, the Par Aide golf mogul from St. Paul, Minn.
But Curtiss says the real magnet will likely be the more accessible inventory. O'Keefe's artwork has been transferred onto puzzles, T-shirts, and even Studio wine labels. "The Godfather," for instance, is pasted on bottles of "Horse Head Red."
"There isn't a person who comes in that doesn't leave with a smile," says Curtiss. "We want them to be able to take something home."
Meanwhile, back in Brandon, far from the business he admits to knowing zilch about, O'Keefe looks like a goofy character emerging from one of his own paintings.
Please click HERE to read the rest of the article!

Red Nose Studio

Chris Sickels welcomes us into the amazing world of Red Nose Studio. His illustrations appear in advertising, magazines, books, newspapers, packaging, character development and animation. His work has been honored by virtually every award institution or annual.

How did you start working dimensionally?
While finishing college, I saw some puppet performances by Mark Fox that were full of movement, lighting, sounds, smells, textures, and when i would go back to the studio to paint, myself and fellow painters would talk about how after seeing one of those performances, working on a painting seemed so still and dead. Eventually I started trying to create puppets of my characters. This is how I got hooked on building things, it all tied back to the toys I tried to make as a kid. So over time while I was illustrating as a painter I continuously worked on building puppets and trying to find a way to use them in my illustrations and after about 3-4 years of trial and mostly error, I was able to have an art director that had enough confidence in my work that she was willing to give the 3D work a shot.

What or who has influenced the way you work?

While working as an art handler at the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati in the late nineties, I helped install an exhibit of Tim Hawkinson's work, meeting somebody like him and seeing how he manipulates materials and constructs his sculptures, really opened my eyes to how someone can create things beyond just oil and canvas. The list of influences runs on and on from Dave McKean and his 'Mr. Punch' graphic novel, the stop-motion work of the Quay Brothers, Nick Park, the puppet performances of Mark Fox, Eric Sanko, and seeing the footage of Alexander Calder performing his Circus. The most important influence on the way I work is my growing up and working on a small family farm, I was taught how to use what you have on hand to fix/solve the situation that arises. Watching my Grandfather, who able to fix just about anything with a pair of pliers and some wire. To this day, wire is is the core of all my figures.

Please describe your working process.

Sketching , Sketching and more drawing, this is where it all starts. Once a drawing can successfully convey the concept, everything gets built from there. Often I do some very rough watercolor studies and dig thru drawers of fabric to establish a palette. The camera angle/ viewpoint is kept in the forefront of the building process, so things can be created efficiently, much like a stage or movie set. The facial expressions of the characters play a large role in my images, so considerable attention is put on the sculpting of the figures and the rest of the environment is built as it needs to be to help direct the viewer through the composition. Lighting the set and adjustments to the camera angle and figure position are made up until the final shot. It usually takes at least 100 test shots throughout the process until everything seems to fall into place.

What do you enjoy the most / least about working dimensionally?

MOST: Visual problem solving, coming up with concepts, the ideas. Being able to work in all facets of art- drawing, sculpting, painting, building sets, making props, costumes, photography, and lighting to create my own little worlds. LEAST: Not sure, probably space constraints, and the fact that I think I am on am mission to find the most difficult way to create illustrations.

Red Nose Studio has been featured in Communication Arts, HOW, Print, Creativity and 3x3 Magazine, as well as in a number of art and design books including Taschen’s Illustration Now!. He has twice been honored with the Carol Anthony Grand Prize award from the Society of Illustrators 3-D Salon. Two of his short films, The Red Thread Project and Innards, were selected to screen at the 2005 and 2006 Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. He authored and illustrated The Look Book, and has illustrated the children's book Here Comes The Garbage Barge that will released in February 2010.

Red Nose Studio aka Chris Sickels
chris@rednosestudio.com
www.rednosestudio.com
images and content © Red Nose Studio
for commissions, please contact:

Magnet Reps || Artist Representatives
1-866-390-5656, art@magnetreps.com
www.magnetreps.com

Bill Nelson

Feast your eyes on Bill Nelson, an internationally known illustrator, sculptor and ventriloquist figure maker living in North Carolina.
His one-of-a-kind figures and automata have made their way into the private collections of Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, David Copperfield, Bruce Willis and Richard Simmons among others. His illustration clients include Columbia Pictures, Sony, Reebok, Estee Lauder, Time, The New Yorker and more. Read more about Bill's extensive career here.

