David Meng Art

Mr. Sprinkles

2011-06-28T06:53:00.001-07:00

The ill-famed, chain smoking half-ape, pictured here in his later years. Plus, some narcissistic phone doodling!

"A Pungent Character"...my Gnomon Dvd

2011-06-04T23:39:00.001-07:00

At the end of last year I had the good fortune of doing a Masterclass for the Gnomon Workshop, in which I spent about 11 hours sculpting this totally sexy character in front of the camera. The tutorial (running time about 3 hrs, not 11!) is now available as a Dvd from the Gnomon website, which is here:

www.thegnomonworkshop.com/news/2011/06/a-pungent-charactert-with-david-meng/

If you think my Dvd might be interesting and/or helpful, please give it a look!

Thank you to everyone at Gnomon Workshop, Scott Spencer for all his help, and Richard Taylor, Wayne Barlowe and Jamie Beswarick for their kind words.

New Old Stuff

2011-06-04T23:32:00.002-07:00

The last one? I ran out of clay.

`Mengland' Update

2011-02-07T01:48:00.001-08:00

Hellooooooooooooooooooooo...

Been stupid busy lately, but here's a few pieces of news I shoulda mentioned sooner...

A few more pieces of mine ("Cellar God", "Bully" and "Man with Dogs") have been added to the White Cloud Worlds exhibition at the Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. You can find more details about the show and the book at:

www.whitecloudworlds.com

And recently I was very privileged to be invited to record an online master class for the Gnomon Workshop, wherein I demonstrate the sculpting of a head/shoulders bust of a fantasy character, from start to finish. It was recorded around Christmas time last year, and I had a blast working with the Gnomon guys and getting it done.

I did an interview about it last week at www.cgchannel.com

For more info on signing up for the Gnomon 2011 Masterclasses, please visit:

www.gnomonschool.com/master/

They start this Friday,February 11th, and will be up online for two weeks. I'm one of twelve artists whose demos will be available for those who sign up, along with my fellow workmates and Weta Workshop designers Paul Tobin and Scott Spencer. If you're interested, give us a look!

Laters,

DM

White Cloud Worlds

2010-10-17T02:35:00.000-07:00

I feel lucky to be part of this book that will be coming out soon, called "White Cloud Worlds", which is an anthology of fantasy artists from and/or presently residing in New Zealand. I got my copy a few weeks ago, and it's truly a beautiful thing. There is a veritable crap-load of really talented people who get a chance to show their personal work that most people would otherwise not see. Personal work that includes a Howard Pyle-esque painting of chimpanzee pirates, a girl nonchalantly lounging on a sofa while giant caterpillars scale buildings outside her window, giant robots marching across a World War I battlefield, and more such innovative images. We were also really fortunate to have a foreword by Guillermo Del Toro, an introduction by Richard Taylor, and afterwords by Alan Lee and John Howe.

Definitely check out the website for the book, which introduces the artists and previews some of the content as well.

www.whitecloudworlds.com

The White Cloud Worlds site also has info on an upcoming exhibition of work from the book, which will include a few of the sculpts that are on this blog.

There's going to be a few signings of the book taking place in the next month or so, one at Armageddon in Auckland during Labour Weekend, one at Unity Books in Wellington on October 30th at 5pm, and a last one at the Weta Cave in Miramar on November 14th, 1pm. I'm planning to be at the latter two, so if you're in New Zealand during those dates and want to stop by, hope to see you there...!

"Giant Fisherman"

2010-08-21T03:15:00.000-07:00

Or "Oni".

I recently finished this one. It's roughly two foot tall, and nearly killed its creator in the making.

I'm glad this thing is done.

Photography by Steve Unwin.

"Amphibiana"!

2010-08-21T02:55:00.000-07:00

Or "The Pond Spirit's Wife" or "Madame Toad".

I recently had a few weeks off work, during which time I finished up some things that had been sitting around. I've been wanting to do something involving a toad for a long time, since I thought the textures would be fun to do and the paint job would be a good challenge.

The female character on top is something I had come up with way back when, and I decided now was a good time to finally give her a three-dimensional debut. She makes a good foil for Mr. Fatty Fatty Toad Pants. The sculpture is partly a nod to Grimm's fairy tales, as frogs and toads figure very strongly in those stories.

A turning point for this piece was when it occured to me to put a Thai style hat on the little frog girl's head.

