GW: With 17 years experience in the industry working on films like the Scorpion King and Planet of the Apes, what would you say drives your creative process?

JB: Using art as communication, first & foremost…. I spent so much time learning the technical side of sculpture before and now I find myself trying to forget it. I do find that the general aesthetics are rooted in the rudiments and fundamentals of figure anatomy, (primarily & technically speaking), but my work now rarely moves beyond that. Students that want to learn sculpture properly should start with a solid foundation of proportion & anatomy but should eventually look for higher levels of awareness within their work. They should aspire to become technically brilliant first… and I think it’s all about departure from there. We must arrive before we depart and too many times it’s the other way around.

GW: Many students of fine art end up working in entertainment or commercial work.

JB: That’s true but I think it works better the other way around because the caliber of talent in the entertainment industry (traditionally & technically speaking) is enormous and already there. I think that every serious artist needs that technical knowledge & experience and Academia doesn’t always provide it… certainly not as fast. I think that the years I spent in the entertainment industry and working around some really talented people set a high standard for me. I think that on-the-job training was the perfect pre-requisite for getting into fine art. It was one big lesson on how to improvise human anatomy…I learned so much, so quickly, when I got my first job. You could water down what I learned in one week and turn it into a ten week class.

GW: What led you into the industry and when did you decide to pursue a path of fine art?

JB: A childhood fascination with television & movies…notably Planet of the Apes….which I think was the catalyst for most people around my age . Oddly enough, in retrospect, and with the exception of a couple of jobs that came afterwards, the 2001 remake was one of the last films I worked on…I suppose I had come full circle. It was definitely around that time that I started feeling disenchanted with the business but my passion for sculpture was seriously intact and blossoming at an alarming rate. By that I mean, I had to find an outlet for it because my vocation wasn’t providing it…. Employment opportunities were becoming more and more scarce, as well as disappointing, and so the time to give it up was right…

GW: Have you found the elusive reward to your work that many artist spend a lifetime pursuing - the "this is the perfect piece" feeling.

JB: No…there’s never a “perfect piece” feeling with the artwork itself, but it’s been extremely liberating to move towards my own interests with relative financial success and by challenging myself to communicate on a level that exists beyond anatomical precision. There’s something rewarding about that… which I never felt with film industry. There was too much emphasis on technical ability and over-stylization, which makes sense, because it has to be that way. I feel I’m personally headed in the right direction because …and I hope I don’t sound pretentious, but I won’t sculpt until I can answer the question “what is this about”. So I’ll attempt to explore something , say the human condition and then attempt to build a body of work around it. Telegraphing and narrative are omnipotent to me. Key words in the question are “ lifetime” & “pursuit”. I can only hope that if I continue to move forward that my chances of getting there are greater.. but it’s very undefined… as it should be… because it’s so much about “discovery” and I’m always discovering little things that make a big difference. I’m learning how to hit little nerves and manipulate on a broader level. I did a bronze sculpture of a female called “discovery” in which she’s looking down at her hands while realizing the unlimited potential in them. That was an early attempt at defining narrative and attempting to connect, but the translation was too literal… and I was bound by the choreography of “Alvin Ailey”. If I ever did get that “perfect piece” feeling I would like to think that it wouldn’t be so obvious and that most people wouldn’t like it… and I have no idea what that would look like right now. I’m probably setting myself up for dissapointment :) You know…Picasso & Modigliani…they were both exceptionally gifted artists that were very capable of life-like rendering…but after a while they moved on to higher levels of awareness in their work….the stuff they’re remembered for. The “less is more” approach is very interesting to me. Picasso could do the Bull in three strokes…that’s powerful!




GW: Many of the designs in the entertainment industry are much more stylized or comic in the proportions, features, etc. What do you do to prevent your fine art work from becoming similarly over-stylized?

JB: Well, I’d be lying if I said my own work wasn’t stylized…because it is… but in attempt to answer the question, I’d say I have a “spectrum” or a “paradigm” that I work inside of that affords me anatomical consistency and the ability to push things that are necessary for what I’m doing...with boundaries. The “paradigm” is heavily rooted in the fundamentals of human anatomy (Bridgmanesque). There is a ceiling though, and I think that many times, in the entertainment industry, it goes outside the boundaries and ends up looking a little ridiculous…but this is more likely to happen with talented neophytes.

GW: What differences are there when you're doing sculpts for films vs. figurative pieces - process, pipeline, timeline, etc.?

JB: Freedom essentially…and it does translate. Film work always had to be so over finished…I felt like a slave to industry trends. It was all about the surface and it had to be done a certain way…but that’s showbiz isn’t it? Can’t stand the heat…get out of the kitchen. Otherwise…the workflow is essentially the same.

GW: Bigger reward seeing your sculpt come to life on the big screen or admiring a newly finished bronze?

JB: Bronze…. definitely …especially when it has found its home and watching the owner’s connection with it. I seriously have little recall or connection with anything I ever did for the movies. There’s good reason for that.

