it's a small world Moai Statues

I made some scale replicas of the Moai statues from it’s a small world in Disneyland (one of my favorite attractions). I designed the papercraft template in Illustrator and printed it on card stock. As I assembled the pieces, I stuffed the inside with layers of shredded paper and wood glue. I textured the assembled models with acrylic modeling paste and then painted them with acrylics. I’m really happy with how they turned out.

Paint Caps

I save (hoard) plastic milk caps to use for little paint mixing cups. To keep them from drying out while I’m doing a painting I store them in a sealable container with a wet sponge inside. They’ll keep for a few weeks this way.

DIY Airbrush Cleaning Chamber

It may be 4/20, but this isn’t what it looks like. It’s a homemade airbrush cleaning chamber. I gorilla-glued the neck of an olive oil bottle to a Trader Joe’s sauerkraut jar. Inside are pencil shavings and wadded up napkins for absorbing whatever is sprayed in. Why pay $20 for something when you can spend 100 hours making it yourself?

Black Star Maquette

While working on Space Pirates, I came across a challenge trying to draw the main ship, the Black Star, from different angles, so I decided to build a quick maquette of it. I sculpted it from Super Scupley and cured it in the oven. Then I scribed panel lines, drilled rivet holes, and glued on some washers for portholes. I primed and shaded it, then did the final paint and weathering. It’s very rough but I like how it turned out.

Color Mixing

Color mixing can be challenging. A lot of times I make a digital color comp for a painting, print it out, and then use it as a guide for matching colors against.