How did you start working dimensionally?
Well, I've been sculpting since 1985 and took an interest in creating dimensional "Pushed Portraits", as I like to call them, about a year ago. It seemed like the influx of computer-generated illustration was putting an end to my career as a 2D illustrator and it was either start sculpting recognizable characters or become a WALMART greeter!

What or who has influenced the way you work?
The SPITTING IMAGE team of Roger Fluck and Peter Law did it for me. I'd never seen anything like their work before and I wanted to be them! However, the next best thing was to continue being me, and teaching myself the art of caricature in the round.

What materials do you use?
First of all I use nothing but SUPER SCULPEY, (never to be confused with that horrible regular Sculpey... that stuff is "mean-spirited and cruel!") I use the most realistic glass eyes I can find and I use wigs or used toupees, or, in some cases, I'll sculpt the hair, but rarely.

I paint/tint their faces using chalk pastels and apply them with a soft-bristled brush, much the same way a woman applies blush. Done right, it can look like airbrush.
When possible, I use old dentures but the heads would need to be near human-size to do this and most of the heads I sculpt are about 8" or 9". The Julia Roberts piece has real dentures even though her head is only about 7.5"

Bill Nelson
nelson_studios@hotmail.com
www.billnelsonstudios.com
images and content © Bill Nelson

Niki de Saint Phalle

I thought I'd make Friday a day for posting about an artist from the past who has created dimensional work. Here is a personal favourite of mine, Niki de Saint Phalle, who had a huge influence on me from the moment I learned about her in foundation year art history class at Parsons (thanks to Sharyn Finnegan!). Niki made me think that bigger things were possible.

The following excerpt is taken from http://www.oneroom.org

Niki de Saint Phalle was born in 1930 in France. She began producing her first paintings in 1950. This led to assemblages in plaster and her "shooting paintings". These pictures were plaster with containers of paint beneath the surface which would explode when shot with a pistol. More sculptural assemblages followed and in 1965, de Saint Phalle created her first "Nana". These large, voluptuous and brightly painted female figures were made originally in papier mâché and later in polyester.

De Saint Phalle has designed stage sets and costumes, created movies, graphic work, chairs and a sculptural playground. One of her large works includes a giant Nana that can be entered by walking through the vagina. In additon, she and her son produced a book for children about AIDS and she even has her own perfume.

A part of her most ambitious work is pictured here, the Tarot Garden, a sculpture park in Tuscany. The Wheel of Fortune in the water was created by her husband, Jean Tinguely. The Tarot Garden features mirrors, glass and ceramic mosaics. De Saint Phalle had never used these materials before and they show the influence that Antonio Gaudí had on her work. This park contains Nana-like figures as well as the "skinnies" which proceeded them. Serpents, fountains and sculptures you can walk into are often a part of her work. They appear here on a grand scale. There is a fun, theme park quality to the place with its bright colors and sensual rounded forms covered with elaborate surface designs. A relation to "outsider " art such as the Watts Towers can also be seen in this playful portrayal of the arcana of the Tarot deck.

Jessica Fortner

Check out Jessica Fortner, an illustrator who lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Her artistic method and medium can be described as sculptural photo-illustration. She constructs characters and sets, stages them and photographs the scenes to produce the final illustration. Her work offers a unique aesthetic, sense of humour, and approach to visual storytelling.

How did you start working dimensionally?

What I love about being a sculptural illustrator is the freedom to incorporate many different elements. Often illustrators draw or compile images in photoshop to create an image, but because there are still so few sculptural illustrators there are still many different avenues to explore. You can get a very unique look and feel that often can't be found in drawn images.

What or who has influenced the way you work?

These days, with access to the internet, there are so many things to find inspiration in. There are so many fantastic artists, designers and illustrators out there it's hard not to be influenced. Some of the artists that I admire are: Tara McPherson, Elizabeth McGrath, Chris Ryniak, Mars-1 and Kathie Olivas to name a few. The list could on forever. It was my introduction to Chris Sickles' (from Red Nose Studios) work that made me realize that I could put all the things that I love into an image.

