Sunday, January 30, 2011

Decorating the Darkstudio

Front wall
Here's what one wall of my new studio looks like now. Got room for a few more 8 x 10s behind the TV.

I HAD to do something... this is a great big space, but it was essentially a big empty white box... felt like a sterile environment. My choices were to paint it or wallpaper it... so I chose to paper it, though not in the conventional way. Instead I'm filling all that blank white space with inspiring images.

left corner high angle
Pan left a bit and here's what you'll see.

Left corner low angle
Same corner, from a low angle, and including the left wall. And the mess on the floor.

Left wall
And a better angle on the left wall itself. There will be a HUGE King Kong poster in the space where the Bride is now, and all the white spaces will be filled in. I also have a door to cover the circuit breaker box, which will soon be decorated as well.

And now spotlight on my little friend from last post - he's essentially finished now though I'll probably finesse the paintjob a bit more. Here are a few in=progress painting pics...

Cyclops in progress 02

Cyclops in progress 01

Cyclops in progress 03

... And finished:

Finished Cyclops model

finished Cyclops in place
Here you see him in his little niche nestled between the Harryhausen/ O'Brien section and the General Stopmotion section of my DVD shelf.

8 comments:

BlacknickSculpture said...

Your studio space is looking sharp! Cool Cyclops model! The one horned Cyclops is one of my favorite stop motion characters -- after Kong of course ;)

Shelley Noble said...

Quel Kewl Lair there, Mike! Looking really swank! Great job on the model too.

StopmoNick said...

Nice posters, and your little friend is looking fantastic! Great job of filling and painting!

a guy in a gorilla suit said...

shah-weeethz !

does the one-eyed got a name already ? would be interesting how you call him...

Darkmatters said...

Thanks everybody!!

Myke, (hey, if Michael is shortened to Mike...) I won't presume to name a character that Harryhausen left nameless. But you made me think about something... di Ray actually name any of his creatures?

If a name has THE in front of it, it doesn't count. That's more of a generic appellation or a species name.. the Ymir, the Cyclops, etc. Some of his puppet/characters did have names, but the ones I can think of weren't named by Ray... there was Medusa, the prince (Kassim I think?) who was turned into a babboon, Kali, even Calibos. All already named.

Even Trog... as a shortening of Troglodite, it's more a generic species designation. Strange that, as such a huge Kong fan, he never created a similar character with a more human personality. I suppose his approach to making it less expensive by cutting down on sets and glass paintings, which made O'Brien's work so expensive, and by cutting down on the amount of animation required for a film, made it difficult to create a puppet that was actually an important character rather than a bad guy put on screen to be killed.

Sorry, just pointless ruminatin'

grecodan said...

Nice paint job on the 'clops.

And nice decor...but, uh, what is that Dino Kong doing over there in the corner, huh? :P

jriggity said...

Great space man!

I would feel very inspired in that space.

jriggity

a guy in a gorilla suit said...

Sorry for me picking up this communication a bit late - the post already written got lost (transfer of comment crashed and browser restart and fizzzzzzle). Playing around with the letters of my name (and other words) is something I picked up a bit by Mr. PROSEr… [Michael - Mycael - Mycelium, for which the German word is Myzel and so I guess I killed the pun congratulations leaves stage with nobody missing him].

About giving names (pun ! wohoo !!!) to the one-eyes one (…): giving something a name gets it closer to become a her/him - like in. 'you wouldn't eat your friend Harvey - but who cares about eating a rabbit's meat ?!. Next to that, giving names to creatures/entities/appearances/embodiment takes away something of the terror they might spread/ooze. An IT eating your friend can be, well… something you don't argue about but panic in all kinds of way.
H.P. Lovecraft told us a lot about 'shapeless horrors', the 'unnameable' and the 'unspeakable'. Then comes the phrase 'where word's can't go' into my mind. And off goes the fireworks. Or just me mumbling stuff. 'I don't have a T.V. set. But the shows in my mind are almost always better' [quoted from The MAXX by Sam Keith].

I just remembered that the name of the shark in JAWS was named 'Bruce'. And finally, giving creative names to creatures you know so long and like so much is also sweet somehow. "We were born as monsters - so don't hold it against us ! [Jeff Smith's Rat Creatures in the epic graphic novel Bone].

So I'll just shut up and eat my quiche now. I just felt like I had to share this thoughts with you.