Photography by Steve Unwin

Amphibiana

2010-08-21T02:38:00.000-07:00

A new piece I finished, the base is about the size of a dinner plate. More pictures to come...

Photographs by Steve Unwin

Red Meat

2010-04-13T04:36:00.001-07:00

A devil cooking a distressed looking sausage...with his own gas.

The Cellar God

2010-04-13T04:08:00.000-07:00

Finally a new post! This was the last sculpture I finished, sometime at the end of last year, finally ready to show it. It is the Cellar God, a member of a pantheon of a billion gods that live in hearths, wells, bathhouses, kitchens, sheds, etc. He rides an alchemical crab and listens to old jazz music.
Photographs by Steve Unwin.

Chillaxin'

2010-02-27T03:06:00.001-08:00

Priestess

2010-02-10T03:04:00.001-08:00

Some Nerd

2010-02-10T01:35:00.000-08:00

Drawn when I was eighteen or nineteen, in college. I had a rough night out previously. When I got up in the morning, the sun was beating down harshly into my dorm room. I took a look in the mirror, grabbed some computer paper and a ball-point pen, and decided to capture the crap-kicked out of me thing I had going on. It's not a whimsical fantasy drawing, but this is me, in all my disheveled Andy Warhol-resembling glory.

Orangutan Outlaw

2010-01-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

Uncle Sarcastic

2010-01-16T23:16:00.000-08:00

A goblin. Note the horse teeth and belly button.

"Der Huhnermensch"

2009-12-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

Have you ever looked closely at a plucked chicken or duck from the market, the ones with their heads and feet still intact? As morbid as they may be, for a creature designer like me, it's a subject rich in texture, detail and delicate colors. And they really lend themselves to being sculpted in polymer clay, with subtle washes layered up over the already translucent polymer material.

I'd been planning to do something involving a plucked chicken for a long time, but it couldn't be a mere study in still life. At some point I got the idea to put a human face on it, so I did this piece. The title is in German, because the idea reminded me of something Heinrich Kley might have done. Kley was a German cartoonist of the early 1900's who drew a lot of grotesque things with a sarcastic edge to them.

The weird thing is, after designing this piece, I read in a book of Forteana that in the 1800's, a farmer in Jersey reported a chicken with a near-perfect human face on it. Maybe it was channeling through me.

Photograph by Steve Unwin.

"Another Oldie"

2009-12-30T21:43:00.000-08:00

New Zealanders tell me the face on this one fits their stereotype of an Australian. Australians, what do you think?

It was actually based on a friend who is an American. It's another drawing from way back, when I was still but a lad.

"Oldie but a Goodie"

2009-12-30T21:37:00.000-08:00

Drawn almost a decade ago, when I was still young.

"Johnny Satan Pants"

2009-12-30T21:32:00.000-08:00

"Satyr's Head"

2009-12-30T21:12:00.000-08:00

This piece was done in 2008. It's not that big, the face alone is about the size of a fist. I love satyrs, and have probably sculpted too many... I still have a whole bunch of faces I'd like to sculpt, possibly as full-sized models with individually inserted hairs, etc. Part of me doesn't want to keep repeating myself, but the other part has a strong desire to create more and better satyrs.

This guy was originally going to have a beard and mutton chops, which would be fine to do if he were cast in silicone or something. But he's done in polymer clay, and I haven't found a way to convincingly put `real' hair into a sculpture made in that stuff, or any rigid material for that matter. I could punch the hairs in before the clay is baked and airbrushed, in the way wax dummies are made (I think the hair is completed on them before they're painted), but I can only think that would leave unsightly holes where the needle inserts into the scalp. I don't know how it works to smooth the clay over in those areas, seems more trouble than it's worth.

At the same time, the total lack of hair does make him seem more of a bitter old bastard, which is what I wanted. Photograph by Steve Unwin.

"Bully"

2009-12-30T20:17:00.000-08:00

Here's a piece I did a while ago, which got into the book Spectrum. The concept isn't particularly inventive, e.g. girl with a beast, but I think there's value in exploring traditional imagery as long as you can find a way of doing it that's interesting.

In retrospect, I see many things I want to improve on or fix in this piece, but I'm relatively happy with it. I gave the girl a slightly 1920's-ish hairstyle, sort of a nod to Norman Lindsay, an Australian artist working during that time who did these darkly magical etchings of sirens and satyrs. Photograph by Steve Unwin.

2009-12-27T22:15:00.001-08:00

Just put this up...more to come soon...