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LMC:
What’s
your favorite clay?
JL:
When
I was growing up, I first started with Sculpey, which is great for
beginners, and to this day is great for doing small maquettes and
such. It’s too costly for larger projects, though. After trying
several oil based clays out there I found that Roma Plastilina #3 is
probably the best of them. I really like the “white” Roma, too,
which is actually light yellow. It varies slightly from the regular
Roma in “feel” and other properties, but I like it a lot. Then
one day I realized that it’s silly to make a huge sculpture out of
Roma, and I tried water based clays. The best of course, is WED (for
Walter E. Disney) from Laguna Clay. They developed it over at Disney
to sculpt their animatronic characters.
But sometimes I want a really hard, dense clay
for small things, like sculpting teeth and dental appliances. I’ve
found that a good one is Pro-Clay from
www.monsterclub.com.. It comes in
different hardnesses, so order the hardest. It can also be melted
down very cleanly and easily for clay-pours.
LMC:
What
sculpting tools can you not live without?
 JL:
You know, I could try to describe them, but why don’t I just show
you a picture of them?
LMC:
How do you feel you have grown as a sculptor; gradually with each
piece, or do you tend to have those Eureka type moments when your
work improves almost overnight?
JL: I’ve
had several Eureka moments over the years. The first was when I
realized that my noses looked stupid. I started looking at
Einstein’s face in photographs, and I really observed the nasal
anatomy, and went nuts sculpting big funny noses, but keeping the
cartilage just where it should be. Before that the noses were kind
of clumsy.
 The next was when I realized that fantasy characters should follow
real life anatomy. This sounds obvious now, but at a certain point
my art improved overnight when I started considering this. My
improvements over the years sort of came in fits and starts like
that
LMC: Any tips on creature creating? Sculpting,
molding, casting, painting.
JL:
I’m not a technical guy, so you
might find a lot more innovative and detailed tips from some of the
other artists. I have noticed that your ultracal mold will come off
of a sculpture quite nicely if you coat the sculpture surface with
acrylic matte medium (Liquitex is good). You can put a thin coat of
it over your Crystal-Clear spray coat. Of course, don’t put so much
on that it fills in your details. Then, you can go in and poke it a
little to put more detailed pores in the skin, and small wrinkles,
etc. The Ultracal came off of it with no clean up necessary to the
mold. Don’t take my word for it; do a small test.
Also, I’ve
noticed that if you’ve got a big, complex WED sculpture and you’re
trying to get your Ultracal mold off of it, and it’s too hard to get
it off, just soak the whole darned thing in a tub of water for a
day. The water will seep in from the bottom neck area and resoften
the clay inside, making it a lot easier to pull the mold apart.
Anybody use PAX to paint a mask? I think it’s a good base coat. Just
mix Pros-Aide adhesive and Liquitex acrylic paint in different
ratios until you find just the properties you like. Also add water,
and some matte medium for a more translucent coating. It sticks to
latex like there’s no tomorrow, and is pretty elastic.
 LMC:
How do you go about capturing those intricate expressions in your
work? What about those detailed facial lines and patterns?
JL:
I look at my own wacky face in the
mirror, just like cartoonists do. Also, I collect any interesting
photo of a person or an animal I can find. The more character, the
better. You can’t go wrong using nature as a reference. If you can
get a hold of a lifecast of a real person, do so. The more elderly,
the better. Make sure your patterns don’t deviate from what would
happen in real life, even if it’s an outrageous monster. For example,
on one of my more extreme monsters, his forehead wrinkles exactly
match those of Jack Nicholson. But nobody ever noticed that. So, if
you copy from life, and keep doing it, you’ll start memorizing those
patterns. Just adapt them to the needs of your current creation.
Also,
make sure your pore patterns go in different directions. If they
don’t, it’ll look fake.
LMC:
How would you recommend a beginner getting
started making masks and sculpting?
JL:
Do this: Take
a flat piece of wood or masonite that’s water proof. Using oil or
water clay, sculpt a small, simple front half of a face directly
onto this surface.. Use a picture in a book as inspiration. If you
have never sculpted before, try to copy a real face using the
anatomical proportions charts shown in any life-drawing book.
