posted by robert, muhani, chimp



Ahoi!

Starting the project in 2009 with the figure of King Maulg from Artefactory (now FIGONE) and the idea of making him a Captain holding the steering wheel of his own ship and being attacked by huge tentacles, it’s actually finished and a load off my mind- the final project name is now "Frutti di Mare".

Many work-in-progress-pictures have been taken during the process - this is just one of them - it's the most important to me - the main sketch:



After a long intermission, that was finally interrupted by some virtual kicks in my ass by a friendly gorilla followed by 12 days of magic in the heart of the jungle in Augsburg, that I will never forget, it’s done.

The mission was to finish it until the Duke of Bavaria, which took place at the end of April. I would have never been able to accomplish this without the help from my friends. I will never forget! Even though everybody had to finish their own projects, I had a helping hand whenever needed. Also i want to name Kurt (Darkezekiel) and Andi (Androsch) for their helping oppinions mostly every monday during our painting session here in Graz. Additional my thanks go on and on to those who followed the project via the blog and did motivate me all the time.

About 10 hours of carefully removing 4 pounds of modelling clay from the mold, without damaging the paint, another long hours of carefully removing the mold with scalpels and tweezers … kind of delicate things: Anna (girlfriend of Roman), Anke (girlfriend of Raffa), Max the Maxican, Peter (Baphomet) and Kurt (Darkezekiel) – without your help I would have become crazy.

When time went short, Raffa (Picster) demonstrated his new handkerchief-technology to make the sail and the flag, which he also painted. The shark he sculpted can be hardly seen, because of the amount of colour I used for the water. Same to the little fishes I sculpted and Kurt painted. - Accidentally missed the opaque color for the mix of polyester resin due to the darkness on the balcony or intensely smelling resin that made me feel like a brainless zombie. Gasmask strongly recommended!

Mati helped me with the rigging during the last night without any sleep and endless patience. The night of knotting knots. He also sculpted a new pecker for the bird. He did that, while the bird was already fixed to the lantern, that itself was fixed to the ship and it looks even better than before. Magic! Many fingers of different size and shape formed the white crests on the waves - nearly everybody touched them with acrylmedium-white - so I can hardly say to whom all the fingerprints belong, but it was mainly Roman. He was already familiar with the shape of the waves as he played a big part in forming them. Max also formed one, but it was destroyed accidentally. ;-)

The Captain. I applied the base colours, basic light and shadow. Roman asked me, if he was allowed to apply a little bit of oil-colour. Sure. From then the Captain went on to a mysterious hero from outer space and Raffa. Roman also helped me with the finishing touches on the tentacles and the ship. There would not have been a ship without his motivation, inspiration, advise and friendship. Thank You!

Thank you all, who helped me finishing this.

The night before I left Augsburg, Raffa took the photos and Roman did the collages as he wanted everybody to do what he can do best. – Again it was on me to stare holes in the sky. ;-) - I hope you like this mega project - here comes the photo drop in - enjoy:



I still can't believe that it is finished and I am so happy about it. This really took away "mind energy" over the last couple of years and now I'm free - I was really happy when the "Frutti di Mare" won Best of Fantasy Master Open at the Duke of Bavaria. I never dreamed about such a thing. If you want to drop a comment, please feel invited to tell what you think of it, this project was so long in my head I really want to know what you might think of it. If you want to leave a vote or a comment over in the big voting area you can do this by clicking the 4 following collages:

Frutti di Mare - Captain Roberto details
Frutti di Mare - Ship and Water details
Frutti di Mare - overview1
Frutti di Mare - overview 2


Pictures of the process of building can be found by simply typing “maulg” into the search-field in the right area of site, for example you will find pictures like this one. This will lead you to some pictures in early stage and chaotic order, ending up somewhere with a basically painted ship, a converted King Maulg, some tentacles and a plan.

If you are intrested in a lot of Work in Progress photos of the last 2 excessive weeks of work check the blog archives in the end of April 2011. As soon as there is time, I’ll try to bring everything into the right order in a separate article and try to tell as much as i can, for example about the water.

So much from my side - many thanks for your time and patience with me and my little projects :)
I hope you like it!
Robert