Whats new...

Recently, I have been getting back into illustrating in Photoshop for precision. I'm finding it too time consuming to sculpt all my characters for the next comic, so I am seriously considering digital illustration. J.P. Targete has a great instructional DVD series on Imaginative Illustration through the Gnomon workshop. I created the image above in gray scale first. This allows you to really concentrate all the values and lighting. Then I colored it by simply selecting areas and changing the hue and saturation. I still have a long way to go as far as developing a tighter look with better anatomy, but I'm having a lot of fun. I have to thank Marc Gabbana, the illustrator, for his awesome tips on what I could do to make my paintings look great.

Well the good news is, thanks to Jon Irons I am posting again. The bad news is, I lost my hitestudios.com website. About a month ago I received a notification that the hitestudios name was going to expire. When I started the website in 2001, I purchased it through yahoo along with web space, and had a portfolio website on it for 3 years. Then recently, we created a new site with a store that could not be on the yahoo server anymore due to some technical problems with the zen cart. So, I moved the site to A Small Orange and spent about 1500 on making the new site. When it came time to renew hitestudios 4 months after the new site was up, yahoo wasn't helping me. Technically, yahoo has all the password information for renewing hitestudios, therefore I couldn't renew without buying another plan with yahoo. I waited for it to expire then tried again to get it, but still ran into the same problem. I'm sure part of it was my ignorance of web hosting, but yahoo really didn't help. For now this will be the hub of Hitestudios. I do like the sound of Art Machine a lot better than hitestudios. I will be selling stuff on Etsy, and posting some images on flicker. I also have a myspace account link on this page as well.

Silicone Case Molding a MONSTER!

Molding the body of Ascaras was a big task. Most of the materials including: Bubblegum Clay, and Silicone can be found online at the Burman Industries website called Monster Makers. The fiberglass resin and mat I used came from my local hardware store. OK! First, he was sealed in plastic wrap and covered in an even thickness of 3/8" water base clay. Photo 1 is of the finished clay layup, which is ready to start fiberglassing!

The clay layup is what makes the outer shell of the fiberglass jackets. After 3 days of working on my back porch, the fiberglass shell was finally ready to be assembled over the sculpture and to begin pouring silicone. This particular shell is in 3 pieces as seen in picture 2.

Picture 3 looks like a leaky disaster, but actually the fiberglass jacket is filled with small air holes so when we pour the liquid silicone all the trapped air can escape. I used 3-inch zip screws to plug the holes after I let them bleed out a little. The white stuff around the mold are fast setting plaster bandages to help seal the fiberglass jackets together. I wanted leaks, but not at the seams of the mold. Then 8 hours later the silicone sets up and wallah! We have a silicone case mold! I then carefully take off the jackets and cut the seam line of the mold to free the sculpture within.

After cleaning and prepping the mold I poured a hard resin casting. I use this for a master tool. Which basically means when the mold dies after many castings I can re-mold Ascaras using this master tool. If you are serious about Case molding I recommend looking for how to DVD tutorials online from Gnomon workshops or Mark Alfrey DVD's on how to's. Remember that a mold maker’s best friend is his release agent, which is most likely Petroleum Jelly!

In the next post I'll show the final poseable casting of Ascaras and explain the process.

Cannabilizing A Creature!

When I started this Blog in 2006, I showed some of the beginning steps of my Ascaras puppet. Now that I'm back, I feel like I can post some more images on just how Ascaras was made. I used a combination of different clays over a resin base from a former sculpture called Syferous (first Image). I used Syferous' torso as the base, and then created Ascaras' chest and head in supersculpy, because I had a specific design in mind. I made his arms and thorax in Magic Sculpt. Epoxy clay is great for free form designs. Magic sculpt gives you a time limit, so I had to work fast when I took on some of the larger areas.

I used an oil-based clay for his claws; I was in a hurry to finish him at this point. Also, notice the resin pieces parts I cast and used for mechanical details. I'm always on the lookout for interesting parts to jam into my sculptures.

As for the legs, I decided to make 4 instead of 6 on the character (easier to animate). To also make things easier, I just made one leg sculpture out of Magic Sculpt, plastic/resin parts, and some neat bones I found on the beach.

Then the leg was molded in a two-piece silicone mold. Here I am finishing up the clay wall that my buddy Jason King started for me.

Molding the body of Ascaras was a much harder undertaking, which took me about a week. I'll get into that on my next post.

I AM BACK!

Well, it’s been a while since my last blog...so, here I am with some long awaited news. I did a comic to extend the story STASIS, which reveals 3 new characters including SYFEROUS. I decided to try and maintain the same feel and look of the original STASIS stop-motion animated short by using photographs of the actual puppets and sets. Of course Photoshop had a big hand in the creation as well. The first 32 page issue is now available on my revamped hitestudios.com website for $4.50, including free shipping along with some of the puppets and props from the film and brand new book.

It was a long road and a lot happened in between the making of this comic. I started it at the end of January 2006, and about 3 weeks into the project my bother was in a terrible car accident. I sat in the hospital watching, hoping, and praying for my brother to hang on. After 2 months in a coma and 3 major surgeries, he made it out alive enough to start a full year of rehabilitation. I think I could write a book about what my family went through that year. I don't think I actually got back to the book until 5 or 6 months later, but I had a new perspective on life.

My bro is now almost fully recovered, with his wife, and newborn daughter; life is a miracle! After getting back, completing the story, and showing it at Comic-Con 2006, I decided that the book wasn't done, so I revamped the entire comic and released it for Comic-Con 2007. The response has been great! We sold about 150 issues at the Con and the continuation is going to be another animated short, which I am tentatively calling A.R.K. I'm very excited about this new project and will start getting into the habit of posting more so please visit again!! -J.Hite