Silver Ghosts 2, and Friends! New sterling silver pendants up for pre-order on Kickstarter

It's my latest collection of wearable sculpture in the form of solid silver pendants, currently up for pre-order on Kickstarter at an early bird price ($65 each with free shipping within the continental United States).

Click HERE to visit the project.

Silver Ghosts 2, and Friends

They are loads of fun to make, I can't wait to see them in silver!
Here's pics of a couple of my earlier collection (Silver Ghosts 1), just so you can see how they ended up looking!

First Silver Ghosts collection (currently available at my Etsy store)

Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

World domination is fast approaching...

These mice will stop at  nothing to achieve their nefarious goal:
They are hell bent on world domination and must populate every continent on earth!

I just sent two Nosey mice off to Brazil and Australia, and it got me wondering, 'how far and wide have they spread so far?'
I have personally sent them to every continent except Africa, which doesn't of course mean they don't also live there, since they have other ways of getting around besides relying on me.

Here's a post of Sir Ranulph Sprightly Mouse arriving in Antarctica.

Here's Ralph Sprightly in Australia.

Perhaps it's time one of them went on an African Safari, or a trip up the Nile or something?

Nevertheless, they are progressing quite nicely on their mission to take over the world...

The box turtles are also more than holding their own, turning in a stellar performance over on Kickstarter...
Here is a mini chart showing their progress...THANKS BACKERS, YOU ARE AWESOME!!!




Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

My large bronze turtle 'the sun worshipper' arrives in Canada...

Bronze midland painted turtle in Lake Wilcox park, Town of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. By Steve Worthington.

The sun worshipper.
Although the sun was in when these pics were taken!

My bronze turtle arrived safe and sound and is now installed in Lake Wilcox park.
It's near Toronto, in the Town of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.

Well he seems quite popular with the locals, and while you can't see from these pics, he's sculpted all the way around, even where you can't see underneath.

Freshly cast and welded and sand-blasted, but yet to receive a patina

That tickles!

No, he's not balancing a green pom pom on his head!

Making more friends...

It has been a real treat to make this piece, so my thanks go to those who both requested me to do it, and to those who helped me bring it to fruition!


Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

New bronze box turtles up for grabs on Kickstarter...

Here's my newest offering up for grabs on Kickstarter- box turtles!

Click HERE to check out my new box turtles. I have had a blast making them and hope you love them too!

Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Soon I will be saying 'goodbye'...

Steve Worthington with bronze painted turtle (pre-patina)

 Above is my turtle before patina, and below is Mike Masse (master patineur) having completed his handiwork. I asked for a traditional bronze patina that would weather well.

Mike Masse with Steve Worthington's bronze painted turtle (post patina)

 Below are a few smaller ones as well!

A selection of variously sized bronze turtles (and one silver turtle)

Soon it will be off to Canada to stand guard over a lake in a park. And I only just got it house trained!

Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Oh my (the structure sensor for iPad)...

I can just tell this thing is going to create all kinds of a ruckus.
Of special interest to my eyes is the bit where it's scanning a sculpture and then it gets 3D printed.

Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Saddle up! Mysteries of medieval jousting saddles unlocked...

When I was making my beefier jousting toad on a snapping turtle I seached again for jousting saddles from bygone eras.
I found a couple of recent posts by some people who take their re-creations of such things very seriously indeed! They'd be Arne Koets, Joram van Essen, and Wouter Nicolai, among others.

Here's a LINK to their explorations, experiments and findings.
Pretty fascinating stuff.

So I used their expertise to inform the sculpting of my new saddle.
Of course they had to make something to support a heavily armored real person to sit comfortably on and without hurting a real horse.

Here's an image from their post I was very happy to come by.

More on this at thejoustinglife.com (see link above)

I, on the other hand, was making a saddle for an imaginary toad to sit on an imaginary turtle. Although I still wanted both my imaginary chums to be comfy.

