Matt Cexwish

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Games Day France 2009 Gold Diorama: Master Of The Puppets...

Hi Di Ho! THOUSAND Thanks to Kevin "TIN" Kosse and Ben Komets... Without them this wouldn´t exist...:)... The Inspiration for this one is clear to see... Metallica sang a great song that kept stuck in my mind for a looooong time... Master, Master... I simply had to do something based on this... First, there was a Concept Scetch... I did them while travelling via Subway and Trains... They were done alltogether with the "Leonardo" Scetches... http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/841/img007w.jpg http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/2569/img012h.jpg You can clearly see that the idea developed over and over again and -as time went by- I gathered an awful lot of ideas... this Post serves to show you a little something behind the scenes of a Project like this... The Idea started quite humble with the Character of the Puppetmaster... I imagined a guy who´s legs came off when he was a Child... As anyone knows, children can be really cruel towards disabled people... It made him a loner with no friends... That´s why he began making up his own World in his head, playing with Puppets and pretending to speak to them... He created his own World... Puppets don´t talk back to you, they don´t swear and don´t spit on you... They were exactly what he every wished for until -finally- he became some kind of Puppet by himself... The Doll on his head represents this mental and physical degredation... It controlls his head, taking any responsibility off him... The scene depicts one of the Master´s Shows on the Streets of Mortheim... Life is hard, of course, and you have to make a living out of something... A Daily show delivers Food... and whatever people chip at him... His Waggon is essential because of all the custom builds on it that replace the Puppetmaster´s legs... Quite a creepy guy, huh...^-^...?... You can find thousands of Children roaming the Streets of Mortheim... Orphants, Gutterkids, Born and Raised in Violence, Cruelty and Murder... The only joy they can find apart from bloody gangfights, stealing, brutal adults and exploding frogs by using a straw is... The rare Shows of the Puppet Master... ^_^... Very early it occured to me, that a Single Character wouldn´t do it... Now I planned a small Duell between two puppets, making the Master himself merge with the Waggon a little bit... The Section shows a piece of a typical Mortheim street, alltogether with the Gutter, Sewer and some Apples... The diagonal cut creates a more dramatic atmosphere... At First, the roof was Brown... later I discovered a Piece of oxidated Copper... Amazingly, it was Blue with brown cracks... just perfect... The Composition of the Children should guide the viewers attention... From the central front the Puppetmaster towers above everything... Soon you can notice a trianglular composition of the childrens heads (Low - High - High - Low...)... They focus the view back in the Middle and frame the whole scene... I learned that from my buddy Michael... Angelo...:d... Hrhr... He´s a Man... Maybe two... Building a real Ghypsie Waggon I just HAD to build some of the Interior...:)... A small oven tells the misterious story of burned Puppet Parts and Heat that helps surviving bad Weather condiditons... The Oven and the Wood show, that the life of the Puppetmaster is at constant risk... Try finding the Nails that come through the roof...^_^... The "Puppetshow Tonight" sign is a bit cheesy, but I took it from an actual Antique poster... Can´t be that bad... I am quite happy about the Freehand (don´t paint those too often...)... The Children in the middle are Siblings... The Older sister is taking care of her younger brother, after their parent got killed by some creepy shit in the City... They are staring very focused, so they won´t notice their broken Teddy Bear... It´s the only piece of Childhood they have left... It´s all about the story, eh...:)...?... It was a true nightmare writing the Plaquette, because there seem to be more then one ways of writing this in French... I always write the Title in the Respective countries language as a sign of friendship and respect... I have to choose the Title very carefully, because I don´t want to offend people by showing up with the "Matre La Marionete" or the "Maitre des Mayonnaise"...:)... The strings were a tricky part... They consist of very fine copper... Glueing them in Place took some hour (or day...) and it was hard getting them straight... Transporting it to Paris and back amazingly didn´t made it better... Well, well...^_^... After hours and hours of research and explanation, I received this... I was very happy with the sculpt, still I had to change a lot... Feel free to compare the changes... The whole base was build using Plasticcard, Brown Stuff and various Metal parts... The only GW parts are the Head, the Arms... and the Oven (Dwarf Cannon Muzzle...)... The Wheels are from Harlequin or such, I don´t even know where they came from... :P... Feel free to COMMENT and VOTE as much as you can...:)... For every COMMENT I will think about you and your work for at least 1 Minute... If you want I can write, what came out of that afterwards... hrhrhr... To finish this, some WIP and Concept Scetches... http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/3474/65800228.jpg I LOVE this doll... it´s amazing where the strings are attached... very different... In addition, the Colours are amazing... I tried to achieve a similar effect... http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7286/0512070419172731.jpg The Man Who Knows... You know...?...:D... http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7263/1236435951448.jpg Lui - tennant - Daaaan... I am sure you know him... I just had to use the Legs... http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/2293/backgroundp.jpg A Wonderful Painting by Hans Wermer Sahm... Bergkulisse... You can find my version if you are a sharp observer... I copied it as good as possible... in addition, I painted a small guy in the clouds... and guess what...?... You can see a small Puppet on his head...:)... The rays of the sun are strings that come from his hands, forming the landscape under him... A interpretation is, that the Puppetmaster sees himself as God, who created his own, perfect world... As I said, he´s a strange fella...^_^... [http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/6360/bowtopwagon.jpg The Ghypsie Waggon... I redrew the plans all over... http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/7250/dsc00796a.jpg I took reference pictures in an Antiques Shop... The Texture is amazing and just what I was looking for... http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8248/dsc00810.jpg http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/2947/imageoag.jpg I love this Circus Director... he has a Dark Aura around himself... I couldn´t apply it on my version, though, because I tried to hold the balance of Base and Master... http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1324/dsc00818k.jpg http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9840/dsc00832n.jpg The Wip... I mainly use Brown Stuff, because it has a Cool name...^-^... Badass... http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/5581/dsc00834i.jpg http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/8416/dsc00841.jpg http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/1636/dsc00845l.jpg http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8919/dsc00869l.jpg Soooo... That´s it... Thank you very much indeed for your time... and happy commenting...;)... Cheers! "Matt Cexwish"

Posted: 21 May 2009

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