When Hollywood needs a few heads painted for their big tent pole movies, who do they call? In the case of "22 Jump Street" it's me.
If you don't know me I'm gdb (known in some circles as God Damn Brent), the man behind GDB Studios, Hollywood. I've been painting and repainting collectibles for myself and others since 2009. And, yes, I am taking commissions at this time. Just drop me a PM.
Earlier this year I was summoned to an office in Hollywood. Someone in need of a few head paints had seen my work online and reached out to me. After I signed a few forms, they filled me in. They explained that what they were doing was an epilogue montage for "22 Jump Street". The whole story, which you may have heard as it was put out when the film was released, is that the original ending didn't test well. It featured the two leads being offered another undercover job and walking away. A funny bit. But the wrong energy and not what the audience wanted as their last interaction with the characters. So the studio gave a tiny amount of money to the directors to come up with another angle which ended up being the montage that everyone saw in the theaters. The directors hired the production house Alma Mater to produce the montage which included the fabrication of 3 1:6 scale collectible action figures. They in turn subcontracted me to paint the figures. Problem now was that the montage was a huge undertaking that had to be done in very, very little time. This was mid April. The release date was June 13.
I should take a moment and say that Alma Mater is a wonderful company full of talented and skilled individuals. They are responsible for the end montages of "21" and "22 Jump Street"s and the opening of the "Lego Movie." Everything they do that I've seen is terrific. Everyone was very professional and full of energy and I can't say enough good things about everyone there and my experience working for them. They are wholly responsible for fabricating the figures and my paint jobs was a very small part of what makes the figures seen in the film so memorable.
I was beyond excited leaving their offices. I loved "21 Jump Street." "21 Jump Street" was a movie that had absolutely no right to be anything other than an exploitive film adaption of a nostalgic property but instead it was insanely funny and unbelievably smart and fresh. It still ranks as my favorite comedy, non-Will Farrell category. Just a brilliant movie all around. So being able to have my work possibly used as a bit on "22 Jump Street" was very exciting. I mean, I knew what sort of meeting I was going to going in, so on one hand, walking out of there I was just excited that it wasn't a Mel Gibson vehicle -- or worse, a Kirk Cameron movie. But truly, for it to be a "21 Jump Street" movie, I was elated. And of course I couldn't tell anyone. Later I would clarify with the art director that I could talk all I want once the movie came out, but that was months away.
I went home. This was on a Friday. I ordered a spray sealer and a few brushes -- this was not the type of job where I wanted to test how far I could stretch my sealer or mess around with a brush on its last bristles. Saturday I went to the hobby store and bought some paint. On Monday the sealer and brushes arrived. And on Tuesday afternoon, the heads and bodies were dropped off.
Now at this time it's important to note that when I was booked for the job they asked me how long I would need to paint the heads. Since I use many, many, many, many, many thin layers of paint, logistically it takes awhile for each coat to dry. Add to that the fact that eyes get sore, concentration wains, and my own meticulous nitpicking and perfectionism, I always tell people 2-3 weeks. But I understood the time crunch so I said that I like to have at least a full week to work on the heads.
They said, you can have 2 and a half days.
I said, you got it.
The heads were printed by a 3D printer and sent to the production office for review before being dropped off at my apartment. What everyone found out when they arrived was that during the printing processes they developed these seriously steep striation streaks. I hadn't realized just how deep they were until I primed them but they meant business. I knew that if I couldn't do something to either hide the striations or compensate for them, the whole action figure gag would have a very real chance of ending on the cutting room floor. It was heartbreaking. I had these gorgeous one-of-a-kind sculpts and it looked very much like they had zero chance of being film ready. Sure, I'd still get paid but -- and don't tell Alma Mater this -- in all honesty I would have waived my fee for the chance for my work to be in "22 Jump Street."
What I had going for me is that I'm not one of those head painters that rely on the pastel method of coloring the heads or else I don't know what I would have done. (No dig on those who use pastels, it's just not what I do.) The grooves would have made the pastel flakes accumulate and accentuate the problem. I turned my attention to Ice Cube first. The undercoat I used on him was a very heavy, water-based faux-enamel paint. By pure chance that actually helped -- a very little -- to smooth over the striations.
Also, I was hired to paint the full arms of Jonah and the hands of Ice Cube so I had to oscillate my attention between the heads and the figure bodies. At some point I realized how lucky I was on Cube's undercoat paint. If I had my usual week or so with the heads, I would have started over on Jonah and Channing then and there but there was no time. I had to keep going. I ended the day by photographing Cube and emailing the pictures to the art director at the production house.
I remember putting on my headphones and listening to "a lot" of dub step during this project.
Day 2 is a blur to me now. I remember I got the feedback on Cube (to add some dimension to his hair if possible and darken his pupils). The rest of the day was wrestling with the printing grooves, sealing the bodies, paint, spray sealer, paint, spray sealer, paint the eyes, sealer, gloss the eyes, and always, always, always try to cheat around the striations. Near the end, I discovered something interesting. The white I use as my flesh base is a heavy body acrylic. I use it thinned down but I played around with the application and found that if I went slow I could paint in such a way that I could let the paint build up and then smooth it down almost as if it was wet clay. It wasn't perfect and I didn't have time to experiment too much and I certainly didn't have the time to make any mistakes. But it was something.
