Cody Goodin - The artistic and spiritual journey of Cody Goodin

Today I hosted my doll club in my studio for my very first in studio class. I have been wanting to teach classes in my studio for the longest time. Now I have finally started that process. The class today was Head Sculpting Goblin Style. It was a class held to replace the annual trip my club makes called doll camp. It is an overnight trip to an area state park where we rent out a conference room and have a couple of classes and just have fun. It is the one time where one of the club members steps up and teaches a class in something that the club members want to learn. This year due to schedule conflicts and vacations. Doll camp was cancelled and instead we had doll camp day in my studio. Here I am with Pat Statzer who is a fabulous quilter and cloth doll maker. Here we have Katie Storer and Pat working on their goblin heads. Here I am doing a demo on how I detail the face when you have the features sculpted. Nothing like being the center of attention and having a group watch ...

I have finished my first two angels in my on going angel series. Not sure how many I will do, but here are two at least. This first one is titled "Angel of Decay" and is around 6x12 inches. I apologise for the not so great photos of these guys. They were taken rather hastily so I could post them tonight. The Tony awards are on and I just have to be planted in front of the boob tube for that show. This angel is called "Angel of Twilight" and is the same size as the first one. I used a variety of painting techniques in addition to the adding of fabric to the foundation sculpt to hide the naughty bits a little. Also, this adds a bit of movement to the piece as well. I have to admit that these aren't really what I originally intended. My idea was to make them a little more in line with my fantasy sculpts. But, that is for the next few. These were also warm up pieces for the sculpts I am going to make for the Secret Artworks show this year. That's ...

Today's offerings are the last of the small sea goblins. I have run out of shells. The only shells I have left are large conch shells and that will be for a much larger scale project for later in the summer. I have so many ideas and projects started that it is hard to focus. Anyhoo, here are the latest of the sea goblin clan. The first guy here is in a nautilus or sea snail shell. He has made himself quite comfortable. He is made of Polymer clay and has hematite eyes. Here is another view of him. I liked how these pictures turned out. Who would have thought an old bath towel would make a good background. This guy is quite small. Approximately 2-1/2 inches tall. He is contemplating his place in the universe and is feeling a bit overwhelmed. His eyes are glass beads and he is polymer clay as well. He sitting inside a small weathered shell I found on the beach in Myrtle Beach SC. That seems like an eternity now. You never know when you might use that odd bit of somethin...

This is the finished version of the sea goblin I made for the Under the Sea Swap hosted by Zan at Wild At Heart Art . The idea was to create a sea creature of some sort.  We were then paired up with another artist.  My partner was Debb George.  So, here is "Spott Ahn".  He is a polymer clay sculpt with fresh water pearl eyes.  I made him with a mixture of polymer clay I make up myself. Here you can see an in process picture of Spott Ahn.  You may notice the box of Super Sculpey in the background?  I use a small bit of that mixed with two other clays to get my pinkish colored translucent clay.  I like the look of the clay as it makes the stains look nice.  I found this awesome shell for him to live in at a local craft store.  Debb hope you like him.

As promised, here are a few of the finished sea goblins.  After the sculpting and baking process, they are then painted with a light bit of paint to accent the lips and then stained to bring out the shadows.  This little guy seems so sad.  Not all of my pictures turned out so, I am just showing off three today. In addition to the stain I used a bit of blue iridescent paint to give this little guy some added sparkle.   This little guy seems the most happy even though he isn't quite fitting in his shell as he had hoped.  I think it is all those soft shell crabs he likes to indulge in.  Hope you enjoy them.  I am going to make two more as that is all the shells I have left in the small size.  I have been eyeing some large conch shells that a friend gave me years ago.  They would make awesome homes for some larger goblins.  I shall see how I feel about it later this week.  I still have a few other works in the process so until next time.