Medieval jousting saddle typically used by turtle-riding toads

Medieval war saddle used by toads in jousting tournaments when riding turtles

Even though there's a blanket thing covering much of it, I stuck fairly closely to the old style saddle.
There's fudging and artistic license here and there of course, but I'm glad I found an authentic path to follow!

Here's the saddle in a turnaround video, although you'll probably need to hit the full screen icon and use the pause button if you want to get a good look at the leather tooling, studs, and what have you...!



Kickstarter update: Funding and pre-ordering for the Silver Ghosts pendant collection is being made at a splendid clip (it ends on June 26th)!

Thanks to backers and those who have 'liked', tweeted or in other ways helped spread the word, we're at 6 times the funding goal! I've snapped up a few tools and am tweaking away at the metal masters here and there, and re-doing some others so they'll be as good as I want them to be when finished in solid silver.
Thanks again backers and spreaders-of-the-word!





Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Latest Kickstarter - Silver Ghosts - solid silver pendants and earrings

I've just launched another Kickstarter, the all or nothing crowd funding platform for getting creative projects realized with a little help from your friends!

This time it's my Silver Ghosts collection; solid silver wearable sculpture in the form of pendants and earrings.
Meridee's been sporting a couple around town and getting unsolicited compliments, so I hope that bodes well!

Some have a bit of a dia de los muertos vibe. Or day of the dead, if you prefer.

That's because four of the 10 designs reveal an etched skeleton on their flip sides.

Here is the project video which hopefully will run if you click on its play button.
If you like what you see (or if the video didn't play) hop on over to the project on Kickstarter for more info and rewards!

Oh, feel free to 'like' it when you get there (or whatever is your preferred 'sharing' method!). I'd appreciate that.

Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

And in the blue corner...

The jousting toads pugilist event of the decade!

Heavier.
Uglier.
Slower.

But do they ever pack a punch!

So Nimble Warts now has a worthy adversary in the Meat Grinder!

I'll probably fiddle around with them a bit more, but you can clearly get the general idea!
The 'heavy horse' is a common snapping turtle, with some generic big ol' toad on top.

Both pairs are currently in digital form only, but I'm determined to find a way to get them cast...

Jousting toads: The Meat Grinder meets his doppelganger

And here's a few pics of my meaty new creation devoid of any distractions...

High angle view of the Meat Grinder

Jousting Toad: The Meat Grinder

A new quest in my life is to find a way to get these beasts cast: Who wouldn't want a pair in a park near them?

Coming soon...some jewelry pieces I'm working on and will launch through Kickstarter...

Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

How to enjoy bad art as well as good art...

Enjoying bad art and good art

Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

More big turtle shenanigans

I've made lots of turtles so making a maquette (small version of the final big turtle) was pretty easy.

It had to be a particular species so I was careful to avoid my usual hybrid peculiarities, and stick to the facts!

After that I sent it off for enlarging, and this is what I got back...

My maquette was hand made (not digitally sculpted in ZBrush) since that stage was quite a while ago, before I got with the ZBrush program.

It's quite unforgiving, getting your small sculpted wonkiness back in giant size!

They (Axiom 3D Workshop, that is) mill it out of blue foam and then cover it in clay. It's really light weight and easy to work on. I only know them from phone calls and emails, but they are very helpful and know what they are doing!

Starting point: The digitally enlarged maquette with lots of work to do!

First up was to get the head looking somewhat decent...

Looking a bit like a Tim Burton movie prop so far...

That's better! And the tiny turtle on the nose is a reduced 3D print of another turtle (one of my bottle opening ones). I'm going to be making a pendant after making adjustments and re-printing an improved version.

A quick reminder of the final sculpture...

Sliced and diced! Here's my turtle chopped up and having a shim system applied so the mold works well. I wouldn't know where to start so fortunately experts are on hand!

More turtle body parts (some legs/feet and a head behind)

More to come in future posts...

Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Here's a nice big turtle!

Steve Worthington with a turtle sculpture, the bronze of which will be installed in Lake Wilcox Park, Richmond Hill (near Toronto) Ontario, Canada.

