Sculpture

Here are some examples of my 'real' sculptures. Long before I began working in 3D computer animation I worked in more traditional media. Most are of animals or other very organic sorts of creatures. They were typically sculpted with Roma Plastilina, number 2 and 4, using a wide variety of off the shelf and custom-made sculpting tools. I still like to get away from the computer and get back to basics and work in 'real' materials. I get a lot of e-mail with questions about sculpting and casting materials, so I have added a frequently asked questions page with sources for materials and tips and tricks.

All images/animation's for Private non-commercial viewing purposes only.
© Copyright 1984-2001 Vince Backeberg All rights reserved.

Gorillas...

Finished life-sized gorilla head sculpture. Plasticine clay over an ultracal 30 lifecast. Part of a gorilla suit project I was working on for myself. This thing weighed a ton.
© Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg

Gorilla head detail. I studied dozens of National Geographic pictures of gorillas to get this kind of detail. The very fine skin pores and wrinkles are made by pressing latex rubber 'texture pads' into the softened clay. I had just returned from a trip to Los Angeles where I visited  friend Craig Caton-Largent, a former Portland resident and make-up artist.  Craig took me around to many of the biggest make-up shops including Rick Baker's. I got a really close look at some of Rick's fantastically detailed gorilla sculptures and was inspired to try my hand at sculpting a realistic gorilla head.© Copyright 1984 Vince Backeberg

Small sculpture studies of gorilla and dolphin. These were about six inches tall and sculpted at this scale for bronze casting.
© Copyright 1985 Vince Backeberg

Catch of the Day

Here are two small scale alien critters. They were about a half a foot long and originally sculpted in Roma plasticine number 4. After I made the Ultracal-30 molds, I poured in a thin layer of latex which was then filled with a soft polyurethane foam. The teeth and claws are dental acrylic. The eyes are cast in clear polyester resin. © Copyright 1985 Vince Backeberg

Muddy Waters 

A small bust of Blues legend, Muddy Waters. This was for the local Portland Cascade Blues Association annual awards, The "Muddy Awards." I was contracted to design and sculpt a new award statue.  They were happy with the sculpture, and last time I checked, were still presenting it as their official award.

He was a lot of fun to sculpt. Except the ears. I'm not sure why, but it's never fun to sculpt ears on any character. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but it's a pain in the neck.

Faux Stone Carving

The Binky sculpture is something I did for a friend of mine who is a big Matt Groening, "Life in Hell" pre-Simpsons, fan. At the time I was doing some large scale sculptures in a very dense styrofoam and preparing the surface to resemble rock or stone. (A very old prop and set builders trick.)

Zombie kind of character. This figure has a real Berni Wrightson influence. It was sculpted over a full scale plastic human skull. To the left is the finished plasticine sculpture. © Copyright 1985 Vince Backeberg

Sculpting the hands for the Zombie character. I was able to use these same hands for a withered old lady character also. Obviously they had a different paint job. I have to confess that this is a sort of 'phony' behind the scenes pic. I didn't take any pictures of the process before I was ready to mold them. Since the moldmaking process destroys the original sculpture I needed to take at least one photo of myself working on these hands. So I set up my tripod and posed with a sculpting tool, 'at work', on the hands.

If you look carefully in many issues of Cinefex you will see a few pictures like this. Production schedules are often very tight, and stopping work to take pictures is a tough thing to do. But many times, since it is the last chance to document the original sculpture, many effects artists will get one last picture. The dead give away that you are looking at one of these kinds of pictures is that the artist is using a large scale sculpting tool on an obviously finished model. And if they are "using" a smaller tool for detail work, you almost never see the tell tale little curls of clay peeling off the sculpture.  But it's a secret, so don't tell anyone.

A weird abstract little tumor kind of angry guy. This is the original clay sculpture before making the mold. He was sculpted in Roma plasticine # 4. I had already sculpted a number of teeth and cast them in dental acrylic. They were pressed into the clay and removed, leaving small depressions that another set of teeth could be set into once the molding and casting process was finished. Call him Timmy. © Copyright 1985 Vince Backeberg

Molecular breakdown sort of thing happening. The face was inspired by the work of Berni Wrightson.(hence the name) This was cast in plain old liquid latex. It was filled with a flexible polyurethane to give it substance. I made the eye with a clear polyester resin. The pupil and iris were painted on a black plastic disc that was floated on a layer of clear resin in the mold. The mold was then filled to the top with a resin mixed with a translucent white filler. The final paint job was a combination of airbrushing, hand stippling with a sponge and tiny brush work on the smaller details. © Copyright 1985 Vince Backeberg

I actually took this dummy with me on a trip to LA when I made the rounds at the various make-up effects houses. The best compliment I got was Rick Baker asking me what I used to create the cracked, burnt texture which he thought looked really cool. (it was cauliflower)

Life-size sculpture of ET's head. Partly as a learning project, I built a full size replica of ET just for the hell of it.  First I made a substructure of Styrofoam and plaster. Then on top of this I sculpted using the good old Roma Plastilina # 2. After I finished the molds, I cast it in latex and polyurethane foam.

Similar to "Berni", this guy is a little more cartoony. More like the rounded funky looking characters of Gahan Wilson. Wilson has been a big influence on me. When I finished this character I sent Wilson a photo, and was suprised to receive a postcard from him with a neat little illustration of a genuine Gahan Wilson melted guy. Cool...

All images/animation's for Private non-commercial viewing purposes only.
© Copyright 1984-2001 Vince Backeberg All rights reserved.