Wednesday, July 15, 2009

This Site has been Blocked in China

I've been Blocked by the Commies!

So I can't update this site without going thru massive trouble of using Proxy sites which isn't safe
for passwords and what not.

Please check out my site at http://michaelloh.deviantart.com/

or click on any of the links on the Right side.

Thanks
Mike

Thursday, May 14, 2009

UPdate Se7en Skulls=Sculpted + Spinal Dread Rings=Molded


This Spinal Dread ring thing is done molding. Gonna use about 4 -5 per head. The weight does add up but not too much since these will replace the regular 3 dread ring configuration on the Pred Head.
I'm using a Patented variable core casting method that allows me to "switch" the core creating a bigger hole or smaller. Now I'm using a slight big core for a dread all the way up top and inside has jagged teeth to grab on to the dread so that it doesn't fall down in case you're a Head Banging Hunter. :lol:


OK Been busy the past 2 weeks making these little critters. Its annoying having to create all those plaster rods from cut pvc pipes as a mold then pour 7 times. Then have to cut out pvc pipes to wrap around these rods and epoxy over so it retains a rigid shape for me to sculpt on. Its done and I'm going to mold these dudes.

It was tough and time consuming. Took me 2-3 hours for each skull and uses 4 terabytes of SD-Ram in my brain :lol: :(
Here we see the wrap around and sculpted in Super Sculpy by the way that's why i got the heat gun near the fan thing.
I hand spin it on a lazy Susan while heating it for about 10 minutes blowing the fumes outside for the curing process.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Just added Bone-Hunter Costume Build Link

Hi There

Long time no Update but I assure you I have been doing a lot of stuff. I've added my Bone-Hunter Costume Build up link to the side panel which u can check out. I update that more than here of course for the purpose of exposure and traffic.

I will post more pics later here if it weren't such a pain in the ass to upload pics.

My costume pieces will be available for sale once they are done of course and it will be in low number castings to ensure high quality. They will be one of a kind pieces.

Best
Mike

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Dragons Eye Accessory - Painted


This is a little Chest strap accessory for Bone-Hunter. These hunters got style so they like to incorporate cool little fossil *Bling* in their armory.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Dragons Eye Accessory



OK Another small Update. Sculpted, molded and cast Dragons Eye which will be a chest strap plate or a belt buckle head later.
Also took some extra predator tooth and sculpted the tendons to it. This will also be used for jewlery, belt decorations, ear rings etc.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

My TV Debut on International Channel Shanghai TV

My Video:

http://www.vimeo.com/3831765

Shanghai Quest did a special feature about me and what I do best: Making masks!
Shot over 7 days in my tiny apartment - working studio where I had to work everyday to prep for the shoot. Each day I had to finish the entire process of making the mold or next day they couldn’t complete the shoot. It was tiring but worth it in the end considering they did a free promo for my work.

BoneHunter Armor Designs





Yes I will be making the armor posted here. I will first finish the last 2 Bios for Ghoul Hunter and Dragon Hunter. Then I will use whatever silicone I have left for molding the BH Armors.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Predalien Skull Painted




Here it is. All Painted. Available for sale as part of your complete Predator Shoulder Armor
Comes with Pads and Elastic straps. Some sewing assembly required. Batteries not included

Friday, April 3, 2009

Predalien Skull


I'm done casting and molding over the past 3 days. These days are usually the most draining. Casting is the easy part. Gonna Paint 1 over the weekend..

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

YAAAHOOOOOOO!


This is an Old piece I made for my wife. We watch this Anime called GeGeGe Kitaro with a bunch of Japanese Demons. This character is called Yaho! The character has a cute voice and acts very silly and my wife loves it. Only one made. Still got the mold to this not sure If I can mold it anymore. Made 2 years ago.

Sculpted with Paper clay
Molded w/ silicone
Resin Cast
Acrylic Paint

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

I'm a Steve Wang Wannabe


I'm a Steve Wang Wannabe. This is the Predalien shoulder Bell Skull Armor for BoneHunter. Sculpting the Thigh and Chest Armor next!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Message to Visitors



Hi Visitors.

I update more on my Deviant Art page since there's more traffic there and more people see my stuff there. I'm not sure anyone even come here from where... Well leave me a comment.

Oh yes I have made a new mask.


In other news...

Well the truth's out. I was on Shanghai Television. "Shanghai Quest" a 30 minute program about interesting Expats living working in Shanghai. They shot me for 7 days which edited down to 25 minutes. Overall it was pretty good. This is one of the happiest moment of my life and there's not too many. I've worked my ass off making those masks and to date still haven't turned any profit and truthfully still don't know what lays ahead for me. But it was 1 year ago I started making the masks and 1 year later I get to be on TV! So that frakkin awesome. So is this the beginning of my career or am I still going to be some office monkey pushing the stylus? Who knows but keep watching and wish me luck & prayers.