It's fun making big stuff, and this beast is going to be installed at Lake Wilcox Park (formerly sunset beach park) by Lake Wilcox near Toronto in Canada.

Turtle, the bronze of which will be installed in Lake Wilcox Park, Richmond Hill (near Toronto) Ontario, Canada.

It feels big in our living room - somewhat obscuring the tv: in the great outdoors I'm sure it will not seem nearly so imposing.

This is the clay version. Of course the park will be getting a bronze.
A bit later I'll post some pics of the process of getting it from the original you see here to the final bronze, as well as some 'in progress' pics up to this point.

Steve Worthing with one his turtle sculptures, the bronze of which will be installed in Lake Wilcox Park, Richmond Hill (near Toronto) Ontario, Canada in the summer of 2014.

I have more plans for large turtles and other beasts. Logistics of course present their usual problems, especially expense related ones, but for now I'm glad to be producing a piece that will be part of a public project.

It will be the third or fourth park to instal some of my handiwork, which is very gratifying.





Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

I've been told Sam Simon likes my handiwork...

Sam Simon with his Mercy For Animals award plaque

If your first thought is 'who's Sam Simon?' I'm rather embarrassed to say that was mine too, although I should have known better since I've been a big fan of a lot his work over the years!

A bit of a creative powerhouse, as it turns out.

He is one of the original three creators of 'The Simpsons', and also worked on Taxi, It's Garry Shandling's Show and Cheers. Wikipedia describes him as 'an American director, producer, writer, boxing manager and philanthropist.'

Here's a link to his Wikipedia page.

One of the award plaques I recently made for Mercy For Animals was honoring Sam for his contributions to animal rights and welfare causes, including theirs, of course.

Like Bob Barker, he paid for one of the Sea Shepherd ships that  have been preventing a lot of whales from being killed by a Japanese whaling fleet for so called 'scientific' purposes. You may have seen some episodes of 'Whale Wars'.

The front looks better than the back! Bob Barker with Sam Simon and his Mercy For Animals compassionate leadership award (Bob already has one!)

He started out as a storyboard artist (I'm a storyboard artist), apparently has an official Rodin Thinker cast (I've spent a lot of time studying Rodin's sculpture, even traveling to Paris to visit the Musee Rodin on my way to the States), and has created, written and or directed some of my favorite TV shows.
That's where his creative rocket boosters kicked in and propelled him beyond anything I can relate to!

Writers have always impressed the hell out of me since they have to come up with a world from scratch, rather than merely figuring out how to tell the story visually (which is a large part of storyboarding).

So when I did find out who he is I really hoped he'd like his plaque, purely on its artistic merits.

Here's what I was told by the person I deal with at Mercy For Animals.

'Oh, I also wanted to share something with you. Sam Simon told our staff person that his award plaque is the most exquisite, beautiful award he has ever gotten (and he has MANY, including several Emmys!!) and that it is his favorite. I thought you would like to hear that'

As it turns out, I loved hearing that.

Sam Simon's Mercy For Animals award plaque by Steve Worthington

Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Jousting toads - let the tournament begin!

The jousting toads of my mind - the standing toad is your's truly

Looking a bit more like chocolate than bronze (my rendering skills in ZBrush are still pretty basic)

Fairly finished

Here they are, toad and turtle combined and fairly finished.

I say fairly finished because I'm sure to tweak something sometime.
Anyhow, I finished my toad and turtle, made a nice jousting saddle and lance (complete with boxing glove on the end!) so now my critters can have at it!

Some details

Jousting toad - Steve Worthington

I'm going to make an opposing jousting toad that looks heftier than this one (turtle too).
I figure this one can have nimble speed working for him, while the other will rely of brute force.

Mental picture

I like the faded background in the photo's at the top because it kind of highlights how I often see the world through the filter of my imagination.

Especially when I'm in parks.

Just a big kid I suppose!
But I have a whole world waiting to be born, and now I am getting a pretty decent handle on ZBrush I can finally unleash it on you at least in the form of photoshopped pics.

Here's where I step away from my computer to indulge in a hearty James Bond evil super villain maniacal laugh attack...




