Imagination is Everything!
Friday I had a medical procedure that required being sedated. This has me in recovery at home and the studio for the next few days. I’m not allowed to lift anything over 20 pounds and latex masks molds filled with rubber far exceed that. I should be able to get back to pouring your masks Thursday.
Sorry for the delay.
I got this shirt from http://www.blipshift.com and it’s a close match to my kit built Ostorero Lotus 38. What a great kit and build.
Hard to believe it’s almost the middle of June. Happy that we still have half the year left to go and Mary and I have so many projects still to do. Here we go.
Mary is painting away and she’s doing a new series of bird paintings. It’s always nice to have a theme with projects. There is no blog post for her this week but if you missed last week’s Toucans here is the link to her blog: https://marycacciapaglia.wpcomstaging.com
My current painting theme is models and aircraft. What a surprise huh? I am currently painting and building WW1 era planes.
With the success of the Fokker D-VII and its flying high over the skies of Ventura, I have ventured into a new build of the Fokker DVIII.
This plane wasn’t a biplane but a parasol. I started putting this kit together this week and I got pretty far in my spare time. Most of the major components are frame up. I find this all so relaxing and as always look forward to flying ahead.
The Star Trek Talosian project is finished 
. The mold came out well and I produced the first casting in latex and did a first paint job. I am never content with the first paint job. It takes two times to dial it in. But overall I’m happy and I start filling the pre-orders Monday.
I got a little more work done on my painting too. It still has a long way to go but this week has been a little broken up with visits to the doctor for tests that all turned out well. Seems I’m still good to go for a long while and it was worth the time out of my week to be sure. There’s nothing like peace of mind for an artist.
We are producing another SNG Studio film 
entitled, “A Conversation with my Father”.
It’s about inner peace and reconnecting, (not science fiction, aliens, or warnings) It’s a drama with a twist at the end. There won’t be special effects or CGI. Rubber creatures or blood and guts. Just a sweet little film with a kind message of hope. I’m currently writing the script 
and we will be having our favorite actors back once more. Steve Altman, Robb Wolford, and the wonderful David Allan Graf. I can’t wait to work with these fine talents and wonderful friends once more.
Friday I received an email from my dear friend and creative person extraordinaire Mark Siegel.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0796878/
He sent me some amazing frame-grabs from a video I’ll have soon documenting about our incredible day we spent with Andy Warhol. We went to New York 
to make a life mask of Andy at his studio. The full details will be in a blog post later next week. If you follow the blog you will get email notices about my latest entrees and it’s free. Here are the frame grabs.
It must have been cold that day judging by my sweater.
I just received this little gem this week. I know I have a lot of vacuum form machines but this one is perfect for the small parts that I make a lot for my models. And it’s so easy to use. Beats the heck out of the old Mattle Vacuum former I have from the 60’s.
Just slip in a piece of plastic. Clamp down. Heat and drop. And it has an amazing amount of suction.
As always, have a wonderful weekend. Have lots of fun and do something creative.
Lots of love,
Steve and Mary
Fine Art America – Steve Neill
SNG Aero – Rockets by Steve Neill
…and Mary on the web
As always, feel free let us know if you want to be removed from our newsletter by emailing us. Share with friends if you think they would be interested in what we do. Comments and suggestions are encouraged. We love hearing from you!
First mask painted. The first one is always a learning experience. The color matches well the original makeups.
Today I pulled the first mask out of the new Talosian mold. I was pleased because the rubber had few bubbles and yielded quite a good casting. Tomorrow I can paint it and that’s exciting.
I also spent more time on my painting of Vance Gilbert. It’s far from finished but already looking good.
I got the horizontal stab built for the Fokker DVIII.
And then there’s this list on the wall of our kitchen at the studio. It is where we put to do lists and future possibilities for new projects, masks, and art.
Right now I’m considering maybe doing a Frankenstein mask. I know many have been done before but I never have and I have always wanted to make one since the very first time I saw the monster in the movies.
There’s also the Ghostbusters hero hand that I made for the film. Mac Tonight Moonman I created. The Mummy? Karloff os course.
I’m pondering more. It was a good day.
I never liked Mondays in my younger days but as of late they always seem to be the best days of the week. It just seems I have the most fun and get the most done.
It’s alway a mix too. Lots of different things to do and get done.
I poured up the first Talosian mask and I hope to get it out of the mold today so I can paint it tomorrow. It’s always exciting to get a new sculpture out of the mold and paint it.
I also got ready to ship yet another Orangutan mask. Seems the one I sent out to a customer went missing in the mail. A rare occurrence but an occurrence this time nonetheless.
I found some time to start my next RC airplane build. This time a Fokker DVIII of WW1 fame. I started construction of the fuselage. This never gets old for me. It’s exciting and new each time I build for many reasons. Being able to fly the model you build is one of the greatest reasons most of all.
And to finish the day off nicely I worked on my painting of Vance Gilbert in the Geneseo flying field. I’m still working on the background and tuning it in more and more.
This week was a mixed bag of projects. Everything from starting a new painting, mold making, and more work on my free flight airplanes.
First thing I did this week was finish the Talosian sculpture. With pre-orders on the schedule, I needed to get this sculpture in a mold to be able to make up the masks.
I used white hydrocal this time, as I had noticed as of late, Pottery plaster is not what it used to be. The molds don’t last very long until they start breaking down. This white hydrocal is stronger. I also found it more consistent and it was easier to work with. I finished the mold on Thursday.
