Work From "Pacific Rim"

In the second half of 2011 I had the incredible opportunity to work on Guillermo Del Toro's "Pacific Rim".    I spent several months doing nothing but sculpting giant monsters all day, and was able to design/sculpt one of the guys that reached the screen, the one called Leatherback.   I also co-designed the baby Kaiju along with Francisco Ruiz Velasco and Guy Davis.    And I sculpted maquettes for two Guy Davis-designed creatures, Slattern and Otachi.   Later on I got to paint the models, along with my friend Simon Lee.   Here they are, hope you will enjoy seeing these.


Molding and casting of the Kaiju maquettes were done by Steve Newburn, Sean Sansom and Jason Detheridge, who were part of the team that built the incredible looking, on-set Kaiju organs for the movie.   In addition to this, since I left the production before Otachi could be molded, Sean and Steve also sculpted in the wing membranes between the arms of Otachi, and detailed the scales under the arms and tails, which I couldn't get to before the sculpture was cut apart for molding.   Anthony Veilleux also helped with molding- and a few others were involved with molding/casting, which I cannot think of at this point two years after the fact...so if you were one of them, please leave a note in the comments, thanks!

New Gnomon Workshop Dvd

I did another Gnomon Workshop dvd last year (2012), this time sculpting a full figured male orangutan.   I think primate anatomy is a good starting point for anyone who wants to design monsters, so I hope people will find this useful.

The dvd was released just this week.  If you're interested in a dvd where an ape sculpture gets fleshed out in clay, from wire armature to finished sculpt, please check out this link to the Gnomon website:

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/1052/Sculpting-a-Stylized-Character#.UfHuA-CUCiw

Woodwose

Here is the woodwose, half man, half hipster.    It has its roots in European lore, and is often seen on coats of arms.   Some say the figure of the woodwose symbolizes man's interconnectedness with nature, like the Green Man.   I say it symbolizes that  it's about time you got a haircut and had a shower.    And put some shoes on, for God's sake!

MAD LORD THORNTORN

Mad Lord Thorntorn, twenty-eighth earl of the fallen Glamcaster Castle...

Paint up of a drawing I did for my friend Paul Tobin.   Check out Paul's site at

http://paultobin.blogspot.com/

New Piece..."CLAW"

Here's my newest piece...a lobster that masquerades as a man...

Sigh.  When will lobsters ever learn to just be proud of what they are?

Alternative Paint Job for Sashimi

Here is an alternative paint job for my Sashimi piece, with an improvement on the painting of the fish and crabs in the base.

"SASHIMI"

Here's my new sculpt in full, being exhibited this whole month at The Hive Gallery in Los Angeles.  I'm also exhibiting Bully, The Cellar God and Amphibiana.   The show is really fantastic, tons of incredible sculptures from a whole bunch of artists, all of an offbeat, surrealistic bent.

This one is called "Sashimi".   It's based on old Japanese prints of cats wearing kimonos and acting like humans.   The creature I've sculpted is based on the idea of the Bakeneko, or "ghost cat"- it was believed that after a cat reaches a certain age its tail splits in two and it aquires human intelligence, and, often, malevolence.

MASTER BLASTERS OF SCULPTURE IV

I'm very excited to say that this Saturday, November 3, 2012, I will be one of 17 featured artists (in addition to still more artists that are part of a group show) exhibiting at The Hive Gallery in Los Angeles.  The show goes on all of November, but opening night is this Saturday at 8 pm.  If you live in the area, be sure to check it out!  I'm putting a few pieces in the show, including the one shown in the previous post below.   Hope to see you there.

I'm Not Dead!

It has been many moons since my last post. What's my deal, you ask? Why is this Meng character so shite at keeping up with various online networking phenomena such as Facebook and Blog and Fritter (or whatever)? A good question that will be answered in due time.

In the meanwhile, I want to show you part of a new personal art piece I've done this year.  It's going to be shown at the Master Blasters of Sculpture IV art show at The Hive Gallery, starting this Saturday, but more of this in my next post.  There's a bit more to this guy, but I don't want to show the rest of it until after the show...

Mr. Sprinkles

The ill-famed, chain smoking half-ape, pictured here in his later years. Plus, some narcissistic phone doodling!

"A Pungent Character"...my Gnomon Dvd

At the end of last year I had the good fortune of doing a Masterclass for the Gnomon Workshop, in which I spent about 11 hours sculpting this totally sexy character in front of the camera. The tutorial (running time about 3 hrs, not 11!) is now available as a Dvd from the Gnomon website, which is here:

www.thegnomonworkshop.com/news/2011/06/a-pungent-charactert-with-david-meng/

If you think my Dvd might be interesting and/or helpful, please give it a look!

Thank you to everyone at Gnomon Workshop, Scott Spencer for all his help, and Richard Taylor, Wayne Barlowe and Jamie Beswarick for their kind words.

New Old Stuff

The last one? I ran out of clay.

`Mengland' Update

Hellooooooooooooooooooooo...

Been stupid busy lately, but here's a few pieces of news I shoulda mentioned sooner...

A few more pieces of mine ("Cellar God", "Bully" and "Man with Dogs") have been added to the White Cloud Worlds exhibition at the Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. You can find more details about the show and the book at:

www.whitecloudworlds.com

And recently I was very privileged to be invited to record an online master class for the Gnomon Workshop, wherein I demonstrate the sculpting of a head/shoulders bust of a fantasy character, from start to finish. It was recorded around Christmas time last year, and I had a blast working with the Gnomon guys and getting it done.

I did an interview about it last week at www.cgchannel.com

For more info on signing up for the Gnomon 2011 Masterclasses, please visit:

www.gnomonschool.com/master/

They start this Friday,February 11th, and will be up online for two weeks. I'm one of twelve artists whose demos will be available for those who sign up, along with my fellow workmates and Weta Workshop designers Paul Tobin and Scott Spencer. If you're interested, give us a look!

Laters,

DM

White Cloud Worlds

I feel lucky to be part of this book that will be coming out soon, called "White Cloud Worlds", which is an anthology of fantasy artists from and/or presently residing in New Zealand. I got my copy a few weeks ago, and it's truly a beautiful thing. There is a veritable crap-load of really talented people who get a chance to show their personal work that most people would otherwise not see. Personal work that includes a Howard Pyle-esque painting of chimpanzee pirates, a girl nonchalantly lounging on a sofa while giant caterpillars scale buildings outside her window, giant robots marching across a World War I battlefield, and more such innovative images. We were also really fortunate to have a foreword by Guillermo Del Toro, an introduction by Richard Taylor, and afterwords by Alan Lee and John Howe.

Definitely check out the website for the book, which introduces the artists and previews some of the content as well.

www.whitecloudworlds.com

The White Cloud Worlds site also has info on an upcoming exhibition of work from the book, which will include a few of the sculpts that are on this blog.

There's going to be a few signings of the book taking place in the next month or so, one at Armageddon in Auckland during Labour Weekend, one at Unity Books in Wellington on October 30th at 5pm, and a last one at the Weta Cave in Miramar on November 14th, 1pm. I'm planning to be at the latter two, so if you're in New Zealand during those dates and want to stop by, hope to see you there...!