Clayburn Moore: The Shape of Passion

The science fiction and fantasy art world long treated sculptors like the proverbial red-headed stepchild. Two-dimensional artists can get work beyond the art show and gallery circuit as illustrators or graphic designers. Sculptors usually find themselves limited to shows or galleries where only a few ever get to appreciate their work. But thanks to sculptors like Clayburn Moore, that attitude has started to change.

I first met Moore, one of the few sculptors exhibiting science fiction work in the Southwest, in the ‘Eighties while running an art show in Dallas, Texas. It was his first convention art show, but everyone who saw his piece — done in wax because he couldn’t afford to cast it — hoped it would not be his last. The piece won Best in Show and broke all existing show records for the price brought by a single piece. It thrilled the show’s organizers to present a piece of such quality in the show, but it saddened us too, because we knew that a sculptor, even one with such obvious talent, couldn’t survive in the science fiction field. Illustrators ruled the roost and most sculptors needed a day job. But Moore rewrote the rules, finding a way to combine sculpting and illustrating, and eventually founding two companies to distribute his bronzes, collectible resins and action figures around the world.

Teresa Patterson: When did you first decide to become an artist?

Clayburn Moore: Well, I grew up in an artistic family. There were a lot of kids — nine of us. Five of us had artistic talent and went on to study art.

So where did you study?

I began my studies at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, but I found that it wasn’t a real challenging or focused program. Then I went to the Kansas City Art Institute, where I decided to split my studies between sculpture and illustration. But their focus was not figurative, and I wanted to concentrate on the study of human figures.

I knew that Charles Umlauf was teaching at the University of Texas. He was one of the top figure artists — figure sculptors in the country. So, I transferred to the University of Texas. But Charles Umlauf retired after I had only been at the University of Texas for a year. I was basically relegated to studying with non-figurative professors, which was frustrating.

So, after I got my degree, I decided I wanted to do an overseas program in Italy, where I knew I could get a more traditional, figurative approach. But in order to even apply for the program I had to learn how to speak Italian, have all my records and transcripts translated into Italian, get police records and recommendations and things, and then travel to Italy and spend weeks waiting to be accepted, with no guarantee of actually getting in.

Fortunately, I was accepted, and studied at the Academia delle Belle Arti in Florence.

Do you think the European approach is different from the American approach to studying art and sculpture?

My understanding is that it varies from academy to academy. For example, The Academy of Fine Arts in Milan is basically a design school. The Academia degli Belli Arti has a particular emphasis on painting and sculpture, and so my course of study was very traditional. After all, Michelangelo is from Florence, and the Academy is attached to the Gallery of the Academy, which is where the David is, as well as several of Michelangelo’s other pieces. And then you have the Capella de Medici there and you have quite an emphasis on Michelangelo and Leonardo and the Greco-Roman sculptors. I also traveled quite often to France, where I had the opportunity to study more recent figurative sculptors, such as Dalou and Rodin.

The course of study was like a graduate program, but it was an informal program, so it wasn’t formally set up — which was fine with me. I already had my degree.

The classical training is evident in all your fine art sculptures. Do you think that has helped you in your current work as an action and collectible figure designer?

Vampirella (all images of Clayburn Moore’s sculptures courtesy of the artist)

Well, yes. The first piece that I did when I started in this industry was Vampirella for Harris, under the Vampirella license. I sort of applied a fine-arts aesthetic. Though I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a renaissance aesthetic, as much as it is a compilation drawn from the range of art history from Greco-Roman through Renaissance to modern times. I think its part of what’s led to my success. It’s a different approach. A distinctive look — whether I’m doing a comic character or a movie character — whatever it is. So, yes, it’s something I bring stylistically to this industry.

What drew you from classical art into science fiction and fantasy?

I actually grew up with science fiction and fantasy. I read Lord of the Rings as a kid, and re-read the books as an adult. Gosh, I remember being excited about Star Trek before it even started. My brother and I were looking forward to this new show that was going to be about space. I didn’t get into comics until I was 12 or 13 years old — they were not allowed in my house. But I got into appreciating comic art through friends’ comics, because I had artistic background. I had centered on sculpture, but I grew up in a family that was very focused on literature. I read Norse and Greek mythology and had grown up with that. So, it was natural for me to have a classical aesthetic, but also at the same time to be drawn to science fiction.