At some point I had started mixing in "Clone Wars" episodes between Skrillex albums. It starts pretty rocky but gets good if you stick with it.
The last thing I did, at 4am on Thursday, was to try to make a video blog about the project but all I ended up with was a shot of the heads as I rambled off screen. You can find it on my YouTube channel if you really want. It's pretty incoherent.
Day 3 came and now I still have the heads but I can no longer work on them as I've sent in the photos and that is what I have to deliver. I was very, very happy with Cube and Jonah -- the striations were still there but no longer did they look like they were whittled out of wood -- and wished I had more time with Channing. But, like I said, I couldn't touch him now even if I knew how to fix him.
I met with the art director in his office on Saturday and, as expected, everyone was very pleased with Cube and Jonah but thought Channing could use some improvement. They gave me some notes and I told them that I had some success with using the paint to fill in the print grooves and had the feeling that the technique could be pushed further.
I got another day to work on Channing. I realized that the reason why Channing's likeness is so tricky is because he goes around looking like a real-life GI Joe figure. The man has no flaws to help define his face. Beauty can be a curse that way. So maybe what I should do, I reasoned, is try to paint him like a GI Joe come to life. Now, as I type that, I realize that that probably doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but as something to meditate on while painting, it did the trick.
I doubled down on my new painting technique and, wouldn't you know, he actually became my favorite paint job of the bunch. (Side note: Ice Cube's sculpt is simply outstanding so the overall winner for me has to be Cube.)
I went opening night and saw the movie in a packed house. Everyone loved it and it was funny as hell, but there were times when I felt like a contestant on one of those reality shows. I knew that SONY really liked the montage but because of the striations and the limited time they had to light and photograph the heads I had no idea if they made the cut or not. The entire end montage was filmed in a single day on the SONY lot and the action figure gag would be so easy to cut if they didn't get the lighting right or they didn't look right on film or if the bit went on too long or for a myriad of other reasons.
When I look at them now I see all the nits I would have picked had I my usual time with the heads instead of 2 and a half days. I see the grooves that I couldn't hide and how I would have approached them now knowing what I learned through painting them which is, to some degree or another, how I view all of my work. In the end, I couldn't be prouder.
A couple weeks before the movie opened, I got another email. The production company wanted to hire me to paint another Ice Cube head and hand set for a figure they were making for their office. The directors of "22 Jump Street" really liked the figures and asked if they could present them to the stars. Apparently everyone on set really, really liked the figures.
If you don't know me I'm gdb (known in some circles as God Damn Brent), the man behind GDB Studios, Hollywood. I've been painting and repainting collectibles for myself and others since 2009. And, yes, I am taking commissions at this time. Just drop me a PM.
Earlier this year I was summoned to an office in Hollywood. Someone in need of a few head paints had seen my work online and reached out to me. After I signed a few forms, they filled me in. They explained that what they were doing was an epilogue montage for "22 Jump Street". The whole story, which you may have heard as it was put out when the film was released, is that the original ending didn't test well. It featured the two leads being offered another undercover job and walking away. A funny bit. But the wrong energy and not what the audience wanted as their last interaction with the characters. So the studio gave a tiny amount of money to the directors to come up with another angle which ended up being the montage that everyone saw in the theaters. The directors hired the production house Alma Mater to produce the montage which included the fabrication of 3 1:6 scale collectible action figures. They in turn subcontracted me to paint the figures. Problem now was that the montage was a huge undertaking that had to be done in very, very little time. This was mid April. The release date was June 13.
I should take a moment and say that Alma Mater is a wonderful company full of talented and skilled individuals. They are responsible for the end montages of "21" and "22 Jump Street"s and the opening of the "Lego Movie." Everything they do that I've seen is terrific. Everyone was very professional and full of energy and I can't say enough good things about everyone there and my experience working for them. They are wholly responsible for fabricating the figures and my paint jobs was a very small part of what makes the figures seen in the film so memorable.
I was beyond excited leaving their offices. I loved "21 Jump Street." "21 Jump Street" was a movie that had absolutely no right to be anything other than an exploitive film adaption of a nostalgic property but instead it was insanely funny and unbelievably smart and fresh. It still ranks as my favorite comedy, non-Will Farrell category. Just a brilliant movie all around. So being able to have my work possibly used as a bit on "22 Jump Street" was very exciting. I mean, I knew what sort of meeting I was going to going in, so on one hand, walking out of there I was just excited that it wasn't a Mel Gibson vehicle -- or worse, a Kirk Cameron movie. But truly, for it to be a "21 Jump Street" movie, I was elated. And of course I couldn't tell anyone. Later I would clarify with the art director that I could talk all I want once the movie came out, but that was months away.
I went home. This was on a Friday. I ordered a spray sealer and a few brushes -- this was not the type of job where I wanted to test how far I could stretch my sealer or mess around with a brush on its last bristles. Saturday I went to the hobby store and bought some paint. On Monday the sealer and brushes arrived. And on Tuesday afternoon, the heads and bodies were dropped off.
Now at this time it's important to note that when I was booked for the job they asked me how long I would need to paint the heads. Since I use many, many, many, many, many thin layers of paint, logistically it takes awhile for each coat to dry. Add to that the fact that eyes get sore, concentration wains, and my own meticulous nitpicking and perfectionism, I always tell people 2-3 weeks. But I understood the time crunch so I said that I like to have at least a full week to work on the heads.
They said, you can have 2 and a half days.
I said, you got it.
The heads were printed by a 3D printer and sent to the production office for review before being dropped off at my apartment. What everyone found out when they arrived was that during the printing processes they developed these seriously steep striation streaks. I hadn't realized just how deep they were until I primed them but they meant business. I knew that if I couldn't do something to either hide the striations or compensate for them, the whole action figure gag would have a very real chance of ending on the cutting room floor. It was heartbreaking. I had these gorgeous one-of-a-kind sculpts and it looked very much like they had zero chance of being film ready. Sure, I'd still get paid but -- and don't tell Alma Mater this -- in all honesty I would have waived my fee for the chance for my work to be in "22 Jump Street."
What I had going for me is that I'm not one of those head painters that rely on the pastel method of coloring the heads or else I don't know what I would have done. (No dig on those who use pastels, it's just not what I do.) The grooves would have made the pastel flakes accumulate and accentuate the problem. I turned my attention to Ice Cube first. The undercoat I used on him was a very heavy, water-based faux-enamel paint. By pure chance that actually helped -- a very little -- to smooth over the striations.
Also, I was hired to paint the full arms of Jonah and the hands of Ice Cube so I had to oscillate my attention between the heads and the figure bodies. At some point I realized how lucky I was on Cube's undercoat paint. If I had my usual week or so with the heads, I would have started over on Jonah and Channing then and there but there was no time. I had to keep going. I ended the day by photographing Cube and emailing the pictures to the art director at the production house.
I remember putting on my headphones and listening to "a lot" of dub step during this project.
Day 2 is a blur to me now. I remember I got the feedback on Cube (to add some dimension to his hair if possible and darken his pupils). The rest of the day was wrestling with the printing grooves, sealing the bodies, paint, spray sealer, paint, spray sealer, paint the eyes, sealer, gloss the eyes, and always, always, always try to cheat around the striations. Near the end, I discovered something interesting. The white I use as my flesh base is a heavy body acrylic. I use it thinned down but I played around with the application and found that if I went slow I could paint in such a way that I could let the paint build up and then smooth it down almost as if it was wet clay. It wasn't perfect and I didn't have time to experiment too much and I certainly didn't have the time to make any mistakes. But it was something.
At some point I had started mixing in "Clone Wars" episodes between Skrillex albums. It starts pretty rocky but gets good if you stick with it.
The last thing I did, at 4am on Thursday, was to try to make a video blog about the project but all I ended up with was a shot of the heads as I rambled off screen. You can find it on my YouTube channel if you really want. It's pretty incoherent.
Day 3 came and now I still have the heads but I can no longer work on them as I've sent in the photos and that is what I have to deliver. I was very, very happy with Cube and Jonah -- the striations were still there but no longer did they look like they were whittled out of wood -- and wished I had more time with Channing. But, like I said, I couldn't touch him now even if I knew how to fix him.
I met with the art director in his office on Saturday and, as expected, everyone was very pleased with Cube and Jonah but thought Channing could use some improvement. They gave me some notes and I told them that I had some success with using the paint to fill in the print grooves and had the feeling that the technique could be pushed further.
I got another day to work on Channing. I realized that the reason why Channing's likeness is so tricky is because he goes around looking like a real-life GI Joe figure. The man has no flaws to help define his face. Beauty can be a curse that way. So maybe what I should do, I reasoned, is try to paint him like a GI Joe come to life. Now, as I type that, I realize that that probably doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but as something to meditate on while painting, it did the trick.
I doubled down on my new painting technique and, wouldn't you know, he actually became my favorite paint job of the bunch. (Side note: Ice Cube's sculpt is simply outstanding so the overall winner for me has to be Cube.)
I went opening night and saw the movie in a packed house. Everyone loved it and it was funny as hell, but there were times when I felt like a contestant on one of those reality shows. I knew that SONY really liked the montage but because of the striations and the limited time they had to light and photograph the heads I had no idea if they made the cut or not. The entire end montage was filmed in a single day on the SONY lot and the action figure gag would be so easy to cut if they didn't get the lighting right or they didn't look right on film or if the bit went on too long or for a myriad of other reasons.
When I look at them now I see all the nits I would have picked had I my usual time with the heads instead of 2 and a half days. I see the grooves that I couldn't hide and how I would have approached them now knowing what I learned through painting them which is, to some degree or another, how I view all of my work. In the end, I couldn't be prouder.
A couple weeks before the movie opened, I got another email. The production company wanted to hire me to paint another Ice Cube head and hand set for a figure they were making for their office. The directors of "22 Jump Street" really liked the figures and asked if they could present them to the stars. Apparently everyone on set really, really liked the figures.
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