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

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

Bronze toad bottle opener...at least it will be later.

Future bronze bottle opener...

I been busy testing my Frogoholic metal master, with very satisfying results!

What you see here is its toad cousin.

I have a cunning plan for this toad bottle opener, which is currently a wax and clay model ready for molding before creating bronzes.

...I'll go into more detail once I have a few cast...

Besides that, my Winged Angel Mice are still available for a half price pre-order on Kickstarter (click HERE to see more).

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

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Toadem Pole: It's a totem pole made of frogs (or toads)...

Wax and clay original of my toadem pole

I've been having far too much fun playing with my home grown building blocks, as you can see!

The top frog is a double header.
Besides sporting a pair of wings (it is a totem pole after all) the toad in pole position is looking forwards and backwards at the same time.



Looks to me like it might also make for a very unusual rapier handle...

...or candlestick holder...

...or a fire stoker handle...

...you know once you start making things, you just keep coming up with more things to make!

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Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back

or my Etsy store, CritterVille

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Sumo toads take their place in the sun...

Manitou Galleries second home in Santa Fe at 225 Canyon Road

Manitou is the gallery in Santa Fe that shows my work.

Recently they snagged a second location in a cul de sac at the bottom of Canyon Road which actually has a wonderful sculpture garden, so it seemed fitting to let my sumo toads out for a romp around in the sun.

Since they are so aggressive by nature, we transported them from the other gallery in separate crates so they wouldn't be able to fight on the way across town, but as soon as we opened the lids they hopped out across the gravel to wrestle over who gets ownership of the large chunk of rock they both decided was so desirable.

They're still at it even now.

They seem to like being out of doors.

If you live around Santa Fe the gallery is having its official opening on Friday June 24 from 5-8pm.
Hop on over and say 'hello'!
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Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

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Impatience vs Perfectionism...

So you have an idea for a piece.
And you're itching to see it done.
You have some clue of how certain things must look - how good they have to be - in order to make seeing it finished worth while.
If you're anything like me these two opposing forces of impatience and perfectionism pop up as a dialogue time and again when you're working on a piece.

Just like the little devil on one shoulder, and the little angel on the other, lazy Steve and perfectionist Steve perch whispering in my ears...

'Go on, just slap a bunch of clay on there and fill out the shape, you'll get an idea of how it will look finished much sooner that way'

'Don't listen to him, get the proportions right, you'll only have to pull it all off and do it over when you realize the proportions are all wrong'

'Come on, this is taking forever, why don't you just fill out that bit really quickly and see how it looks'

'You know if you don't work out from the skeleton and carefully add the muscles before you concern yourself with the surfaces it'll look like a lifeless blob, then where will you be?

'Don't listen to him, your sketch is lively enough, did you start from inside out with that?'

'You're only going to make it once in clay, it will be around forever in bronze, and it will have your name on it. You want to cringe and wince every time you see it?'

First little clay sketch I did of sumo wrestling toads

Completed clay (table top size)

Sumo wrestling toads large version in bronze

There's lots of other thoughts and feelings swirling around besides these, but  these tugs of war never go away for long!

Although I do take pride and pleasure in the things I've made, as soon as something's done, then there's always the next thing.
But the last thing still has to take on its final appearance in bronze.
And there's always a lot to be done before that happens.

And time itself continues the work where I left off, hopefully revealing depth and character and continuing to tell the story of each work through the changing patina of age.

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

Loveland's Sculpture In the Park show, and my Sumo Toads score an online win!

Last weekend was my annual trip (so far, anyway!) to Loveland to take part in the Sculpture In the Park show.

It's the only show I've done each year as a 'stand behind your art and meet your collectors' type participant, mainly because they make it so easy for you, it's kind of hard not to.
And of course I've been lucky enough to get let in (although the last 3 have been automatic since that's their deal after they buy your sculpture for the park)!

Most shows require you to bring your own tent, pedestals, signage, etc etc.
At this show you have to use the provided pedestals, can't use your own signage (to maintain a consistent look and keep it all about the art) and they have an army of volunteers from scouts to retirees, all positively delighted to do whatever they can to make it a pleasure for all involved. And there's security guards all weekend, and great food and beverages during the patron party on the Friday afternoon!).

