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Alien Thinker

This is actually a sculpture I made from aluminum wire, super-sculpey, and painted with acrylic paints. His head is about as tall as a quarter. The background is Z-BRUSH, though most of my work on it has been obscured. The inspiration was a painting by a good friend of mine, artist Joseph Vargo. I just brought it to 3d real-world life.

You all remember the thinker, right? Remember the take-off on that, with the ape holding the skull, sitting on Darwin’s book? This is a take-off on the take-off! :confused:

Any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated!

None from me. My mouth is shut. Well it is now.

It was open with my jaw on the floor a minute ago. :grimacing: :+1:

Nice figure, and I really like the plant-like deal he’s seated on. :+1: :smiley: :+1:

Constructive criticism? That’s going to be tough, since there is very little that could make this fine job even better. That, and I’m out of my league with the sculpture, so my comments are going to be from a CG perspective. :frowning: That said, here goes:

:+1: The modeling on the chair is absolutely awesome. It is totally ambiguous as to whether it was shaped to that design or the design was carved from the shape of something else. That gives a very alien feel to it.
:-1: The chair has exactly the same coloring as the alien, and looks like the same material. There’s an implication there that the alien canibalizes it’s own race for furnishings.
:+1: The alien is incredibly well modeled, with lots of great detail.
:-1: The sculpting implies an exoskeletal or scaly body type. especially around the eye. Which is great. But it’s also not carried to the rest of the body. That, in turn, emphasizes the similarity between his body material and the chair’s.
:+1: The skull is as well modeled as everything else. You’ve also fit the fingers to it perfectly.
:-1: Where are the skull seams? And the teeth should have a slightly enameled appearance.

That was as objective and fair as I could make it, Danny. Honestly, if you were to put it on display as a finished piece as it is, I would still hail it as a 10. You’ve done an excellent, excellent job – even if the background is all that’s ZBrush. :wink: Thank you for sharing!

'Evening Nikko . . . :smiley:

What a superb image you’ve posted! :+1: :+1: :+1: You have a very creative mind, to go along with your well accomplished skills - in modeling & painting. :wink:

If I’ve missed something else that your great at in the arts area, I must apologize for doing so. :frowning:

Have a good one . . . :sunglasses: Mark.

All I can say at this end is well done, very well done !!!

Criticism? Nay

ALL PRAISE TO NIKKO…It’s terrific…

print it as a postcard…
Lots of captions or headings would be appropriate !!

I thought I just better post a small image of the painting that inspired this piece. I kept pretty faithful to the original, I thought. This image is © Monolith Graphics.

Thank you all for responding so kindly. And thank you Aurick for the 1-2-1. Perhaps this image will shed some light on my rendering of the original idea. Your criticisms are RIGHT ON the money. The skull seams were actually meticulously sculpted, and then lost in the molding process(long story…) I actually made the alien in 5 pieces(torso,arms,legs), the base in one piece(the de-molding process turned it into about a thousand pieces) and the skull was one piece. I sculpted it to look like what you see, then sawed it into pieces to reproduce it.

This is actually the only finished casting of my sculpture, made out of two-part resin plastic. It was quite an adventure(pain in the a$$)to mold and cast, but a GREAT learning experience. The sculpting was only the beginning…

Hey, thanks for sharing the drawing that inspired you! I’m very impressed by how faithfully you were able to reproduce it. Even down to the background patterns. Again, very good work! (And thank you for taking the 121 in the light in which it was intended.)

Fantastic image, Nikko. I like everything about it. :+1: :+1: :+1:

Neat pic Nikko! :slight_smile: Nice concept, well executed. That alien looks fantastic. It amazes me that some people can actualy make a decent sculture (or in this case a really good one) without ZBrush! Wierd. :wink:
:+1:

superb painting, excellent modelling, what an idea! 10++++ and many many :+1:s, Nikko! fantastico!

  • juandel

ye gods, my friend. I feel sorry for having altogether missed this thread. it rocks sooo bad.

constructive criticism; you aren’t making enough of these, Nikko

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> a thinking artist is no surprise <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

that is so cool

You folks are too cool! Thank you for the compliments and kind words. I don’t know what to say.

:o :o :o

Impressive work Nikko. I don’t know what else I can say that would add to vast amount of praise this has already received. 10++

:+1: :+1: :+1:

Beautiful Nikko- everything-I especially like the grittiness.