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LMC: Talk about the Clone Factory and the work you sell there.

CL: The Clone Factory sells resin model kits most of which are sculpted by myself. However we do sell a few that were sculpted by Jordu Schell. I also do alot of commissions for other model kit companies. I take on alot of local molding commissions as well. Also for the 2003 Halloween season, The Clone Factory will be releasing the first set of Halloween masks. There will be six different designs and we are planning on releasing super high quality masks. We plan on making our first debute at the Transworld Chicago show. Other then that I am currently giving private sculpting lessons on anatomy and creature design as well.

LMC: Can you talk about any of the designs you have in mind? Any concept art?

CL: Sure, of course I will be turning the Arachnid spider head into a mask and the Creeper piece will be turned into a mask as well. Other then that I will be doing a few more insects, some sea life creatures, and some alien stuff. I can tell you that one of the insect masks will be based on a praying mantis, but very monsterish!!!!.We will also do your classic style masks but with a new twist to them. In fact I might even approach Jordu for some of this stuff. He has a great way of putting a new twist on a classic monster. Better then anyone else in my opinion.
 

LMC: What is typically your bread and butter work?

CL: The bread and butter work is all the commission stuff. Commissions are the best and the worst, what I mean is you either love what you were hired to do, or you hate it, but doing your job at 110% every time is what keeps the work coming in. I see a lot of sculptors start to slack off on quality and they seem to forget that their name is on the piece they sculpted half-heartedly. The molding commissions are also very good. I could make a living just in molding alone. However, I love to sculpt and I would rather be doing that.

LMC: What do you typically mold?

CL: All kinds of stuff from tiles to coffe cups, lion heads, figures etc.....There's a wide range of things that people need mold's for. In fact, as we speak I'm doing some molds on three wood carved Santa Clause pieces. They range from 12 inch.up to 17 inch. and these are those collectable style Santas that you will find in Christmas stores and such.

LMC: Talk about your upcoming video/DVD?

CL: As a lot of people already know, I'm still releasing the DVD featuring Jordu Schell sculpting and painting a maquette for the first DVD. It's been a learning experience and one I won't forget. I recently teamed up with Dave Britton of Head Hunter Studios and he is taking over a lot of the work on the DVD to help get it done. I'm also releasing several others on various topics in sculpting and painting. Things have become so busy that I just haven't had the time to work on the DVD. So that's where Dave comes in to play. It will be done very soon. We are also looking into other sculptors to be a part of the series but it's sometimes tough to get hold of these sculptors. I'm sure there will be others, and we would love to do some more stuff with Jordu Schell, but will have to see how things go.
 

LMC: Are you planning different topics for the upcoming DVD's in the series?

CL: Oh yes, I'm planning alot of topics, because I always hear from people what they want to see and when I was learning I wish I had some videos that I could of learned from. So I'm going to cover alot of different processes like........super sculpey, armatures, breaking down a sculpture for molding, claying up a sculpture, molding and casting for resin kits, creature design in super sculpey which will include painting. Baking super,mixing super sculpey, etc.....alot of stuff to cover!!!!

LMC: You do a lot of commissioned work, do you prefer that or is it just a means to earn money? Would you rather work on your own stuff with no impending deadline?

CL: Of course the commission work pays the bills, but I love to work on my own stuff more. I mean who wouldn't? Most sculptors would probably love nothing more then to sit at home and just get paid to do whatever they want, but that's just not the way it works, at least not for me. The way I have gotten around this is by becoming a faster sculptor. This way I have some free time to sculpt my own designs. I generally don't like to work on a commission any longer then four weeks.

LMC: Any outrageous commissions in the past? What was your favorite to do?

CL: My favorite commission was the Reaper piece because I had just seen Blade2 and I was already thinking in my head about how cool it would be to sculpt one of those Reapers. Next thing you know my buddy Rick Cantu calls up and asks if I would be interested in doing one of the Reapers. So of course it couldn't of worked out more perfect. I loved doing that piece and a very, very tight deadline. I sculpted the whole thing in three weeks. So that was a bit of a challenge but a welcome one.
 

LMC: Tell the readers how they can get one of those Reapers for their collection

CL: Well for the Reaper you would need to contact Mike Allen at Michael_allen@swbell.net



LMC: What drives you to be better?

CL: I'm driving to do better every time because I am constantly learning something new when I'm sculpting.  Also, other artists who are better then I am, drive me to do better. There's always someone out there who does it better then you do it. I guess that drives me to become the best I can be. I also enjoy seeing what other sculptors are coming up with. Seeing my work improve on each piece is also what keeps me going. It's kind of how I got into learning anatomy. When you finally take the plunge, you see such drastic improvements in your sculpting that you just want more and more.

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