Art of Bruce Whistlecraft

I will have a booth in the Comic and Pop Artist Alley in the Grand Hall East at the Hyatt Regency hotel at this years Dragon Con.
The show runs from the 3rd to the 6th of September it Downtown Atlanta.

Hyatt Regency Hotel
265 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta
GA 30303
tel : 404-577-1234

Comic and Pop Artist Alley Opening times :
Friday 1pm – 7pm
Saturday 10am – 7pm
Sunday 10am – 7pm
Monday 10am – 5pm

Panels I will be on this year :

Title: Comics & Pop Art Reception
Time: Fri 08:00 pm
Location: Regency V – Hyatt

Title: Breaking the Molds, Pushing the Boundaries of 3D Art
Time: Sat 01:00 pm
Location: Hanover F – Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Enjoy an hour with the cream of the crop of today’s object art elite.

Title: Steampunk Makers’ Exhibition
Time: Sun 04:00 pm
Location: International C – Westin (Length: 1)
Description: See some of the finest steampunk makers & builders display their props in an up-close and personal format!
My two exclusive prints……….
Each printed in sepia archival inks on Sommerset velvet cotton rag with rounded corners. Each signed and numbered in pencil.

Stephan LePodd – Explorer
Edition of 15
Image size 13 x 13 cm
Paper size 16.5 x 16 cm

Trevithick’s Wandering Theatre
Edition of 20
Image size 13 x 21 cm
Paper size 16.5 x 25 cm

New Original Drawings
Many new pen and ink drawings will be at the show. Here is just a tiny taster.

Last Chance for LePodd

There will be a very small number of the Dragon Con exclusive Stephan LePodd figure available to those of you who didnt make it out to the show lst year.

Custom Toys

New and old custom toy pieces will be on display.

As well as the YoYos seen in the previous post.

So if you are there please do drop by and say hello.
And if you still need tickets click over to the Dragon Con site and see what last minute deals there may be.

Here is the first picture of my Dragon Con exclusive for this year. Its a laser etched wooden Yoyo.

This is the test burn. But the actual YoYo will be just the same. Each piece will be hand numbered and signed too and carries the Dragon Con logo on the back as well as the logo of the Steve Brown Gallery who produced this lovely object for me.
This is not part of their ongoing YoYo artist series but is made in just the same way. My release with them sold out in minutes so I decided to do this second YoYo to let other people have a chance to get hold of one.
This edition run will be only 50 pieces. Available at Dragon Con.

The unadorned yo-yos themselves are a work of art. Made in the United States and turned from a single piece of Hard Rock Maple, they are made in the traditional fashion of yo-yos from the 1920s. While most modern yo-yos are made of high-impact plastic or aircraft-grade aluminum, these wooden yo-yos are meant to evoke a simpler time in American history. The yo-yo is the second-oldest toy in the world and still one of the most popular; it’s with this heritage in mind that these wooden yo-yos were chosen.

The Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester UK is having a launch party of the 2010 Dunny toy series on Thursday the 19th Sept. Thats next Thursday. Starts 6pm.

And I hope to get along to it.

Kidrobot’s Fall apparel line includes a T-shirt with one of my older Dunny character designs on.

You can see the details and purchase direct from the Kidrobot online store NOW.

Today my new Dunny toy from the upcoming 2010 series was revealed on Kidrobot.
Go check him out.

The range is released into the wild on the 19th of August.

Last month we made the trip to Bristol to visit the “Art from the New World” show at the Bristol City art gallery (The same place that held the big Banksy show not long ago..)

It was well worth the trip.

Curated by the Corey Helford gallery it collects together a whole gaggle of cutting edge American (and English living in America) artists together and shows there work to the general public in a big show away from the usual “scene” type venues. This is a great entry level show for anyone who hasnt ever heard of the phrases “Low Brow” or “Pop Surrealism”.
As you can see on the flier above there is a top line-up of artists with some amazing pieces many new for this show.

You are greeted in the main hall before entering the show gallery by a huge inflateable Buff Monster Ice cream. Buff has also painted a large mural on the walls in three alcoves in the same room.

To the left of the ice cream was a huge Todd Schorr piece.

Inside, the show hall is a large open space with a lot of room to breath and weave between the many people wandering around the show. This wasnt an opening or anything special just a regular week day and it was still very busy.
ok so the place looks empty in the photos but I was waiting for people to move before snapping.

And here are a load of closeups of some of the pieces.
Not really a dud in the show and a great variety of styles too.

This was the first time I had seen actual works from a lot of these artists. Its odd to have known and followed some artists for years and yet never had the chance to actually see an original work before. One of the problems of being in the UK with practically all the shows being in the USA.

Brandi Milne

Travis Louie

Silvia Li

Stoupakis

Greg Simkins

Todd Schorr

Sas Christian

Mark Ryden

Mellisa Forman

Liz McGrath

Liz McGrath

Mia

Camilla Rose Garcia and below Joshua Petker

Outside the show gallery it’s easy to miss Colin Christian’s piece. Although it’s huge at around four feet tall, it’s hung in the room behind the one with the icecream. Take a moment to wander in there and check it out. Its a cracker.

