Black Tower Studios

Deviant art.

2008-06-10T09:34:00.001-06:00

Hi to anyone surfing this site looking for me or just checking out the work i can now be found on Deviantart.
www.thelastronin.deviantart.com
I find it's an easier way to post art.
thanks.
Ted.

Paradise Toronto Comicon

2007-04-10T08:01:00.000-06:00

So I will be having a table at the Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon again this year and I was wondering what YOU want to see from me.
My aim is to get my name out there and hopefully make back the costs of the con.

I'm working on a couple of cheesecake drawings of super heroines and whatnot.
But I want to know what people want to see, what you would you plunk down a few hard earned dollars for.
Sexy Wonder Woman? fine art portrait of Superman?
I have a lot of ideas, but not that much time left. I was thinking of having a few inexpensive prints and maybe one of those Sketchbooks for sale.
Please let me know what the people on the street want.
Thanks,
Ted.

Wonder Woman Portrait.

2007-01-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

Wonder Woman.
Charcoal and Pastel pencils on red paper.
This is another quickish coffee shop drawing.

Maiden of the Spear

2006-12-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

here's a drawing i did a while ago.
She was drawn with charcoal pencil and white conte.
It was recently included in a Get Well project for the Author, Robert Jordan.
Robert has a disease called Amyloidosis, which is a very rare blood disease.
I'm a huge fan of his work, I even named my studio after his writing so having this attached to the project is an honor.
the good news is that he is recovering well after treatments.
I have prints of the drawing if anyone is interested.
Here is the link for the Get Well Project.
it will open to the intro just click on "Danielle's mini site" which is top right,
http://www.dragonmount.com/GetWellRJ/index.php

Buffy Part 2.

2006-10-18T01:11:00.000-06:00

Here's a little drawing I did of Buffy.
Charcoal, graphite and pastel on paper.
I have signed and numbered prints available, just let me know if you are interested.

The Forsaken

2006-10-18T00:57:00.000-06:00

This is a drawing I did a few years ago and having a scanner now I can somewhat piece it together in photoshop for display purposes.
The original is 20"x30" Charcoal and Conte on paper.
The title is The Forsaken. I was reading a lot of Robert Jordan at the time.
Can't you tell?
this is the kind of portraiture i was doing at the end of artschool, it's time consuming and hard as hell on the hands. I drew thousands of little lines to create the tones. I did not smudge or blend with my fingers.

Frank.

2006-10-03T14:24:00.000-06:00

And so it begins, I have gotten a scanner and can now scan and post.
here's a drawing I did at a coffee shop, he took about 1-2 hours.
Charcoal on toned paper.

fingers are stumps.

2006-08-29T22:29:00.001-06:00

I have been drawing so much lately that my hand is killing me.
It's all for a project that I hope gets off the ground.
no I won't say what, but wish me luck.
Your lord and master,
Ted.

Black Canary.

2006-06-19T14:10:00.000-06:00

Here's a drawing I did a little while back. I want to scan more but I don't have access to Craig's craptastic scaner anymore.
paper in a red pencil.

Mural

2006-03-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

I was recently comissioned to paint a mural on the wall of an in progress daycare.
It was a big job so i hired my friend Adam.I was given a few pictures out of a book and asked to use one pic for the group of characters and to create a setting for them with trees and a path.
First i penciled in a rough plan as to the characters placement and position of trees and background. After that I roughed in the characters.

The client was specific as to the poses of the characters so I didn't really need to improvise much. The only real issue was fitting the characters underneath the window in the room. I think it worked well, and they don't look squished.

Here's the end of night 2 or three, by now the trees are roughed in and you get a sence of the overall mural.

here's the next night, Painting on that scale (190 square feet) was huge and took a lot longer then expected. but the trees are more solid and the characters more defined.