I Thank everyone who's watching me and those I'm watching here. You've all been a great inspiration!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Mini Update on Cthulhu


Gonna fix up that nose and epoxy in various areas to make it a little better. This weeK I'm also planning on casting more Scuba bios and hopefully can get some decent paint-ups.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Pretty Busy for Unemployed

Yes, I'm actually too busy to update you guys. Plenty of masks to make. Each cast that is finished isn't really done until you trim it and wash it clean. Then painting it takes a day for a good job. I can usually finish installing the lenses/ LED's after the painting but waiting for the clear coat to dry is important. So never rush.

Anyway the day goes by fast. I hardly even have time to drink water so forget about lunch. I had my lunch 3pm today. I wake up at 8:45am. Have some coffee check my Email and BBS for any orders. People are curious. Anyway its 6:34 now and I'm waiting for the clear coat to dry then the mask is ready. I shouldn't touch it until tomorrow when I get it packed for shipping.

See ya!

Friday, February 27, 2009

My Stats on http://michaelloh.deviantart.com

Anyone who passes by this blog site should check out my http://michaelloh.deviantart.com site.

It has better layout and you can leave comments plus check out other greater artist.

My stats on Deviant Art:

MichaelLoh has 356 pageviews total and his 35 deviations were viewed 2,233 times. He watches 23 people, while 11 people watch him.

Overall, his deviations received 56 comments and were added to deviants' favourites 46 times, while he commented 64 times, making about 1.67 comments per day since he joined DA. This means that he gave 11 comments for every 10 that he received.

His deviation with the most comments is ')">Sea Hunter Profile shots with 9 comments, while his most favourited one is ')">Bone-Hunter Predator Helmet, with 6 favourites. His most viewed deviation is ')">Bone-Hunter Predator Helmet with 1,257 views.

8 favourites were given for every 10 comments.

Every 1 days he uploads a new deviation, and it's usually on a Tuesday, with 22 (63%) of his deviations.

His busiest month was February 2009 with 35 (100%) of his deviations.

The majority of his deviations are uploaded to the traditional gallery (20), while his favourite category was sculpture>fantasy with 20 deviations.

Comments per deviation: 1.6
Favourites per deviation: 1.31
Views per deviation: 63.8
Comments per day: 1.46
Favourites per day: 1.2
Views per day: 58.4
Pageviews per day: 9.31

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Easier than it looks

I know it looks easy but there's a lot that goes into this little mask. Actually I spent 1 week molding this - preparing all the steps, making the wall, sealing the mold building the mother mold etc. The sad part is the purchase price actually don't reflect the amount of quality back breaking labor that goes into this. The casting, constantly pouring the small batches of resin and soaking it into the fiberglass and pushing into the mold with the brush is a pain in the butt's neck.

So don't let looks deceive you. I didn't even talk about airbrushing and color scheme. I need to go into photoshop and do concept paint ups. So also take huge amounts of time and creativity.

I was filmed for ICS - International Channel Shanghai for the entire week doing what I do best: breaking my back and raising my blood pressure and losing 1 kg of weight while they film me making the molds etc. Luckily it was just little bits, but the rest of the hard work they didn't even capture on camera. But trust me: anyone dumb enough to think they can copy what I do will find out why there isn't too many people willing to sculpt, mold and cast everything by themselves in their tiny apartment. Oh did I mention most of the resin and plaster alone are cancer causing and lung damaging substances?

So beware don't be fooled. Its not as easy as it looks. And for those who constantly think: "oh he must be making tons of money otherwise he wouldn't be making it" I have to let you in on a secret. I make shit money. I am almost break even but in reality if I was a company I'd be bankrupt and asking Uncle Sam to bail me out. The supplies I've bought, excluding the labor as if I were to be paid by hourly wages, alone cost a lot more. The oil clay most of the time gets dirty in the demolding process and gets thrown out or left for other uses- but most of the time its a pain in the ass to clean so it gets "stored."

It's a tiring job alright - very little glory and Fame? Well we will see how I fare after the Show on ICS. But for now thanks for watching and listening. Humble Lohly artist here signing out.

Peace
Mike

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Scuba Bio done Painting!


If you can afford an Iphone You have afford this baby! Email me: Uratz@hotmail.com
Comes with Mirror Lenses plus Tri-Led's

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Sea-Hunter Scuba Done!