Of course you have to get there and back, load up and unload your vehicle full of bronze a couple of times (unless you want to chance it going missing in a hotel parking lot overnight), but for me it's a vital opportunity to see people respond to my work first hand which I really enjoy, and also a chance to see lots of other great sculpture and meet a few friends while I'm at it.

Benson Scupture Park, in Loveland, Colorado

It's a great park with some of my favorite features: Ponds!

There's usually a bit of a scramble for pedestals, but plenty of help on hand...

Fork lifts, cranes, and all sorts of assistance for those with really big pieces...

The view across one of my neighbor's areas (super friendly and helpful guy, and veteran of all 27 events, Curtis Zabel)

One of the four main tents full of artists...

A few of my bits and pieces...

It didn't look this serene and empty once everyone was all set up and the doors were opened to the public!

My spooky looking 'Monkey/Turtle Discus Thrower'

The icing on the cake- one of my pieces on the catalog cover!

Thanks to everyone involved, everyone who popped in to say 'hi', and especially thanks if you're one of the fine folks who took something of mine home with you! I certainly appreciate your support.

Besides that, I was tickled pink when I found out today that my 'Sumo Wrestling Toads' won an award of distinction at the Art Kudos annual online show.
Thanks Art Kudos!
Me, and my toads, are pleased as Punch!

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

My Venn diagram, where to find the BEST Venn diagrams on the web, and why it's nice to be wrong.

I've had some fairly strange ideas for sculptures. When they pop in my head I wonder if anyone else will like them, figure 'probably not', but because I've just been dying to see what they would look like finished, I'd go ahead and make them anyway.
That's group C, with no group B overlap.

Then I've made other bunches of stuff I've been itching to do, which I think will also be appealing.
That would be groups A and C, each with some group B overlap.

And then there's been more stuff I can't wait to make, that I'm really not so sure would be popular.
I'm glad I've not only made stuff I thought would overlap with group B, or there would be no Sumo Toads or mice, both of which are enjoyed by more people than I would ever have guessed!

So sometimes it's nice to be wrong!

One thing that's common to everything I've made is it's all stuff I've been itching to do, and like to have around.
And I plan to keep it that way!

Click HERE for the BEST, most entertaining Venn (and other) diagrams in the universe from Jessica Hagy...

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

Sumo wrestling toads will fight it out at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan

ArtPrize is in its second year.
With over $450,000 in prize money up for grabs it's the biggest art contest I know of, the public decides the winner, and it would be rude not to have a bash!
There's over 1,700 artists entered this year!

Here's a photoshop scramble to show what my piece might look like...

Here's how ArtPrize works...
It's very interestingly run.
Artists sign up to the website with their proposed idea (not necessarily finished).
Venues sign up, announcing they'd like to host some art.
Artists and venues approach each other, and when they'd like to team up, sign a contract.
When a registered artist signs up with a registered venue, you're officially entered!
Any type of venue can take part from museums to tatoo parlors, as can any type of artist (with or without tatoos).
The public sees the art on display all around the city and they vote for their favorites.

There will also be some additional prizes awarded by sponsors instead of voted on by the public, but the $450,000 put up by the organizer is divided up between the top ten winners, publicly voted on, with a top prize of $250,000!

My entry...
My Sumo Wrestling Toads form the centerpiece of my entry, called 'Amphibian Struggle'.
You can see my public profile on the ArtPrize website by clicking HERE.
There'll be a video looping near the bronzes, which includes over 100 cartoon frogs I drew on my iPhone with the brushes app, amongst other things.

It's an expensive proposition- casting, crating and sending bronzes around, so luckily I was able to enlist the help of Peter Wright.
He has been responsible for assuming the financial burden of some of my larger, usually more esoteric pieces.
Once the sculpting is finished, he takes them from my sculpting table to the foundry, and on through the production cycle in exchange for a share of the profits.

