Looks Like The Producers at the Discovery Channel Read My Blog

My TV viewing of choice is either the Syfy channel or one of the Discovery Channels, History Channels, ID etc... I happened to be watching something on Discovery and ran across an ad for the new Bear Grylls TV series Escape From Hell. What do you know, it has a striking resemblance to my character which was drawn almost 15 years ago, and more specifically my limited edition sculpture titled "The End is Near." That just goes to show you that nothing on the internet is safe. Good luck Bear!

Read More

Box of angry Coles

Let the painting begin! I Just finished casting 10 pre-orders for the limited edition resin kit titled "The End is Near." I'm still working on the packaging, but should have the final kit ready for shipping next week. If you're interested in purchasing one email me at art@allanlinder.com. I am only making 20 copies and then the molds will be destroyed. The retail price is $99 + shipping. If you missed what this is all about, start here.

Read More

Basement Studio Clean Out!

Don't worry, I didn't forget about you. The basement studio I share with another talented artist was in desperate need of a clean out. (this is his side of the room) Sometimes you have to step away from the computer and focus on what's real. Anyway, these are the before shots of what we had to deal with. There was a lot of work to be done, including getting rid of an 18th Century coffin, moving all of my 100 or so paintings, and a room full of old silicone molds and sculpture.

It took a few weeks to repack everything and just to move stuff around.

I'll post some follow up photos of the work done down here soon. Stick around for more.

Obviously a bunch of unloved stretchers.

I also re-visited many of my old paintings that I haven't seen in years. Stored away in plastic, bubble wrap and cardboard, I had to let some of them out for a little while.

Part of a "Shock and Awe" series I did during wartime, which is pretty much all the time nowadays. (After Picasso)

Abstract album cover art.

Maybe i'll leave this one under the plastic sheets.

If you want to see more of my fine art visit http://www.allanlinder.com/

Read More

Prisoner of the Mind, The End is Near limited edition resin kit

Drum roll please... The resin kit is finally cast!

After months of work on and off, (click here if you missed the prior posts.) it's here. The following photos are of the resin castings, so you can see how well the detail came out. Obviously, i'll have to trim and patch the seams before I prime and paint it, but all in all, the casting came out perfect thanks to the help of my good friend Eli Livingston.

Check back for the painted update and final box art for the Prisoner of the Mind Cole Maquette "The end is near" limited edition resin kit.

Read More

New Prisoner of the Mind Action Figure

This is the wax maquette sculpture of Cole, the main character of Prisoner of the Mind the graphic novel. This sculpture will be cast and produced as a limited edition resin kit available for pre-order during New York Comic Con. I will have all of the packaging done and a painted version of this sculpt available to see in a few weeks. I started this sculpture last year, and If you missed the first part of this sculpt, you can check it out here.

Here's the deal, I finished the first version of this sculpture only to find out on the way to casting, that it's just too large to cast using the facilities that I have at my disposal. The sculpt itself, was a little over 2 1/2 pounds of material. That's a whole lot of sculpture if your going to do a limited edition run which made it cost prohibitive. So, I went back to the drawing board after months of work on the first one and started over with wax.

This new character above is about 2/3 rd the size of my first sculpture which you can see lying on his back behind this new character above. The first sculpture was made using Sculpey. This one is all wax, which in my opinion is much easier and more forgiving to work with. You don't need armature wire, because the wax is hard until you heat it. Nice! You can see the size above, because he's resting on a standard TP roll. Believe me when I say that it sucks to start over, but sometimes it's necessary to learn from your mistakes to make the final product better. After all, this is technically a prototype.

The overall structure of the character is done, and now onto the clean up, and then the finished work will begin over the weekend. Monday or Tuesday next week, the sculpture will be cast and I'll have two copies made from the original. Wednesday, I will paint one of the copies to show you what the possibilities are, and one of the castings will be raw so you can see what it will look like if you decide to buy one to paint yourself.

Here is a shot of his back, the musculature is really coming along, as well as the creases in his trousers.

Here is a close up on his face. I'll have to make him a little more grimacing, and a little less smiling for the final outcome. It's been a long road, but an entertaining one.

I used the same base as the first one. (Click the link and scroll down to see what it looks like) I had to use a process called Hydroshrink to reduce the size of the base. Anyway, if you're interested in picking one of these figures up email me at Art@AllanLinder.com and once I set a price based on materials and time, I'll get back to you. The plan is to do a small run of only about 20 pieces so it will be extremely limited. Pick up a copy of the graphic novel on 10-10-13 next week to find out what all this hype is about. Thanks for keeping up! 

Read More

Prisoner of the Mind Cole Maquette work in progress update 2

This is my second update of the P.O.M. sculpture for a limited edition resin casting. If you missed any of the previous posts you can catch them here. Prisoner of the Mind Cole Maquette work in progress.

So, I started this thing sometime in November 2012, I am reaching a point in the next few weeks that I can prepare it for casting. I will probably post the final update before the casting process.

I was having some major problems with his hair so I decided to go back to basics and add hair and accessories later.

I wiped out what I did and made him bald. I then started adding scars and bullet holes to his back. This guy has seen a lot of fighting so he has scars.

It was almost like starting over on his face because the previous updates didn't look a lot like my character.

Moving things around, I adjusted his nose and forehead along with the cheekbones.

New ears, new eyes and some facial cuts, and he is starting to look more like my character.

Just add whiskers and nipples, and reshape his pants.

His back is finally finished.

I am pretty happy with the face, mouth, teeth and tongue. It has been a long road, but he's getting a little closer.

Ok, now that the bulk of my body work is done, I must turn my attention to the base. I am thinking at this point, that I will cast this sculpture in 3 separate molds.

I am using regular Sculpey instead of the Super Sculpey here just to create a little contrast while I work, but also it's softer so it can have a more organic feel to it.

I want my character to be standing on a railroad track just like the book. so I need to cut in a place for a track.

Here I am adding some hand rolled pebbles and rocks, which I will go over with dental tools once they are all in place.

The little aluminum foil pads are so my character doesn't stick to the base. Sculpey has a tendency to bond with itself. The last thing I need right now is to lift him off the base while his feet stick to it.

I still have work to do on the base to make the metal look more like metal and the rock look more like rock.

I'm back to the hair again. This time over a freshly baked skull.

The hair is much better this time around, but still missing the final  windblown touches.

Here he is hot out of the oven.

This shot looks pretty cool to me. It really reminds me of a scene out of my graphic novel. Alright, check back for more in a few weeks.

Read More