Well still got some refining then off to the Molding stage. Pray for me.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Update on Scuba a.k.a. Sea Hunter




Dedicate this to a Lair Member Sea-Hunter.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

My masks!!!


If you want to see more of my previous works be sure to click on the " older Posts" link and it will go to previous month's worth of works and masks!

Working on my Scuba Predator mask. Starting to get a feeling from it.
Hopefuly it will sell well compared to Bonehunter.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Cthulhu Mask Update

Here is some update:



Added membrane: Chamois cut and hot glue while wet on mask.

Monday, January 12, 2009

The Call of Chtulhu

Cthulhu is an ancient old demon created by H.P. Lovecraft and the way wikipedia describe it is " tongue in cheek for extreme horror or evil." Anyway I thought it be interesting to make a mask of it, well my Cool angry face version of it. Why not? since everyone and thier mothers. brothers and sisters in kindergarten is making it. I did a quick sketch in my sketchbook figure out the mechanics roughly and soon it'll be a mask.

Bonehunter + Punisher mask = Cthulhu mask
the chamois tendrils are still wet and soft so its drying out now.
Later I will flip them inside out once the wire frame have been made.
I'll need to epoxy sculp this baby a bit before he can really be called a demon.
Sketched idea for the Cthulhu mask
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Orc Mask Update:
The PVC tubing has been drilled, the eye holes and everything is drilled out
also jsut didn't take any pics of it.


My Eye balls plus stich string came in the mail woo hoo!
The black and brown string is for Orc Hide.
I'll be using hot glue + wet colored chamois to make it stick to the cut out template above.





Sunday, January 11, 2009

Death and Frankenstein


In case of confusion from the blog title let me clear it up, it has to do with masks. I just saw the movie Death Race with that driver guy from Transporter (also another favorite movie for me).
Anyway he takes up the role of Frankenstein a prisoner with exceptional driving skill in a race to the death using cars with weapons to kill other racers on the racing track. Did I mention he wears a mask that look like something I would make? Uh oh guess I'm in love with anything dark, cool and scary in terms of masks. Here are some pics from the Movie. I'll probably be making this in a few... days.

Friday, January 9, 2009

More Orc Hide Helm Update


Epoxy sculpt on the horn things on the head part plus little fang tooth things for the ear.
Testing the chamois sticking to PVC tube via Hot glue while wet, works pretty good.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

ORCDATE - Update on Orc Hide Helmet, not date with an Orc!


Here's an Update on my Orc Hide Helmet. Not sure about using the Chamois as a skin for the helmet. Got nothing that will glue and hold the skin to the PVC tube frame I'm about to make.
IN the pic is uhm the bent Horn things for the head. I can either be cheap and use hot glue (quick and easy) to create the effects or sculpt epoxy putty (more expensive & take longer to get hard).

The pvc tubing frame I'll have to use my handy dandy Heat Gun and melt to bent it into a mask shape. I made paper templates and traced it over the flat PVC tubing. Its all in the pic. The chamois however I think I can make them into Gloves for an upcoming Prince of Persia Gauntlet project.

Stay tuned.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Here's My card - Take One


Call me if u need anything out of the ordinary, unusual, supernatural, dark, demonic and mysterious. I am also 3rd Degree Sith Lord

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

More Ugly Masks - Orc Hide Helm


Not having a day job has its advantages and disadvantages. Yes I'm jobless as a designer and whut-not, and no steady income but I do have a lot of time to make art. This is my next quick project and also will add to my mask portfolio. Its a 1:1 Orc Hide Helmet from Lord of the Rings.
They only made a 1:4th scale table top souvenir so there's no lifesize scale version. Plus this design looks a lot like Predator. So I'm making it.

In the picture there's the PVC tube which I've cut into 3 cm wide & various length strips and its slightly curved already. A new material which I'm fascinated with is Chamois. Synthetic version seen here was used for drying my 2 dogs (whom I love very much) after their shower, begins to dry and get hard. This is something unique. I should have worked with this stuff long time ago. I can buy new ones, dip it in wet acrylic color that I want, shape it and let dry. It'll be hard and retain the shape of the mask that I want. So I'll be playing with this. I've just ordered a bunch over Taobao and going to make gloves from this material. Can't wait.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Skull Man Demon Helm


Demon version of Skull Man's Helmet. I realize that this can get even crazier being a demonic design.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Demonizing Bodies - Skull Man Demon armor

Skull Man in demon armor form. The head will come soon.
Took me all day to render this.









Got it in the Mail finally & I love it.
All Thanks to my wife for tracking it thru the impossible EMS