SKETCHBOOK - "Dino Convention "

It may not seem like the most "St. Patty-ish" thing to do today, but I went to the Overland Park Convention Center to see the "Discover Dinosaurs" exhibit. I suppose if there HAD been dinos in Ireland when St. Patrick was alive, he probably would have chased them out like he did the snakes. The displays were a mixture of well-crafted animatronic, moving dinos...and then some really cheesy, badly designed sculptures. The noise levels were so over-the-top-loud, that my ears are still ringing an hour later...speakers booming the fierce growls of the dinos, and children screaming from delight (or terror). Nightmares for some of them tonight, guaranteed.

SCULPTURE - "King Hog VS Bullzilla" pt. 1

Time for some KAIJU CHAOS! For the uninitiated..."kaiju" is Japanese for "strange beast" or more typically "giant monster". I've had a couple of requests to sculpt something with my all-time favorite kaiju...GODZILLA! But as usual...I decided to put my spin on it.

One of the goofiest Godzilla movies ever made is "King Kong VS Godzilla". The gorilla suit is horrendously bad...but the action is over-the-top ridiculous, which is why I love it!

I was wondering how I could have some fun with that famous fight...but with a little something thrown in from my Arkansas heritage. What other beasts could I mix-in, that could rival the intensity of those two behemoths going at it?!!! Why, long-time arch-enemies...the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Texas Longhorns, of course!!

So...here's a sketch of the battle royal that I will be sculpting next! I might throw in some tiny buildings or tanks, for scale...depends on what I can find from some model kits for that stuff.

As usual, my very rough early-stage sketches are shown below. At first, I had the roles switched on which mascot would be mutated with which monster. This project might take me a while, since I'm building two ferocious beasts. Check back later...or run through the streets screaming...either is appropriate.