This was at the end of the last night. It took 5 long nights. I tried to get into the building at about 4 pm to avoid the noise and dust of a commercial construction site.
It was a cold dry extremely dusty enviroment to be doing this kind of thing in. There was no washroom,(thankfully a 24 hour supermarket was in the plaza) no running water so we had to bring in jugs. and very little power. The lighting conditions weren't too great either.
I learned a few things about murals.
1 wait until there is a washroom, power, running water and carpet.
2 Murals cost a lot of money for a good reason, they are time consuming and difficult. I spent most of the time sitting on mats on the really cold floor in awkward positions that hurt quickly.
3 getting a few friends to help can save your sanity.

here's a close up of the characters, i'm really happy with them, they look like an animation cel.

I would like to thank Adam, Leanne, Heather for painting and Ross, Andrew and Craig for stopping by for some laughs.

Still here.

2006-02-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

Yes I am still here, I've been working on a few things lately though very slowly.
Sometimes the creative process throws you a curve and you roll with it and sometimes you abandon it.
I'm working on some stuff for an upcoming convention in Toronto and hopefully I will have some things to show soon.
Adios!

New Toy!

2005-10-23T17:53:00.000-06:00

So I just got a spanking new toy, A 12"x12" Wacom Intous Tablet.
for those that aren't familiar with a tablet, basically it's a big flat device that comes with a "pen" and it allows you to move the computer cursor just like a pen and paper. So you can draw just like on paper.
I'm going to be getting used to drawing on this thing and eventually posting some stuff.
I want this place to show all of my work not just sculpture.
Any suggestions?

Updates,

2005-09-24T21:15:00.000-06:00

Yeah they're coming. People are asking what i'm sculpting and i'm going to show some soon.
Ted.

My trip to San Diego

2005-09-24T20:30:00.000-06:00

Well this one is a little late but here it is.
San Diego ComicCon 2005 was a series of firsts for me my first trip to the USA, my first time flying, first vacation(though I was there networking for work) first time to see the ocean and California! and it was the first time i got to meet some of my internet friends.

I can tell you how big ComicCon is but it's still bigger then that, the convention center is HUGE! from the outside it looks like a big Habitrail for nerds, but once inside it's even bigger. There is almost every company connected to the comic/toy/scifi/fantasy/anime/manga/art field you can imagine there, they're all trying to sell you stuff and most of them will give you free stuff.
I met so many artists that i had admired it was incredible. From being hugged by Tim Bradstreet to watching my friend Gabe show off his Batman tattoo to Jim Lee to talking about what pens to use with Brian Stelfreeze, it was incredible.
I got to meet people I had learned from like Mike Mignola, Frank Cho, Mark Schultz, Jim Lee, Josh Middleton, Tony Moore.

My main reason for going was to show my sculpts to some of the companies there. I started with more then a dozen full photo portfolios and I gave them all away.
McFarlane toys, Mattel, DC Direct, NECA, Mezco, SOTA, Diamond Direct, I gave them all a port.
A big part of the trip was the DC Direct Talent search where they had a panel of the DC Direct guys split all the sculptors off into groups and we each had a guy look at our stuff. They chose two guys to try out, one was a guy I didn't catch his name but he was already in the field he had done a Hellboy fig for some company. the other guy was Byron from Jaredeon Studio, who just happened to sculpt a beautiful Poison Ivy bust for the Statue forum Iron Sculptor contest. When i saw Byrons Portfolio I knew why they chose him. He had a solid portfolio covering a variety of subjects.
I was sadly not chosen, but I was given the cards for the Art Directors. One of the guys insisted I send them some more stuff, he gave me an honest critique which is something I really respect. Some of the pieces in the portfolio were too stiff, like animation maquettes and pieces that looked like statue poses should be left out. They felt I was at the level to be in the field and I need more port pieces, and that's what i'm working on.
I was able to meet Tim Bruckner, who's a sculptor for DC Direct if you have any of their figures or statues then you will own something he sculpted, it was great to get his advice, as well as Barsom's who is another sculptor for them. they both told me to beef up the portfolio and i'll be in.
I also got to meet Andy Berkholtz, he's a freelance sculptor, he's done work for damn near everyone. He gave me a good critique, it focused on stuff like sculpting hair, and manipulating waxes like castilene.