I wrote an interesting article on my blog about the experience of making this mold and my reflections on the nearly 50 years I have been doing this work you might want to read it. Some of you are mentioned in the article that read this newsletter. Click on the link below to read it.
https://steveneills.art.blog/2022/06/03/the-craft-6-3-2022/
I opened the mold on Friday and I had no problems with it at all and after it dries up a bit over the weekend I can trim it up and start casting masks.
Here’s the mold just after opening it up and the front half removed.
The clay then gets cleaned out of the mold next in the sink with sponges, brushes, and water.
Both sides are cleaned out and the mold is ready to close. Once closed it can dry out so that it’s easier to grind off the outer edges of the mold to make it smooth. Then it’s ready to start pouring rubber. Next week I should have the first mask painted.
The painting I spoke of is of a friend and talented man Vance Gilbert. He is a songwriter, performer-musician, and a prolific model airplane builder extraordinaire.
Every year there is a massive event for free flight airplanes in Geneseo NY called the NATS. A friend of mine George Bredehoft took this picture of Vance in the morning of the open field they fly from. The pictures say it all with the beautiful sky and green fields Vance felt it was heaven on Earth for us aviators and reached in glory for the sky. I just had to paint it.
In this picture you can see the print out of the actual picture and the canvas I only worked on for about 40 minutes so far just massing out the shapes and values for the background before I start painting Vance in. I can’t begin to tell you how much I’m enjoying this and I plan many more.
I also worked a bit on the free flight planes I’m taking to our large local event in Arizona later this year in the green fields of a 600 acre ranch of sod.http://www.westernfac.com/ These events are so much fun. All Free Flight. No gas motors. Just quiet rubber powered planes that fly silently in the grassy fields and blue skies.
I nearly finished a new one named “Double Trouble”.
This is a terrific flier that Howard Littman designed. He sells many kits of high quality that can be found here should you ever want to try this relaxing and amazing hobby. http://www.hjlmodels.com/
And here’s the table with the various planes on it being worked on for this event in October. I’m building two more before the event.
Thank you all for reading this newsletter. You can also read daily posts on my website on the blog: https://steveneills.art.blog/ Thanks to all the new followers there. Wow, it’s really growing. If you want to follow it just click on the “Follow Button” on the right side of the website page.
Mary has started a studyof birds with different mediums. On her blog you can see her Toucans:
https://marycacciapaglia.wpcomstaging.com/2022/06/04/toucans/
Have a great weekend. Be creative always it makes the world a better place for us all!
Love you all!
Steve and Mary
Fine Art America – Steve Neill
SNG Aero – Rockets by Steve Neill
…and Mary on the web
As always, feel free let us know if you want to be removed from our newsletter by emailing us. Share with friends if you think they would be interested in what we do. Comments and suggestions are encouraged. We love hearing from you!
I opened the mold yesterday and it’s perfect. All cleaned out and ready to run rubber This Monday. I wrote a more detailed report in this week’s newsletter. I’ll post her later this morning. In the meantime here’s a few pictures.
I remember way back in the 70’s hanging out with some of my now famous and infamous friends of makeup effects. We were so happy to be making monsters, aliens, and creatures. We studied Dick Smith, John Chambers, and even became friends with these amazing people later on. We read Famous monsters of filmland. We were inspired. I remember well we all vowed never to stop doing this work until we dropped.
As I stood in my studio for 5 hours straight making this Talosian mold that memory ran through my mind.
Nearly 50 years later here I am making monsters, aliens, and creatures. So far I kept to that pledge.
I find making large two piece full head molds a bit harder to do today but doable nonetheless. And it’s always the same. “What’s next”.
That is how art works. And if you are truly an artist, that passion to do the next piece never dies. I feel like a lone beacon of strength sometimes but some of those people are still here and still doing the craft. Ve Neill and Rick Baker are still creating art and that’s good. Ve is teaching and passing the craft to the future. Rick is doing beautiful paintings and sculpture. Knowing these things makes me feel happy and well. Never give up your passion. The world needs it.
The mold of the Talosian opens today and I’ll clean it out. Next week I’ll pour the first 3 and paint them up. And yes, what is next? How nice to dream and wonder. What a gift.
It was a full and busy Wednesday. I started by finishing the Talosian sculpture. The mold begins today.
Then I worked on a bit more covering on the Double Trouble free flight airplane. I also went over my free flight Fokker DVIII. I plan to fly this plane and many more at the WESTFACs event in October. http://www.westernfac.com/
And lastly I started a new painting. I only had about an hour but I managed to get the background massed out. that is to say the basic blocking. It’s not finished yet.
The painting is of the famed Vance Gilbert. A colorful genius, artist, writer, musical artist, and one of the best free flight model airplane builders I have ever seen. The man is prolific to say the least.
I saw this picture of him taken at the Geneseo NATS(National Aeromodeling Championship). He’s standing in the field used for the event with his arms stretched out for the sky. This is very symbolic for me because this is what aeromodeling and flying is all about. It’s an experience that combines so many skills, wisdoms, and a communion with nature to touch the sky.
We were all just kids who wanted to fly in the sky and never stop dreaming and flying. We still are and Vance is one of those kids. We are all proud to be members of the Flying Aces Club.
There is much to do still. I’ll finish the background and add Vance. I am enjoying this very much. Mary has been my inspiration to do more painting and I have learned a great deal from her and the videos we have that teach you by the masters. We have watched together many videos by the masters that teach you their techniques. We have a lot of fun. There’s nothing like painting.
The Art of Steve Neill 