GW: It's common that an artist's aesthetic taste will mature or change over time, has this been your own personal experience?

JB: Yes…I find myself interested in the “ subliminal” more than ever… or art that isn’t necessarily what we would refer to as “technically astute”…Alberto Giacometti comes to mind. Again…I really enjoy the discovery…both as an artist and spectator. I think that we are over-saturated with high caliber, technically astute artwork, more so now than ever with the advent of the computer…but that’s just my opinion. I like to see restraint in the artist’s work.

GW: What are some of the key fundamental skills sculptors need  (traditional and digital)? What mistakes do you see most often repeated in both professional and student work?

JB: It’s in the initial setup or foundation or lack thereof….It seems as though everyone gets caught up in the tiny details with too much concentration on secondary & tertiary detail, sacrificing primary form & function for one…or the rudiments and fundamentals of anatomy have been ignored…the silhouette. In traditional illustration and sculpture we spend crucial time defining the mannequin frame in which we implement gesture, plumb & balance, rhythm, wedging, passing & locking, etc. Too often this crucial stage gets neglected. In my class I spend the first 2 ½ classes teaching students about research, creating a back story etc. and teach the students how to telegraph and to seek this stuff out first and answer the questions that need to be addressed. It’s very much the same way a writer creates characters. I teach that the armature should be exciting, dynamic and should be engaging before any clay is put on it...and don’t think that the magic is going to happen once we get clay on it. It’s the foundational elements that are omnipotent to the final piece that in the end, separates one technically gifted artist from another…or has that special thing that the audience connects to…and it has a magnetic quality to it that draws people in and it exists outside of anatomy alone….I think. It’s all about storytelling. Sculpture has the capability of being extremely static if not well thought out. Another problem is that you’ve got a lot of artists breaking rules that were never learned in the first place. The impressive stuff is always coming from the artists who were traditionally well trained.

GW: How important is  life drawing or the ability to draw to a sculptor?

JB: Very important…I tell my students to look at the figure as a series of simple curves , or straight lines that intersect… and to concentrate on that at first. Also to back up my class with life drawing classes. I consider sculpture to be a 3 dimensional illustration. The sculptor & illustrator are one in the same.

GW: What fundamental skills or prinicples should students be focusing on first. Form, plumb line, anatomy, gesture, level of detail, contrast?

JB: Yes, all of those things of course but I really believe that art is first and foremost a communicative, storytelling, narrative medium. Art should inspire, educate & reflect. After that we should consider negative space, silhouette, telegraphing, lines of action, energy, line of focus.

GW: What lessons do you focus on in the classroom? Do you find you learn a lot from your own curriculum and what you see in your students work?

JB: We focus on all the things that I’ve been talking about and more….and yes I have learned so much from my students and teaching. It’s because they ask the right questions…and because of that, I’ve been forced to learn how to articulate what I’ve learned over the years. Getting good results out of first time sculptors in 10 weeks is very difficult. My curriculum has changed over the years, to get better results from my students. It’s never about my “subject matter” or “style” It’s never “do it my way or else” in my class. It’s about giving them the tools to make decisions for themselves. It’s much more autonomous because they are taught how to analyze, interpret and how to correct their own mistakes. It’s a system that nurtures individual style… but it is strong in fundamentals & rudiments. I demo sculpt very little in my class…and a lot of the student work is really good! …and they are all first time sculptors. Just look at the student gallery on my website and you’ll see.

GW: What clays and tools do you favor for your personal projects? What are some of the best projects for someone just starting out in clay?

JB: Chavant NSP medium gray for clay. I have about 4 tools that I use when sculpting: a couple of rakes, a small loop tool, and this metal dental tool which is hard to explain but can be seen in my dvds. I mostly use my hands. I think that students should attempt a male or female natural study first and then move on to characters & creatures.

GW: How much influence does working from life effect the finished piece?

JB: I rarely work from life because models for sculpture time are too expensive…no seriously though, we all work from life in one way or another and I take from life what I need which is probably more on the peripheral or ancillary, than on the surface itself. I can get that from photos or memory. The surface is becoming more & more secondary with me nowadays. Everyone does a nice surface job now. Even when doing a likeness or portrait [which I’m not very good at] so much of the model’s spirit or energy exists on the ancillary & peripheral that I think the important stuff gets compromised when taking measurements or getting over analytical with regards to the “golden rules”….let it flow baby!! Remember that saying "learn your anatomy and forget it” I believe that if you concentrate too much on the anatomy then your sculpture will exist on that level only and it becomes stiff, rigid, soul-less and lifeless… an anatomy study only. Anatomy is over rated…

GW: Any influences to point students to for inspiration?

JB: George Bridgman for technique, Rodin, Degas, Modiglianni, Picasso, anyone from the Impressionistic Era…they’re all dead :) There’s something about the impressionistic era that I really love…just because you know how to do something doesn’t mean you have to do it! I think that era exemplifies that.

To see more of John Brown's work, go to: www.figuresandfocus.com

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*All images courtesy of John Brown.