Hey everyone,
I am very proud to show you my latest, finished project "Touch of Death" today, here on the blog.
Why am I proud? Because I walked a very, very hard way to finally show it here. Most of the things that made the way so hard are very personal things I won't post here on the blog. But it was by far the thoughest project so far...
- Around 450 hours of work, including 3D work, concept phase, planning, sculpting, painting and working on the base.
- 5 weeks of time.
- 39 consumed energy drinks (Red Bull & Relentless ;-)
- Everything on the project is sculpted completely by myself except the birds on the trees (those are sold by Preiser)
- Sculpting putty was mostly a mix of Uro and Super Sculpey (thanks again to Tue Kaae for showing me this awesome mix). Fimo and Super Sculpey Firm were also used.
- Most of the plants are stuff found in our forests except the fern, the fern is laser cut paper manufactured by Fredericus Rex (Green Line)
Edit: You can now find a lot of background information about the project here:
Touch of Death - Sculpting
Touch of Death - Painting
I made this project to bring it to the Crystal Brush in Chicago, if you check out the post before this one, you will find a summary of Romans and my travel experiences. It was an awesome trip!
After all my project made the third place in the competition, which was, to be honest, dissappointing to me. But life goes on and as long as you can focus on what is important in life, it is easier to take such a situation as it is.
Maybe it is an artist thing, or maybe a human thing, but most people seem to always seek love and acknowledgement... but by "losing" I learned to not strife for things I will never get by painting a figure. I get love and acknowledgement every single day by my loving fiancé, my great friends and family. And this knowledge is worth much more than 10.000 dollars.
The theme of this work is, in my opinion, not the fight of a rotting undead giant against a wood elf. My interpretation is about mankind and nature, how greed can destroy every aspect of nature and invade a world that existed long before mankind even existed. See the giant as a incarnation of mankind and maybe you see the project in the same way that I do. Not as a fight of death against life (that's what I tried to show in a visual way), but mankind's cruel antic against nature.
Why I write "in my opinion"? Because this project leaves a lot of free space to make up your own interpretation of the story.
Anyway. I don't want to strain you anymore with my talk ;)
Touch of Death
overall view
detail view
life
death
sculpting
I really hope you enjoy the photos and to see you the coming weekend in Ingolstadt on the Duke of Bavaria, where I will put "Touch of Death" into competition :)
And be sure to check the blog regulary the next days for a lot of work in progress photos starting tommorrow with the sculpting part.
Best wishes,
Raffa
A fantastic piece of art if I do say so. It inspires me to push my abilities. Well done!!
ReplyDeleteI like the Princess Mononoke look to the giant. Was it intentional or a happy accident?
DannyV
Astounding. The sculpting, the movement in the models, the terrain, choice of colours, all exemplary. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteHey, fantastic piece !! It was my favourite work for the whole show.
ReplyDeleteWOW! I love sense of motion you've created!
ReplyDeleteThis is the most amazing sculpt That I ever seen. Congrat you are the best!
ReplyDeleteWow! I just saw all the WIP fotos on your facebook...incredible the amount of time and work put into this!!! I'm amazed!
ReplyDeleteNext time go for 42 energy drinks! :D
ReplyDeleteThe amount of time you put into this is mindboggling - but as you said yourself - the result was well worth it!
Great work mate. As soon as I saw it I knew it was yours. Pointed it out to my wife and she understood why I keep going to Germany now for painting classes ;)
ReplyDeleteSorry you didn't place first, but as you wrote, there are many other positives in your life, and the honestly I think the balance of nature would have been thrown if you won this also ;)
Looking forward to reading about your results in Duke of Bavaria!
Incredible!!! :O
ReplyDeleteFrom Spain :D
Raffa - An absolute masterpiece. It was fantastic to view this in person and to get a chance to meet you.
ReplyDeleteI love hearing your vision - for me I looked at it as a testament to the will of a person against terrible odds yet still finding a way to stand up and meet the challenge.
I had picked you as my top finalist and am sorry that you didn't nab that honor. But your efforts are astounding and inspiring.
As promised, we will get a few of our Despicable Me minions out your way (we need to make a new mold and some new casts) and I really look forward to seeing what you can do with one of our little minions.
Cheers!
Domus
Alwaysbeen a fan of your work, but there this is just the best project i have seen since a long time.... very well constructed, nicely done, great colors.... a so intense ambiance....wouahhhhhh....
ReplyDeleteJust a question do you have created yourself the 3d model on computer?
And do not forget.... l'embrayage patine !!!! ;)
Absolut geil,man riecht den Wald,Riecht den Tod,und spürt den Mut der Elfe....,,,,,
ReplyDeleteUnglaublich......!
ReplyDeleteun-fucking-believeable! Mir fehlen die Worte, einfach Irre. Du bist eine Inspiration!
ReplyDeleteLove the way everything is balanced out! Hope we get to see more of this.
ReplyDeleteThe photos don't do justice to the way it looks in real life. It was an astounding piece, and I'm just disappointed that the CoolMini people running Crystal Brush prefer to beat their own chests over the $10,000 prize rather than distribute the contest money more evenly among all of the deserving pieces like yours.
ReplyDeleteIt was also a shame the way it was put in the case, most of the detail wasn't visible the way they had it in there.
I was blown away even before I found out that you sculpted all of that as well as painted it.
I was utterly stumped by the Crystal Brush overall winner. OK, I wasn't there and have to rely on the photos but, having looked through all of them, I was a bit disappointed with the overall standard compared to last year, even though there were more entries.
ReplyDeleteYours, however, stood out: not for the sculpting (there were several lovely scratch builds, of which this was, definitely, one) not for the painting (lovely, but perhaps not the best in the competition) but for the narrative.
This piece had something to say about courage, about what is important in life, about fighting for good, about sacrifice. It was the only piece in the whole competition that had something to say that made it rise above fantasy.
I hope it gets the recognition it deserves at DoB.
Amazing work! Made my day.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely stunning work Raffa. From sculpt to paint job, everything really impresses.
ReplyDeleteIn particular, I really love the base a d the attention to detail with all of the little fungi, plants, moss and leaves.
Great job.
The photo's to vote upon on the CMON site did not do this justice at all. To be honest I think all of the photo's were poor quality an impossible to judge from.
ReplyDeleteAmazing work as always!
be happy with what you have achieved!
AndyS
Damn huge and great. Strong congratulations!
ReplyDeleteI hate people who raise the bar of modeling too high for us mere mortals!!!!
ReplyDeleteI hate you......NOT!!!!!
Incredible piece!!!!!!!!!
Raffaele, I had the pleasure of seeing this piece in person at the Crystal Brush. All of the top 3 were amazing pieces, in my opinion. The level of detail on your piece, especially the base, is staggering. Thank you for giving us the pleasure of seeing what can be achieved in the world of miniatures
ReplyDeleteWOW, WOW, WOW (and a furthermore three hundred and ninety seven times)!!!
ReplyDelete