The other part of the trip was being a fanboy in the shangri-la of comics, i bought some cool stuff by some Pixar animators, got a Middleton sketch, basically I nerded out.

i got to spend time with some good people I met on the internet, had a lot of laughs, some good food, watched drunken comic creators, i even got to see Alkaline Trio in a real Californian punk show. I have to say the kids in the Cali scene were really polite and much nicer then the jock tough guy approach in the Toronto scene.

A few other highlights were meeting Robert Jordan! i went to his panel where he did some pronounciations of his characters, talked about the series and his pland after it. I even got up and asked a few questions! the coolest part was after the q+a he did a signing where I showed him a crummy photo of a drawing i did that's being sculpted. It's an Aiel Maiden of the Spear i asked him to name her and he did "Arhuin" Ar-win, hey it works for me. I shook his hand and got a pic with him.It was an honor to meet him.

While walking around on the last day I was killing time looking for deals when i see a guy in a blue shirt walking towards me, no way i thought JOSS WHEDON! creator of Buffy/Angel/Firefly so I introduced myself shook his hand and even got a picture with him, that's a highlight!

I was on my own for the last night as my friends were going back to LA and Vegas i didn't think i would get to sleep but I was so damn beat i nodded right off. Coming home was a painful experience, I have always dreamed of going to California, and having to leave it sucked.

If you got this far thanks,I know it was long and i know I forgot so much but that's for later, leave a comment if you want.
Ted.

Echo

2005-07-19T14:00:00.000-06:00

I'm back from San Diego and it was incredible, i'll post more on that later, but here is a piece I did of a character in the Marvel comic book named Echo, she's a deaf woman that can imitate any movement she sees, so imagine watching a Bruce Lee film, then going out and duplicating the moves perfectly.
This sculpt was inspired by the image on page 1 of DD issue 51 seen here.

The piece you see here is a primed resin cast of the original, this exact piece was given to David Mack, the creator of the character and painter of the piece in the link.
The bust is sculpted in scale and style to the Kabuki busts that have been released by Clayburn Moore
The only thing I forgot to do was to get a picture of David with the bust.

San Diego!!!!!

2005-07-12T21:54:00.000-06:00

I have to get up in 4 hours to go to San Diego and pimp myself!
I should be updating this blog while I'm out there.

Cali....fornia!

Sculpting Away.

2005-06-23T20:16:00.000-06:00

Sorry, no new pics today I'm currently busting my butt sculpting and trying to get my portfolio ready for the San Diego comic con.
I've got about 4 new pieces on the go in a variety of media. When I get some done i will post them up.
If you have stopped by feel free to leave a comment, i'd like to know who's stopping by.
Take it easy,
Ted.

Buffy, again

2005-06-09T23:59:00.000-06:00

Ok, so here's a second view of the Buffy Bust.
SMG has a unique face and she's fun to sculpt, this is actually the second time I have sculpted her portrait, I played around with a sculpt a few years ago that never went anywhere.
I'm interested to see the new line of sculpts Gentle Giant made.
If you don't know they are a company that uses a lazer scanning device to scan the actor and create a copy that can be made into toys, busts, special effects pieces, props and whatnot.
I think that while the scanning creates an accurate reproduction it misses out on that feeling a sculptor puts into it.

Buffy!

2005-06-05T10:51:00.000-06:00

This is my mini bust of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
It's my first finished piece done in Castilene which is a toy prototyping wax.
She stands about 6" high. Copywright Black Tower Studios 2005.

Jenn.

2005-06-03T23:59:00.000-06:00

This is a sculpt I finished earlier this year. She's a character of mine but the sculpt doesn't give away any of the details about her.
Media: Super Sculpey
1/6 scale 12".
Jenn is Copywright Black Tower Studios 2005

Here I go...

2005-06-03T23:36:00.000-06:00

So this is the wonderful world of Blogging......looks a lot like email.
Ok This is going to be a pseudo website for myself and my art.
First off, My name is Ted, I live in Canada and I am an Artist, yes with a capital A. I went to school for that capital.
I intend to use this as a place to post my work and thoughts. If you want to share feel free.
Enjoy your stay.
Ted.