The creative adventures of an unknown artist:

My adventure started in 2006 when I thought to myself how can I show off all the different things I can do online. My first idea was to make an imaginary castle with lots of rooms. I designed the castle on an island and it got me thinking about islands. How about an island with several buildings and points of interest instead. Then I began searching for images on Google for interesting looking tropical islands. After I found a few I arranged them into a montage so their perspectives all worked together properly. Some island parts were created from the main island so they aren’t real. This was actually three islands nowhere near each other. I first called it Atomic Island and made three buildings. At the time my plan was just to make a website so I gave no thought to a back story or anything.


The perspective and lens distortion helped me to get the proper perspective on each building.


From the photo montage I was able to produce line art and extract the colors for it as well. I then moved the buildings onto this illustration. Piece of cake.


The hard part is making it into an interactive Flash webpage. I'm still working on that.
here is what I have so far www.atomicislandstudios.com/astral_island
Then at some point in 2006 I decided to put the website on hold and begin making this into a TV show. I believe it was after watching the making of Lord of the Rings that pushed me into this decision. The magic of Mystery Science Theater 3000 also played a large part in it too. I realized that no matter how low budget something looked, as long as you try your best to entertain people, they will make an effort to enjoy it. So one of the first things I started to do was craft the image of the island into an N scale miniature.


I started out with a map I made from the illustration. I had to adjust the angle from an oblique view to an over head view and then scaled it up to the size of this 4'x 4' plywood board.


I then built it up with Foamcore and 'Polyurethane Foam' or 'Great Stuff' which is very easy to carve with an Exacto blade when fully dry.


'Joint Compound', known as 'Drywall Mud' used to get the edges, smooth the surface, and bind it all together better.


I built it up some more and then it was covered in plastercloth.


Ports inside the cave were added for internal lighting and the fog machine. More were added later for the buildings and so fog can come out of the monolith's eyes.


Don't use that plaster you find in craft stores. It's worthless. This is Hydrocal and is as light as plaster but as strong as concrete and has a nice pure white color. It will make the model last much longer. You can find it at a craft supply warehouses where you can also find the clay I show you below. This bag was about $15. You must wear a mask when working with Hydrocal. I used it for the molded rock surface.


Here are the rubber rock surface molds and the tools I used to mix and carve it.


I then carved all the joints so they joined seamlessly with a carving tool and a hammer and chisle. I also filled in some areas with clay.


The island is starting to look awesome.


This is 'Sheepdog Clay' and it hardens in a few hours when it drys and has fur like fibers on it to hold it together longer. I want this minature to last as long as I do.


The clay was used for the taller smoother rock areas and was hand sculpted since the rock molds wouldn't work here.


shweew, the messy part is over for one 'N' scale miniature of Astral island.