I can safely say I wouldn't have enjoyed such an immediate and thorough immersion into the sculpture community had I not been lucky enough to partner up with Peter very early on.
So lucky for me he's paying for the costs incurred to enter, and so if I win any prize money, he's getting half the winnings! There'd be a slight variation if I won first prize...

My pledge...
If I win the $250,000 first prize, since my theme is the struggle amphibians face to survive, I'll be donating $50,000 off the top to Amphibian Ark. Peter and I will have to make do with half each of what's left!
Amphibian Ark are an organization dedicated to saving as many species of amphibians from extinction as possible.
Amphibians are currently facing more threats than they can handle, and while plenty of species have us to thank for their impending doom, ironically we are also their best and only hope for survival.

And that's what Amphibian Ark are dedicated to doing, by providing captive breeding programs for species who can't currently survive in the wild, until whatever threat facing them passes.

$50,000 is their estimated cost to save a single species, so I'll give them that much to throw my lot in with others working to save the yellow legged frog of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

So if you're in Grand Rapids, Michigan, between Sept 23 and Oct 10, why not pop on over to the public museum and check out my entry.
By all means vote for it too, if you'd like!



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

Sumo toads centerfold (sort of!) and Sprightly mouse in Yosemite!

I get tickled pink every time someone sends me pics of their sculptures in their homes, or other unusual or interesting places!

My friend Mil collected some of my mice a few years ago, right after I made them. He was one of the first handful of people to snatch them up.

Well, he got back from Yosemite with his family recently and sent me these pics!

Thanks Mil!

And, to start the new year off on a nice optimistic note, some neighbors called and dropped by to let me know I was in the Albuquerque Journal's art section!

Or, to be more precise my sumo wrestling toads were.

I'm glad they told me, I had no idea!

WooHoo!

Someone's a happy camper.

And thanks Bob and Joe for the alerts and clippings!

I'll add that to my recent articles in Western Art collector (Nov) and Southwest Art (July) and declare that I've had quite a splendid run of good luck this last year!

It's had its ups and downs, but it sure is nice to just remember the ups!

I think my next few posts might focus on an artist friend who had the biggest impact on my early days in the business of drawing for a living, John Watkiss.

Stay tuned, his stuff is spectacularly good...

My website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
My Etsy store, CritterVille.

How to sculpt critters, make bronze animals etc. 24 of my 'how to' sculpture posts: Now easy to find, all in one place.

I was trying out the search feature the other day, to find an old 'How to' post.
Seems I hardly ever used those exact words, and I know I've posted quite a few of them, so I put them all in one place, in chronological order with the oldest first.

How to make mice, monkeys, elephants, frogs, turtles, bases, and all sorts of other work in progress for anyone interested in having a go, or simply curious about what goes into this sculpting and casting caper...

Beijing Olympic mascot (unofficial) - This post shows a turnaround of my monkey turtle discus thrower as it progressed.

Making of 'Big Boy', my large Cane Toad sculpture - Two of these live on a bridge over a pond in a park in Loveland, Colorado.

Bumper to Bumper. Turtle sculpture work in progress - 1

The birth of Nosey mouse.

More mousey 'how it's done'.

Bumper to bumper turtle sculpture, work in progress - 2

Making 'Tiny mouse'.

Death of an elephant. This is just some pics of a sculpture being 're-claimed' for future sculptures.

Even more Nosey 'how it's done'.

Bumper to bumper turtle sculpture - work in progress - 3

Bumper to bumper turtle sculpture - work in progress - 4

Step by step how to make a tiny elephant sculpture.

Next steps in bringing my tiny elephant sculpture to bronze.

How to make small sculpture bases by cutting up and edge polishing black granite tiles.

Putting it all together (making micro sized bumper to bumper turtle sculpture).
Hoodrats and the black hole of doom!....making the hood ornament version of Sprightly for my car.

Hoodrats, Darth Vader, and the tree snake of death!

Sprightly mouse hood ornament-The hoodrat rides!

Final bronze elephant and more garden snake action!

My new butterfly salad toad sculpture is finished.

My secret weapon and favorite tool for creating sculpture...(worth a look just to see my secret weapon)

Race against the clock- getting new stuff cast in time for my first gallery show...

