Swamp Orc

This sculpture was done with a very specific reference. What came out of it is a feeling of the creature emerging from the deep swamp, with a deeply aggressive expression. It is a scary expression, and I love it.

Without planning it, I feel like I succeeded in some very subtle things that give me a new feeling when looking at it: it pulls me into the scene. Getting pulled in like that, really feeling the world and the creature in your imagination, is a very fun experience. The posture and the feeling of movement mark the first time I felt like I succeeded in capturing a specific moment in a complete scene. Even though Venom is a diorama, I don't feel like I captured the moment in that scene as much as I did with the Swamp Orc. I think it all came together because those subtle details were done properly: capturing the movement in the exact moment, and the expression.

To this very day, this sculpture is one of my favorites, and I think it is even in my top three. That is pretty uncommon, since usually, as with most work we do, we don't like the early work much, but this one stands out. That said, there are some things I don't like as much, like the paint job. I attempted painted lighting for the first time, and it just wasn't executed well enough. Still, from this sculpture onward, I started paying more attention to scenery and expression rather than just the realism of the world. Instead of just being placed in the world, the creature is doing something in that exact moment. It's thinking of something, and subtly (or obviously) interacting with its environment.