I had the pleasure of collaborating with Dres13, an artist that I'd been admiring from a far for a while. I decided to reach out and ask if I could sculpt his character. I was thrilled when André Greppi (a.k.a Dres13) agreed to let me run wild and produce an art toy of Marge Assassin. 

A character whom André had created by mashing two loves together; the Simpsons and Akira.

What followed next is about 6 months of development, sculpting, mold making, casting, painting and packaging design.  

Sculpting: Working with two separate White Cell bases (from Plastic Cell), I combined them to create a new base, I then set off on a challenge to create a character with towering hair who also stands in heels. 

Casting: It was the first time using my newly upgraded vacuum chamber (to degas silicone during mold making) and pressure pot to remove resin bubbles during resin casting. Both contributing to a much higher cast quality. 

Priming and painting: I was new to spray priming, which I think turned out well and art toys were painted traditionally with a selection of acrylic paints, a couple of enamel paints and some colour change washes. 

Experimental tools: I experimented with new AI tools to create generated backgrounds for my photo shoot. I used Leonardo.AI and PS Beta (Generative fill) to tidy and stitch background elements together. 

Photo shoot: I then arranged coloured LED's (to light similar to that of the generated background) photographed these in front of my Huion digital drawing screen. Final touch ups in Snapseed/ PS Beta. 

Packaging: I worked with André (Dres13) to develop and design custom boxes for the final packaging. 

I was thrilled to sell the first batch out, and I'm currently working on a second release. All-in-all I ended up making 15 pieces. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this, as it's my first real collaborative art toy release.