New shiny toy and new work in progress report.

How a hole in the head sometimes helps, and how to avoid one when it doesn't.

The tree frog has landed.

Well I hope you enjoyed that, there's lots of other stuff buried in the archives too of course!

My website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
My Etsy store, CritterVille.

Snakes alive (and snakes dead), people's choice and bright shiny things.

People.
Gotta love 'em.
Thanks folks, for voting my Sumo Wrestling Toads the 'People's Choice' during their stay at Brookgreen Gardens as part of the National Sculpture Society's annual show (which is over now).
I am stupendously happy to have got your votes. I think that's a pretty big deal.
Yeah!

Twice in the space of a week I've had to jump out of my car to shoo a coachwhip snake off the road.
On one occasion I was in an awful hurry to get home due to certain biological emergencies that result from a fondness for green chiles on everything, washed down with copious amounts of strong coffee.
I'd been driving us home like a vampire hurtling to his coffin against the quickly rising sun, only with the prospect of a much messier outcome should I lose my race against time.

Almost home... rounding the last corner... what's that across the driveway?
Right in my way, a 4 foot long coachwhip snake dammit! And a beautiful shade of raw salmon pink to boot.

Beeping the horn won't help, they're deaf to airborne sounds.

And for some odd reason, they aren't scared of cars.
But when you hop out and they detect your human form they flail away like a mad thing.
Much like my attempts to get the keys in the door.

Then a few days later I saw another one across the road laying there without a care in the world about a block or two away.
So I hopped out and pranced around it, to see what it would do.
First they try to make a mad dash for the edge of the road, but they thrash so hard against the smooth asphalt that they slip and slide about instead of moving forwards.

So I danced past it and it turned at me and raised it's head with its mouth wide open.
Just until it figured it could zip past me and off through some rabbit bush and away.

Then I spied our 'pet' bull snake in the garden while I was looking for our weed spraying bottle.
He was patrolling among some large flower pots near the bbq grill.

I noticed he had particularly rich reddish brown blotches. Must have recently shed his skin.

He casually nosed around, and took up residence inside the bottom of the grill.


Besides that, I saw another Coachwhip snake right on the road outside our house one evening when we drove home from somewhere or other.
I hopped out, but sadly it was dead.

I was wondering if one of our neighbors might have killed it by running it over. There's only 5 other houses on our cul-de-sac, so it couldn't be too hard to narrow it down.
But it was kind of right on the road where we'd be after we've backed out of the driveway.
So now I'm plagued with the thought that I in-advertantly killed it, after saving it a couple of times.
Could have been some one else, but then again, could have been me.

Will I ever sleep again?

Probably.

Other than that I'm pondering just how super bright and shiny to do the patina on my tree frogs when they get cast.
I fancy taking a leap into the super bright arena for a change, since I think the subject matter could handle it.

No news regarding progress of my pieces, it's all a bit out of my hands for a little while 'till they come back from the foundry for finishing and patina.
But I think I'll be bugging Lee for a progress report this week...

My website, and Etsy store.

My new butterfly salad toad sculpture is finished.

I suppose a butterfly is the equivalent of a cobb salad if you're a toad.
Meaty bit and flimsy bits all on the same plate.

Since my earlier post showing the original sculpture in April, Lee Wilson has made a mold of it, waxes have been pulled from the mold and been cast in bronze, metal work has been done, and then a traditional patina applied in the usual way (heat, spray on chemicals, and brush on paste wax while it's still hot).

Lee tried a little experiment during the molding process. The normal method for hollow sculpture is to paint hot liquid wax into the mold one layer at a time. But since he got his new toy, a wax injector (for doing smaller, solid pieces) he thought he'd try and fit a second mold portion from beneath so he could squirt wax in under pressure and make the wax in a minute instead of half an hour.
After experimenting with different temperatures and adjusting the second part of the mold, he decided he couldn't do it (the waxes were coming out with missing bits), so it was back to doing it the old fashioned way.
No harm in trying though. Here's the freshly cast bronze before metalwork and patina.And below it's finished and sitting next to a can for scale.
My website, and Etsy store.