“Just what is this I’m looking at here?”, asks Mr. New Client.

“Its actually a little bit of everything, and then some you never expected.”
“Exactly my intention... let me explain here”...... Bonnie

Sometimes people cannot decide what is photography and what is computer generated within my work. They think its from a 3D animation program. But more often that not it started as a small lump of clay. Or a piece of wood, or swished finger paints, sequins -- you see, anything I can scan is fair game. I started my 3D style before wire frame & skin software was widely available. Literally, the year Will Vinton’s California Raisins were hot, 1987 I recall. Suddenly, I saw a place in my editorial work for the type of creature creations and craft skills I used in personal work.

A piece that received praise was "Turkey Incognito". A food story with recipes to “disguise those Thanksgiving leftovers”. On staff at a newspaper, I had access to a full photo studio, a real fridge and pro photographers. All the prop components of this illustration were made to scale, determined by one thing…… the smallest baby hi-top sneakers!

I sketched the character, in costume, and decided what I had to sew and what I could buy. The bird is made from Sculpey, painted to look meaty, and the clothes I sewed. I brought in the contents of my fridge and we set him up in the studio, with a small light hidden in the door. Everything was styled for the shot, as there was no retouching possible after the fact, except airbrushing a large print. (Overall, this was not a fast process, but my boss had a sense of humor and experimentation.)

What a difference Photoshop has made in my life !!
Now, parts can be any size, they don’t even have to be painted! I scale parts to any proportion and warp them as needed. Any snippet of matter that I can scan or photograph is mashed in. Wouldn’t it have been nice to buy a stock photo of that full fridge, rather than dragging my food and tubs across town? Now, as a freelancer, the increased speed of digital is essential.

Here’s my modern method of clay figure collage. Faster, more flexible, and actually cost-efficient!

It still starts with a simple sketch, just conveying the mood, colors and basic placement. This piece was for the Cajun Crawfish Festival, and they have a character named “Crazee the Crawfish”. With a name like that, and the basic tone of the event -- party hearty-- a lunatic crawfish character pretty much sums it up.

I wanted a decadent party-by-the-pale-moonlight sort of look. Crazee is all wound-up from too much beer, mashing his cajun squeezebox, enjoying a pot of crawfish boil like it’s a jacuzzi, and in the background bayou is a soulful frog musician playing sax in the moonlight. I splosh and splatter some acrylic paint on a board, scanning that for the background. In Photoshop, I mush it around more, painting light effects and drawing trees--oh joy-- I can dupe branches of leaves!

Crazee himself is sculpted by hand with Sculpey over a wire armature, wires forming his antennae. Bits of metal and sewing pin heads are pressed into his squeezebox. Overall he’s 10 inches tall. I don’t take the time to paint or even bake him.

A real pot is set over a grate and a red light in the studio, and he is perched above it to get natural shadows on him from that light source. A white light is placed high to cast moonlight highlights. A quality digital photo is made.

His colors are painted in Photoshop, which gives a luminous deep quality to them. Paint is not as translucent as the clay itself, and I always felt that painted colors looked flatter. Feathers, sparkles, and textures enhance some areas. Separately, I photograph boiling corn on my stove, and that is digitally added to his pot. His own tail is photographed from several directions to be used as other crawfish in the boil-- joys of digital again--one model for the 4 tails! Some steam & boiling effects are overlayed -- not even possible in the past!

More bits and pieces are dropped in, some rocks and coals, the frog figure, which was tiny, about 3 inches tall. Sparkly stars and a moon. Lots of layers fading into each other, creating a wacky new reality, where you’re never sure what is real and what is not. Just the way I like it!

FINAL COMPOSITE Click to enlarge view.

I hope you were entertained by taking this look into my work. Please keep in mind this is not the only style that I do, just one of my favorites. I can use the same techniques and principles on your next assignment.
Sometimes my collages are based completely on photographs, making caricatures by pushing the shapes of facial features to extremes. The “Kid’s Crown” piece here on the B!G Site is a sample of that. It's all stock photo bits combined with direct digital painting.
“Anything is possible!” … Bonnie Lallky-Seibert