The show runs till the 22nd of August 10am to 5pm daily.

Do go and check it out if you can.
Also it’s worth noting most of the pieces are available to be purchased, though many had sold when I visited.

…Museum site link…

The next step on the process is for the toy company to make the tooling prototype sculpture. This is either created by a craftsman in wax or as in this case and more and more these days, created in a computer 3D model and then outputted to a “rapid prototyping” machine which creates the form in resin.
Either way at some point photos or renders come back to the artist to oversee the process and just check everything is tying in to the original idea and design. Also at this stage things can be altered a little or tweeked in a slightly different direction if the 3D version of the figure just doesnt look quite right. I mean by this that something drawn in 2D can look balanced and fine but when it’s translated into 3D it can look unbalanced and need adjusting to look good again. This is of course all subjective to the eye of the artist but as they are the art director on the project it’s up to them to speak up at this point or else let the toy go ahead with possible oddities.
For example the screw on the drill on the GNOME’s head was rendered as drawn but to me looked off. Suggestings for a different way of doing it were made, the model adjusted, a better shape arrived at.
Also alterations were made to the hat rim to allow the hat to lock snugly into place without the need for any other fixing mechanisms.

Here are a couple more examples of how details can be altered at this stage to get everything looking bang on.

Well the piece I posted last night was so popular I decided to finish it right away.
So I took some more snaps this morning and here you go.
Please click on the images to enbiggen.

First off filling in some blanks.

Above the door to the studio is an Elder Sign to either keep Lovecraftian beasties out when I am in there or stop them getting into the house through the studio windows. Other precautions have been taken against Zombie infestation (no really!)

And this is a close up of the print case so you can sort of see whats in it.

Another picture of the book case and you can see the cast iron stool better in this one and also the main display case in the studio.

And a closer pic of the display cabinet which is a bit over stuffed right now to keep easily broken things away from tiny Max fingers.

The cabinet end of my main work desk with some shelves to hold my radio and sketch books and some bits and bobs and materials.

And my main work desk. This is were all my sculptures and construction work is done. (This pic is a splice of a couple of shots hence the odd missing bit on the top left hand side).
I have a couple of engineers cabinets to store all my tools and the smaller parts I use, different sized gears, hemispheres, keys, hats, you name it. All the bulkier parts and found objects live in big boxes in the store area behind the bookshelves. I drag them out and fossik around in them when I need them. The drawers contain paints, more tools and more odds and ends. Its sort of a working chaos. I guess only I know where everything is kept.
The desk itself was found in a house clearance store for £20. It was black and needed a proper clean up. It had been ripped out of an old Mill when it was demolished and was last used by a taylor in the 1980’s. I built the legs for it to bring it back to glory. (See one of the previous blogs about the studio renovation for some details on this).

The mask is from the Terry Gilliam film Brazil. And the paintings are a collaboration by Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters and one by Andrew Bell. I still have a few other paintings to go up in here but I need to add another shelf above the main desk and some more wall cabinets form mini figures too first.

And one last snap of the desk looking back at the bookshelves.

So there you go. A pretty good overview of my little workspace.
If you want to know any more details or ask what specific things are please leave a comment.

I just tidied my studio so decided to take some photos.
This is just one side of it though. The other is loaded up with secret works in progress right now so that will have to wait till another day.

My studio is on the top (Third) floor of my little Victorian end terrace house.
At the foot of the stairs there is the main light switch.

Just above that are my collection of framed Letter Presses cards.
Starting top left and going L to R :
Joe Ledbetter, Brian “Candykiller Taylor, Nathan Jervinicus, Kathie Olivas, Brandt Peters, Brendan Monroe.

On the wall opposite those is a print case with lots of interesting tiny things in it above a Dave Carson original ink drawing.

Directly at the top of the stairs is a display case with my Cthulhu Idol collection in it (But the photos didnt work so well there so I will have to try that again some time..)
Next to that is the door into my mini store room under the eaves and guarding the door is my Scott Radke sculpture which I have dubbed “The Time Thief”. In front of the store area is my main art book shelf. You can just see my stool in front of the window. Its cast iron and has an old tractor seat welded to the top.

Behind the stairwell is my small writing desk housing my Laptop. I do all my digital work sat here. Yes that is a working phone on top of the desk. In the case on the wall is part of my Qee/Dunny collection, I need to build another five cabinets like this for all my other mini figures. To the left of the case is an Original Andrew Bell drawing (Cropped in this pic oops! To the right is another Brian Taylor Letterpressed print. I also have a Chris Ryniak one which need framing. Then in front of the desk there are original paintings by Kathie Olivas, Brandt Peters, Two by Chet Zar, Jason Limon and a sculpture by Amanda Spayd. There is also a Crayola print on that wall but it’s cropped in this pic. Above the paintings is a shelf of stuff. Lots of things I like up there. Quite a mix of things from Totoro to Kaws via Tin robots.

Here is a wider shot showing the Andrew Bell and Crayola pieces as well as a Greg Broadmore Ray Gun print. Hiding behind the chair is a print by Dave Carson.

That’s all for now. More some other time.