Please describe your working process?

I start by making a sketch. In the sketch I try to work out composition, mood and perspective, especially if I will be compositing the image in Photoshop (which I sometimes do). I often like to keep my characters posable to be able to try a variety of poses when composing an illustration. That's why I tend to sculpt the head, hands, feet, and other extremities in clay while keeping the joints bare. The body is built on a flexible aluminum wire, then various fabrics and stuffings are used to fill out the body without making it too rigid to pose. I use a variety of materials in my illustrations to create textures and a realism that I can't achieve just by sculpting. It helps give a natural feel to the pieces.

What do you enjoy the most / least about working dimensionally?

Mostly I love being able to mix up many mediums/techniques in a single project. Because of the way that I choose to illustrate ideas, it is important for me to have a wide range of skills; from drawing to sculpting, sewing, pattern-making, photography and digital media (programs such as photoshop/illustrator). I need to know the capabilities of many materials in order to achieve the look that I want. This has it's disadvantages but it also makes every illustration new and keeps me excited about the process. I'm constantly learning new things.

Jessica Fortner
Sculpture and Illustration
info@jessicafortner.com
www.jessicafortner.com
images and content © Jessica Fortner

Chris Walsh

Meet Chris Walsh, a sculptor and 3D illustrator based in the UK.

How did you start working dimensionally?
Before deciding that I wanted to be an Illustrator I studied on various art and design courses during college and tried so many different ways of making images, but I didn't really like any of them. I became fascinated with stop motion animation around the same time, I loved the figures and props and wanted to try making them myself, which I did for a short time and it felt like a very natural way for me to work.
Despite my love of 2 dimensional illustration I've never been very good at it, so when I got to doing my diploma in Graphic Design and Illustration I struggled to compete with the other students. I was looking through a book full of stills from various stop motion movies and shorts one day and realized that they looked great as stand alone images, and I had the crazy idea that rather than draw- I could sculpt and make everything in the scene and photograph it. I did, and everyone seemed to like it, even me.

What or who has influenced the way you work?
Again I think that my under-developed drawing skills come into play here. I've always found it tough to visualize a 3d object in 2d, and I found it especially difficult to convincingly light a scene in 2d. When I first started doing this I was a huge Tim Burton fan (I still am) and I loved the way he used lighting to make a scene so atmospheric. I started to experiment with lighting a lot in my earlier work and it became the thing I enjoyed most about working this way. 'Vincent' and 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' were certainly my biggest influences when I started off. Many years later I discovered David O'Keefe and Liz Lomax and they became a massive influence on me, and trying to keep my style unique and different from theirs certainly has an effect on how I work.

Please describe your working process.
I'll usually have a pretty strong idea in my head of what I want to begin with, I'll do some rough pen sketches on layout paper to figure out the composition I like best, and make some individual sketches of anything that might be a problem to build in 3d, then I'll try to figure out a way of doing it. I like to rough everything in first, so I'll rough out any characters in clay, and put together a very crude version of the set using cardboard, sometimes I'll use existing models as placemakers and photograph this rough version. I'll put it into photoshop and sketch over things, colour parts in etc and just see how it works as an image. I may have to move bits around or totally re-think parts of it. Once I'm happy that the image will work I begin to replace all of the crude cardboard parts with better parts one at a time, until the set is finished and painted. I light it and sometimes take hundreds of photos with different lighting variations and slightly different camera angles, by which time it's usually 4am and I fall asleep. The next day I spend picking the best ones before I crop them and make some slight enhancements in photoshop.

What do you enjoy the most / least about working dimensionally?
Well the things I like the least are the time it takes to produce a piece, the amount of space each piece takes up, and the mess it makes, oh and the cost of all the materials. But what I enjoy the most is having quite a unique style that I love working in, and seeing that other people are enjoying my work.




















* Chris is currently accepting commissions for custom made cake toppers and figurines for weddings and other special occasions, pieces can vary in size from 51/2" toppers to 10" centre piece figures and anything in between. They are hand crafted using polymer clay on top of a small wire armature, and then airbrushed using acrylic paint. Feel free to email Chris (chris@chriswalshart.com) for further ordering information, and check out the new website coming later in the year at www.chriswalshart.com

images and content © Chris Walsh