 Grease up the board around the face.
Pour plaster onto it making sure it gets in all crevices. When
cured, pull the plaster up, look in the back, and gently clean out
the clay. Let the plaster dry. Pour in liquid latex, and in an hour,
pour it back into the container. Wait for skin of latex to dry
inside mold. Pull it out, while powdering it with talcum.
That’s it! You’ve made your first
mask! All the rest is just details, and refinements of the process.
Once you’ve done one, you’ll be a LOT more self confident. That’s
all Step One.
Step Two: Get the Monstermaking
Handbook from Monstermakers.com, and keep reading this website.
Also, get the mask book AND the mold book that Thurston James wrote.
(Amazon.com)
Step Three: Make some masks. See if
anyone will pay you for them. If they will, you’re a professional
maskmaker.
Step Four: Add all of life’s
requisite complications and setbacks to the above steps.
Step
Five: Enjoy.
LMC: Any skills or talents you wish you could
do better?
JL:
I wish
I was better at full figure anatomy. I’m pretty good with heads and
faces, but not quite as good with figure sculpting. The best ever
was August Rodin.
LMC:
Are you working on or have plans for figure sculpts?
JL:
Yes, I plan to do more in the future. I’ve done some for various
people, and I used reference photos to keep the anatomy accurate.
If you work from real life like that, even the folds of cloth on
the wardrobe can be made to look real. I want to get in some more
opportunities to practice this.
LMC:
What are your short term goals?
JL:
To get
some more masks sculpted. Teach myself digital video editing. Also,
to become good at sculpting and casting good dental appliances.
LMC:
What about a few years out.
JL: I’d like to combine my interests
and skills into some multimedia projects. Something involving film
or video making, photography, possibly TV, and/or live presentation.
What actual forms these ideas will take may go in unexpected
directions.
 LMC:
Got anything on the sculpting table now?
JL:
I’ve got a bass-relief man-in-the-moon sculpture that’s rather
whimsical, which will be molded soon, a bunch of paint experiments,
and the set up for the big ol’ pumpkin man that’s gonna be coming to
life in there. And there’s numerous dental sculptures and sets of
people’s teeth I’m working on to get good at it.
LMC:
Any pet peeves?
JL:
Here’s a technical one: It
seems that the quality of Ultracal 30 from US Gypsum is becoming
very unreliable. I’ve had some bad experiences with this. Lesson:
Test every batch before doing an important mold!! Aaarrgh!!
On a more personal note, It’s always disappointing to see people who
blatantly rip off somebody’s original design. Back in 1995, I did a
character, “Envy” of the Seven Sins, and found that someone had
closely copied the face for their own sculpture, down to almost
every wrinkle and nuance. Perhaps a bit of “envy” of their own? The
worst part is, they probably made a lot more money off of that than
I did of mine.
 LMC:
Hmmm… are you taking measures to protect your work from these type
of thieves?
JL: Well, of course, the most
important thing to do is get everything copyrighted. Send that form
into the Government Copyright office, and get it registered, as soon
as you’re done with the project. That way you have proof.
Now, obviously, I can’t comment on
the above mentioned case in any detail, but let’s just say that I
have ample proof that the character is mine and that it was done
over five years before the look-alike came out. What made the
situation even more insulting was that when the rip-off piece was
shown in the mask community, it got a lot of positive attention,
such as “Man, is this thing just FULL of character, or what?” And
of course, what they were responding to was the sense of character
that I had imbued it with, not the other guy.
Now, I know that a lot of artists do “tribute”
pieces depicting major movie characters that are unlicensed, and I
understand that. But to rip off the work of one individual artist,
is just kind of low.
 LMC:
What makes you happy?
JL:
A sense of accomplishment is one of the best
things in the world. Also, I like it when creative people meet and
there’s a sense of being inspired by each other’s work, rather than
a sense of competition. That’s why it’s fun to go to the various
conventions and see other artists, and catch up on what they’ve been
up to. Also, I like to collaborate, and I’d like to see what I can
do in conjunction with other’s skills. If there’s anybody in the
Chicago area who wants to talk, write me at
jlester2000@yahoo.com
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