Making SC fan art semi-professionally?

Hey all.

After all the "I wants it" comments I got from friends and also on my blogs here regarding my stone Ultralisk, I seriously considered making them for selling. Making "originals" from stone is prohibitively time-consuming and would correspondingly be way too expensive for your average nerd (~$2000 range).

Now, it's nothing new that many artists make resin (or other material) casts of their stuff. Basically, you take a rubber mold of the original, pour the resin in, wait some hours, voila. The end product is not stone, obviously, but can be painted and treated to look like any material (marble, metallic, gold, aged bronze...). For example, I have a painted polyurethane (~plastic) Cthulhu pencil holder cup right here on my desk that was created that way. I actually bought two of them (one as a gift) for 15 bucks a shot - never regretted it.

Artist's page/blog

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I was thinking along the lines of more "stoney" casts (alabaster gypsum, has about half the weight of stone if I'm not mistaken), so I got a book detailing all aspects of the process and checked what materials and tools I'd need. In summary, the material to create a mold and make about 20-30 casts would cost me around 200€ and probably serious additional time. I don't yet know how much work each additional cast turns out to be (cleaning and treating the mold, filing off seams etc).

Now my question to you, dear gents of the predominantly affluent male gamer demographic, is: Would you actually be interested in getting a cast, and how much would you seriously be ready to lay down for it? I'm trying to gauge the feasibility here, no rip-offs intended. Depending on the general mood here I'll think about actually doing this, and in what form exactly I could produce the casts, e.g. unpainted would be easier than painted (hence cheaper, and frankly, I totally suck at painting).

P.S.: There is of course the topic of intellectual property. I read around on the subject, and it boils down to this:

Technically, selling fan art is not allowed. Companies can send you a cease and desist letter to protect their intellectual property.
However, it appears to be mostly tolerated on a small scale. I guess it's a kind of advertisement, and you're not actually going to Hasbro and make a 100k production run to sell in stores. For example, check etsy (artisan craft web store) and search for your favorite video game (SC, Halo, Fallout, Portal, ...) and see how much stuff comes up.

Take a survey about my shared artists' and craftspersons' workshop concept (15-20 min): http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/38ZHMMX

DanielHetberg November 06 2011 19:20. Posts 105

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Btw, going for casts would actually enable a "SOOOOOO MANY BANELINGS!!!!" scenario ^^

Take a survey about my shared artists' and craftspersons' workshop concept (15-20 min): http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/38ZHMMX

TheAmazombie United States. November 06 2011 19:24. Posts 3632

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I love the Stone ultralisk. I love this kind of work and art, but most of the time even small hand-made items are beyond what I would consider worth the cost. I think if you were to do so, if you value price the stuff you might sell a few more.

If your work is really great though, you can justify the higher price. Thanks for sharing and good luck if you pursue it.

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. -Charlie Chaplin

TheKefka Croatia. November 06 2011 19:35. Posts 8111

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~~How much are the material costs for making one hand made ultralisk like the one from your blog?~~ Nvm found the answer.
Also,I'm not sure,but every time your replicating artwork into something like this and trying to make a profit(small or not),I'd look into trademark restrictions and stuff.Not an expert but just something you might want to look into.

Last edit: 2011-11-06 19:38:50

Cackle™

hp.Shell United States. November 07 2011 01:21. Posts 1617

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You could always move into clay sculpting. That takes considerably less time than stone, and after kiln-firing you can have some pretty amazing results. My dad's girlfriend is a pretty well-known clay sculptress living in Connecticut, and I was able to make a small cup for myself in about 20 minutes which she fired and delivered to me! She fires her work only once a year (and it is a pretty expensive and involved process) so it was a pretty big deal to be there when that was going on.

Not to be one-upping you or anything by posting this. It's just a suggestion! If you want to see some of her stuff though you can check it out at http://www.artwithin.net/joybrown

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DanielHetberg November 07 2011 01:49. Posts 105

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On November 07 2011 01:21 hp.Shell wrote:
You could always move into clay sculpting. That takes considerably less time than stone, and after kiln-firing you can have some pretty amazing results. My dad's girlfriend is a pretty well-known clay sculptress living in Connecticut, and I was able to make a small cup for myself in about 20 minutes which she fired and delivered to me! She fires her work only once a year (and it is a pretty expensive and involved process) so it was a pretty big deal to be there when that was going on.

Not to be one-upping you or anything by posting this. It's just a suggestion! If you want to see some of her stuff though you can check it out at http://www.artwithin.net/joybrown

Yeah, professionals usually sculpt the original in natural or polymer clay, especially if they want to make resin casts. The idea only occured to me after making a stone original -_- I actually intended to try clay sculpting over the winter, since my basement workshop isn't that inviting in the cold season (at all!).

Take a survey about my shared artists' and craftspersons' workshop concept (15-20 min): http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/38ZHMMX

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