00In the round
01Dead Comics SocietyBrand Identity + Event Identity02Club TattooIllustration03Haystack WinesBrand Identity + Packaging04Museum of FailureExhibition Branding + Experiential052B FarmingBrand Identity + Photography06Rabbit Hole WinesBrand Identity + Packaging07Tame ImpalaPoster Design + Illustration08Ashwood Tattoo StudioBrand Identity09Selected Experiments3D • Sculpture • Fabrication
Index — Selected WorkDEF Studios, Portland OR
01Album ArtCovers in motion02Key ArtCampaign key frames03Show PostersGig + event prints
Index — All GalleriesDEF Studios, Portland OR
DEF Studios · Sculpture Portland, Oregon

Drawing has a front. Sculpture has no such mercy.

Twenty one pieces across three collections, each one turned all the way around, because a shape that only works from the front does not really work.

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01 · Why sculpt at all

A drawing only has to work from one seat in the room.

I have spent eighteen years making flat things: marks, layouts, labels, posters, screens. All of it is composed for a single viewpoint, and a great deal of the craft is knowing which angle to compose for and then defending it.

Sculpture takes that away. There is no front, no chosen angle, no crop to hide behind. A shape that only works from three quarters is simply a shape that does not work. That is a slower and more honest way to find out whether an idea was ever any good.

What follows is in three parts. The Baron Minker material is entirely mine: characters and objects out of a universe that had nowhere else to exist. The comic characters are studies of figures I grew up drawing, made for no reason beyond wanting to find out whether I could get them to stand up. The rest belong to nothing yet.

21Pieces
192Turns recorded
9Baron Minker
11Studies
02 · The collection

Three collections. Every piece turns.

01 · Collection

Baron Minker

The universe. Characters, a vehicle, and whatever else the story turned out to need. None of it borrowed, none of it commissioned, and none of it finished.

9 pieces · 78 turns
01  /  Rebuild

Baron 2.0

The Baron, built a second time, and finally right.

Open the file 15 turns
RB Rahul + Blundo Two-up 11 turns
RH Rahul Character · Also a puppet 9 turns
04  /  Character

Guy Dynamo

A name that turned up before the design did.

Open the file 9 turns
DH Dharbe Character 10 turns
MS Minker Ship Vehicle 6 turns
07  /  Unaffiliated

Bretterling

Somewhere between an insect and a piece of furniture.

Open the file 8 turns
SM Sausage Man Character 5 turns
TB The Baron First version 5 turns
02 · Collection

Comic Characters

A line of studies of figures I grew up drawing. No brief, no client, and no obligation to be reverent about any of them.

11 pieces · 106 turns
10  /  Character study · Scale

Galactus

A figure whose only real subject is size.

Open the file 12 turns
SW Swamp Thing Character study · Mass 12 turns
CS Colossus Character study · Metal 9 turns
13  /  Character study · Attitude

Gambit

Mostly attitude, which is hard to sculpt.

Open the file 14 turns
BE Beast Character study · Anatomy 15 turns
NC Nightcrawler Character study · Pose 10 turns
CY Cyclops Character study · Restraint 6 turns
TT The Thing Character study · Surface 13 turns
18  /  Character study · Silhouette

Magneto

The helmet is the character.

Open the file 12 turns
ST Storm Character study · Motion 2 turns
WV Wolverine Character study 1 turn
03 · Collection

Random Creations

The one that belongs to nothing yet. It exists as a physical puppet too, which makes it the odd one out twice over.

1 piece · 8 turns
21  /  Puppet

Pinok

The rare piece with its reference sitting on the desk.

Open the file 8 turns
03 · Index
01 Baron 2.0 Rebuild 02 Rahul + Blundo Two-up 03 Rahul Character · Also a puppet 04 Guy Dynamo Character 05 Dharbe Character 06 Minker Ship Vehicle 07 Bretterling Unaffiliated 08 Sausage Man Character 09 The Baron First version 10 Galactus Character study · Scale 11 Swamp Thing Character study · Mass 12 Colossus Character study · Metal 13 Gambit Character study · Attitude 14 Beast Character study · Anatomy 15 Nightcrawler Character study · Pose 16 Cyclops Character study · Restraint 17 The Thing Character study · Surface 18 Magneto Character study · Silhouette 19 Storm Character study · Motion 20 Wolverine Character study 21 Pinok Puppet
04 · How they get made

Sculpted digitally, judged the old way.

Each piece is built in the round and then recorded turning, because a still image of a sculpture is just a drawing again and hides exactly the problems the sculpting was meant to expose. What you are looking at on every page here is the same footage I use to decide whether a piece is finished.

Want something built in three dimensions?

Characters, objects, props, or a shape that only exists in your head so far.

01 · Character work Design it and sculpt it From a brief or a scribble through to a piece that holds up from every side. 02 · Objects and props Build the thing itself Products, vehicles, packaging forms, anything that needs to exist as an object first. 03 · See also The Lab Where several of these pieces end up once they start moving.