Kraven the Hunter

The latest "in-between" project is the third in my Spider-Man Rogues quest... Kraven the Hunter.


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Like most folks out there that love Spider-Man, for me, Kraven became a very serious contender when he decided to engineer his last hunt. This character took a turn for the disturbed and decided to hunt Spider-Man down, bury him alive, assume his identity, do it better, blow his own brains out.

This story is still today one of my favorites and the character is easily one of the coolest Spidey villains there is/was.

So I knew that at some point I would be sculpting him. Turns out I am working on him for two different pieces so far. The version you see featured the most here belongs with Vulture and Rhino and is more of a pensive, proud, noble, yet dangerous iteration of the character.


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The other version shown is the smaller 1:5 scale Bat-shit CRAZY version of him directly from this story.


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I've never shown the full size WIP before... so you saw it here first kids... even if it is only a wax portrait with photoshopped hair.

So the big things that I want to accomplish with this head sculpt are

1) make it easily recognizable as Kraven
2) it is only a head sculpt, so I want a ton of character in there
3) tell a story
4) load it up with detail
5) compliment the Rhino and Vulture pieces

I plan on doing a ton of these when I am in-between other projects, or need a break here and there.

Kraven has seen a lot of changes compared to the others so far. I think the fact that I like the character so much has made it harder to decide what I want on certain things. At first I wanted the smile... the smile was all about madness. After I finished Vulture and Rhino, I knew I wanted to change directions...


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I'll hold off on the smile and give it to Electro. Even though he's crazy, Kraven needs to have contrast compared to other villains who are far more "loony tuners". I made his head point up in the air more as if to see he's better than the rest and gave him a head turn. This will enable me to position the eyes so that he is looking down his nose at you.


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Now that I finally have those things decided, I am not too far from finishing up. Hair and fur in wax is not a quick process and that seems to be taking the most time. Bald people simply require a lot less attention... no offense to the cue balls out there... Stay bald, stay beautiful.

I used the same process on this one as I have the others. I roughed the piece out in pink Super Sculpey first, baked it, and then made a pressure cast wax copy to tool and refine. I'm still scraping and refining... and scraping... and refining...


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My goal with these is the same as before... they are meant for art directors. Eventually their desks will be too full to forget who I am.

Maybe.

Next week... I'll put together something for those who are looking to get set up with wax for the first time...

Thanks,
K

The Re-Entry Entry

You know... I haven't blogged for a long time. I have wanted to, but a lot of things have prevented me from doing so. things like not having anything to show, not being allowed to show what I have, not having any rhyme or coherency to the thoughts I could talk about, a general feeling that no one is paying attention, etc. You name it, and these are the reasons I have been missing since March.

I'm here now though and I suddenly got an urge to ramble on and catch up. What has been going on since March when I last blogged?

I was on a pretty disastrous path for a while there last spring. I was backed up, not taking anything else on because of that back-up and trying desperately to get back to even. No professional pieces on the docket, burnt to a crisp, commissions up to my eyeballs, and a steady stream of bigger priorities was fast diminishing sculpting time. One word to describe this comes to mind as I type this...

RUDDERLESS.

I was moving, but who the hell knows what direction. My biggest fear is that this was permanent and that I couldn't get a grove back.

Well around May something shook loose thank God. I began to feel that familiar itch and motivation that I'd been bled dry of. It didn't come back in full force until very recently mind you, but it came back enough for me to realize that sh*t happens and that I needed to get over it.

The motivation and creativity will be always come back around. So I picked up the clay, wax, and other fun stuff and started to grind though it and commit to clearing my desk.

I think I have figured out the "secret" to staying motivated as a sculptor. FINISHING. Finishing pieces and the feeling of accomplishment that comes on the back end of that really gets you excited for what comes next. Like a tidal wave that builds on its way to shore, gaining momentum and mass, you build confidence and enthusiasm.

I just finished another piece yesterday. Something completely outside of the norm for me. This piece doesn't have overly jacked up muscles and snarling douche baggery as its selling point. It's a pissed off DC Comics character in the form of a "RAGE KITTY"


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Now all of the sudden with this piece being finished I am pumped about working on the next piece that needs to be finished. I feel like I just paid off my student loans or something here...

So I'm going to do better... at least for now... in updating this blog. Some stuff is clearing up, I don't feel like I suck right now, I have some stuff I can show, and most importantly I feel like I have some things to say again.

So I owe a lot to "RAGE KITTY" right now... Thank you, you 3 inch long, tiny ass, head the size of my thumb nail, brittle little f*%$ing cat...


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