OK, I'm back now, great, got that out of my system.

Be prepared

The thing I'm really excited about is that I can indulge myself in a serious body of work of a certain substance and heft, if you will, and have it all ready to go at a moment's notice should the opportunity arise to get it 'made real' (what is real anymore, anyhow?).

They say luck is when opportunity collides with preparedness (or something), so my mission now is to be prepared. So I'll be beavering away with a frenzied sense of purpose in my spare time for the next while I'm sure.

It has been quite frustrating keeping lots of ideas pushed down simply because I haven't had the space and financial clout to make them at the kind of scale I have in mind to properly capture the imaginations of others.
I've been told by locals that kids especially really enjoy my big grumpy toads in Benson Sculpture Park in Loveland, Colorado (they guard the entrance to a bridge over a pond).
Some even kiss them, to see if they will turn into princes I guess!

Besides just allowing you to sculpt, ZBrush also has lots of other bells and whistles to explore. I'll be checking them out too, so I can use it as an illustration tool if I ever need to.

Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

I'm having a toad-tastically great time with ZBrush...

I've been busy making a toad.
Here's a few pics of early stages.
Right now it's nearly finished (see next post), and I've combined it with my turtle to create my favorite (and perhaps most bizarre) piece to date, so stay tuned for pics of that in my next post!

Anatomically fairly accurate zsphere toad armature 

Armature plus a tiny bit of sculpting converted to a polygon skin

More sculpting to create what looks like a dessicated dead toad!

Further sculpting, followed by re-meshing (smooths everything out) 

Building a new ZSphere rig inside the skin which can be posed, taking the skin along for the ride! It has some small issues and the resulting posed skin (next post) needs a bunch of work, but it sure is fun! I have too many zspheres in the thighs here, which led to some nasty post posing results! (so I removed some and tried again)

I'm probably making all kinds of grievous workflow mistakes, but it seems to be working (although I'll probably not find out for real until I take the finished model somewhere to be milled or printed, at which point I may learn of all kinds of horrendous digital doo-daddery I need to re-think or brush up on).
What I like is that I can work in a similar way to my wire and clay approach, and get convincing results.
Plus I can also do things I can't do with wire and clay that make things more efficient.
There's lots of back and forth between my sculpting program and video tutorials on YouTube or Pixologic's website to remind myself how do do things.

But it seems to be working, so I'm happy.

Next post: See the bizarre result of a turtle and toad as seen through the mind of your's truly...

Click these links to visit my website...SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Did you guess right?

Nearly done turtle in ZBrush (still needs a bit of work)...

If you guessed that the strange looking thing at the end of the last post was a fledgling turtle, congratulations:
You guessed right!

Below are progress pics of iteration number 1.

I still have a bit to go on it refining claws, head, folds of skin etc and adding some more texture, but for  now I feel good that I've made a recognizable critter that I can continue to mess about with a bit.
One for my playtime critter bank.

Maybe I'll work on it more before I have a bash at something else, maybe after.

This turtle I wanted in a nice alert, perhaps aggressive pose, for future plans I have for it.

It's nice to be able to separate the body from the shell while making it. And now I have a shell and body tucked away.
Another particularly nice feature is that you can have ZBrush duplicate your strokes as you work on the other side of the shell, so achieving symmetry isn't a headache.

If I wanted to print a small one, I'd probably adjust it some to thicken up the thinner areas in particular, but since I've made plenty of turtles in sizes from an inch to a lot bigger, I can refer to those to get a sense of how much detail vs how much broad strokes to shoot for.

This is fun!

Kinda sorta turtle body laid out with ZSpheres

There's a face only a mother could love! More ZSketching

No need to get fancy with stuff hidden away by the shell. Makes for a strange looking beast though.

First go at a turtle in ZBrush more or less done

First go at a turtle in ZBrush more or less done

First go at a turtle in ZBrush more or less done

First go at a turtle in ZBrush more or less done

First go at a turtle in ZBrush more or less done


SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille