Why No Cartoonish/Sketch Art (Read: Fun) Statues?

[Uncanny Web-Slinger]

Those who read comics will know there is many types of art styles in a series as the artists often change sometimes each issue.

Marvel main events are often done by different artists so once you read in order in a collection book the whole style changes.

Anyway i'd class them as: realistic hand art, exagerrated hand art, realistic CG art, sketch art and cartoony art.

I recall Wolverine's first X-Force run being primarily CG art by Clayton something and there'll often be some cartoonish or sketch type art in Amazing Spider-Man by artists like Humberto Ramos.

Right so all that was leading to this question...

How come there are hardly any cartoonish or sketch type statues made by Sideshow Collectibles with really exagerrated proportions?

The only ones i can think of are X-23 and Emma Frost PF, both had very cartoonish headsculpts & are quite unique from the rest.

Most comiquettes and Pf's strive for replications of realistic art although i'd class the Carnage Comiquette as exagerrated hand art, well at least the head.

Some examples:

Look at Venom's hands and head, so big and bulgy and Fun, very Comic Book looking.

See? FUN! Not serious or realistc just fun to look at.

It'd be so great, for me anyway to have some fun statues that looked like they jumped right of a page, depicting light-hearted moments instead of always serious and ready for battle moments in those type of art styles.

 

[BlitzOUT]

SS definitely need to get started on some Deadpool statues. Like the art designs from Deadpool corps. But I do agree with you Nova Force. We need more wacky artistic comic book style statues

 

[SixthScaleEdward]

Statues rose to fame due to their fine replication of the human body (e.g. humanistic art during the renaissance)
..so i guess it's always been like that ever since.

I think any cartoonish statue would just defeat the purpose of having 3D relief,
and just end up looking 2 dimensional

Besides I dont think any of the previous cartoonish statues (LOTR and Clone Wars) were successful

 

[SixthScaleEdward]

But i'll be glad to be proven wrong

 

[BB&WSF]

Not Marvel, but there was Bat-Mite:

Soon, Sergio Aragones B&W would be out in sometime:

And personally, I wouldn't mind Marie Severin's Batsman statue/figure

But yes, would love to get the "Cartoonish/Sketch Art" stuff!

 

[King Darkness]

Um, no thanks. Not from Sideshow anyway.

 

[grphyx1]

Just as with movies, things that work in comic format don't always translate well to 3D.

 

[Boba Ben]

Certain art styles don't translate all that well. The Emma Frost PF is a good example of this.

 

[Mr. Green]

Personally I wanted to sculpt a Hulk Grey from Tim Sale for sometime now. And I am not into the retro classic look but this one got a certain style to it. Or Mythos Hulk by Poalo Riveria.

But there's the invisible woman's

 

[Piperita]

I actually think it's more difficult to create an aesthetically appealing statue representation of a cartoony character than it is to create a more realistic one. With a cartoony one, you need to actually figure out how to translate the exaggerated forms into 3D and still make it look interesting and true to the character, where as with a realistic one, the forms are all already there (since we all know what humans look like in 3D), all you need to do is sculpt them.

It's probably also partially due to the abundance of realistic character statues already created; creating a cartoony one would basically require a creation of another customer niche, since it's not like all of the people who own realistic statues will happily go out and buy the cartoony ones to put next to their already big collection of realistic ones [necessarily].

That being said, it's a really common thing in Japan to create cartoony and exaggerated statues of characters, along with the realistic ones, and they seem to do just fine, so....

 

[karamazov80]

I don't see any reason why Sideshow couldn't do that if they wanted to. They do artist specific work from that Hughes guy. And Electric Tiki shows that exaggerated cartoony sculpts can work just fine in statue form.

Personally, I would be all over some Art Adams styled statues.

But in general, Sideshow's focus and strength is on more realistic sculpts for their statues.

 

[Veil1]

Here are some of my favorites:

These aren't for sale but you can check out more at https://www.corysmithart.com/BTASHome.htm

I really wish WB had released these characters with the other maquettes they did a few years ago.

 

[peedi]

There actually are a lot of cartoony or highly stylized statues out there.
-Batman B&W series
-Animated Star Wars & LoTR
-X-Men Evolution
-Koto Bishoujo Statues
Just a few of the popular or well known examples

Overall I think most frequent collectors prefer generalized represntations of characters. It probably works better for the statue company so the piece can have a broader appeal than a highly stylized piece might have. There will always be exceptions though.

As for one-off statues, among collectors you start to want things in groups. You want your 1/4 X-Men to look like they belong together. At least I do. There's a reason, aside from people just not liking it, that the Emma Frost PF is hated on so much. She doesn't display well with any other Marvel PF. Maybe place her with Elvira?... Yet, nobody complains about the original comic book art that inspired the PF because it was good art. I love and own the comic it appeared on, but the statue just doesn't mesh well with what I already have.

Bottom line, I just think most American collectors of comic and movie statues don't want statues that are too cartoony.

 

[Uncanny Web-Slinger]

I din't get why the Emma Frost PF is hated

I have it and it's a fun looking statue, the only out of the ordinary thing about it when compared to other PF's is the head which has a VERY COMIC-BOOK ART STYLE design, the lips are a bit small, but that like the whole stlyle of the head is intended.

Those who hate it tend to say they screwed it up, but the point is it was never designed to fit in with realistic pieces as it was meant to be a stylised piece.

I don't see any reason why Sideshow couldn't do that if they wanted to. They do artist specific work from that Hughes guy. And Electric Tiki shows that exaggerated cartoony sculpts can work just fine in statue form.

And those Batman statues above look great and also prove it can be done.

______


i'm not saying SSC need to change their whole strategy but they should have a sub-series showcasing statues of the many cartoonish/sketch artists out there.

And the best thing about these art styles is there aren't many limitations in doing them, as long as they resemble the characters attributes that is all that is needed, the size, shape, colouring can all be experimented with without them being un-accurate or failing to meet requirements.

 

[hunnipot85]

Sideshow is making a JSC inspired Mary Jane statue.

 

[Theokan]

As far as 3D stylized goes, it's difficult to get right but there's some really successful ones out there. Here's some Michael Lau figures as an example, I found these photos online so they're not mine. These aren't Superheroes related, but IMO his stuff is some of the best in terms of getting that 2D stylized look into 3D.

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

some artist just don't translate well into 3-D

 

[Randy_S]

There are some styles I just don't care for at all. I don't like the look of those Batman statues, nor the Emma PF or the artwork of her source. I picked up the first three issues of Wolverine & the X-Men but the artwork is just terrible and I won't get another one until they change the artist.

 

[BB&WSF]

Love BTAS!

Here are some of my favorites:

These aren't for sale but you can check out more at https://www.corysmithart.com/BTASHome.htm

I really wish WB had released these characters with the other maquettes they did a few years ago.

 

[Lawrence]

There are some styles I just don't care for at all. I don't like the look of those Batman statues, nor the Emma PF or the artwork of her source. I picked up the first three issues of Wolverine & the X-Men but the artwork is just terrible and I won't get another one until they change the artist.

Not a fan of Chris Bachalo?

It would be sweet to get a statue based on his artwork.