Of course, as a sculptor I don’t want to be dictated to by what people want to buy. The average person is not into science fiction, fantasy, or mythology. They’re interested in the here and now and what they know. So I strictly do a piece for myself, and if people choose to buy it, they’re buying it for themselves. If I take a genre that I like, and I attract people from that genre, and they buy it, then that’s all you can hope for.

I’ve done all kinds of non-science fiction pieces. I’ve done Native Americans, but not because everyone else is doing them. I’ve studied history. I think their lifestyle, the look of them, their culture is wonderful. Do I want to do a cowboy? Not necessarily. I’m also a military buff. I’m a history buff. I would like to eventually do figures from history. But right now, most of my figures are from the entertainment industry — comics, science fiction and fantasy TV shows and films.

Science fiction is dominated by two-dimensional artists, yet you have managed to carve out a respectable niche as a sculptor, building not one but two companies that specialize in genre related sculptures. Why two companies? What is the difference between them?

Well, there’s Moore Creations, which does the statues and pewters and snow globes as well as collectible busts and collectible statues. Moore Action Collectibles is action figures and toy-related products. The two main reasons the companies are separate revolve around differences in their respective markets and insurance issues — toy vs. gift insurance.

I separate the two artistically, because I still feel an action figure is a toy, and as such, it should be packaged frontally, and have a certain level of poses that lend themselves to the mobility of the piece. This limits the choices for poses because a piece has to be frontal, and it can’t have a spiral effect as much; otherwise it just becomes a plastic sculpture. If I want to do a sculpture, I would do that, as a higher quality piece, with Moore Creations.

What do you think is the secret of your success in this very competitive genre? What would you tell those sculptors and 3D artists who are struggling to compete?

Well, thank you for saying that. Success is a relative term. I’m very proud of what we have accomplished. I have been approached by some artists who say, “Why don’t you carry my work or carry my fine art on your Web site or promote my art with yours?” But ultimately, it’s up to each artist to find his or her own path. I can only share the details of mine.

Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I think the decision that I made was to follow a path that would put my name out there more, so I compromised. I paid my dues by choosing a path that stopped me from really following my dream for a while. I had to give up the pure dream of sculpting my own fine art pieces. But only to a certain extent, because I really like what I’m doing, even though I am doing other people’s characters.

I like the social part of working with artists that I admire, and working on bringing their creations to life. It has taken me out of the realm of doing some original work for a while. But its put my name out there and its been commercially successful.

The first thing an artist needs to do is to decide if they want to follow that same path. You don’t have to. There are certainly plenty of fine artists who’ve done it by only doing only their own work. But I think that you have to be prepared to pay your dues by doing, at least some work-for-hire or licensing. It’s also a trade off. If your subject matter just is not moving, you have to make a decision. Can you do work-for-hire or licensed work and still feel fulfilled? Or do you come to the realization that you are not going to compromise you values and what you want to do with your work? That’s the difficult part.

You can also get a representative, and that helps, but a lot of it is common sense. I think a lot of artists aren’t particularly good at where they put their money or at what they invest their money in. I try to be very careful.

Part of it, to tell you the truth, is also luck and timing. Image Comics was at its height when I started Moore Creations. When I was first contacted to do a sculpture of Vampirella, I knew who Vampirella was. I had read the comics, and so I thought this was great.

Did they just pick your name out of a hat?

No. Actually, the person who hired me had seen my bronzes in a show in Los Angeles. So they called and said, “Do you want to do this project for Harris as sort of a sub-contract? And I said, “Sure.” So I did it.

That piece had a lot of success and was really noticed. So I just put a game plan together. I thought, “Well, gosh, these people are making a lot of money off of my work.” So I decided that I would do work for all the major companies, which at that time were DC, Marvel, Kitchen Sink, Image and others. And that’s exactly what I did. I thought I would build up my reputation by working for the major companies, and then I would start to do my own licensing.

Once I became the sculptor that each of the companies knew, there was no reason for them to go through another company as a middleman. And I thought, “Why not start my own company?” So I did.

I know a lot of artists are a little bit intimidated by the business aspect of it. I think that nothing in life is just jumping into a sea of change. It doesn’t happen that often like that. I think that it’s like stepping-stones. Things happen on a gradual basis. So even if it’s over a period of months, you can begin to change your way of thinking to sort of a business approach, then you can start to handle business problems.

As a business, you have to deal not only with sculpting the piece, but also finding a way to manufacture, package, promote and distribute it. That seems like a very complicated process.

To a certain extent it is, you’re right.

So how did you manage it?

I took two of my clients and said: “Look, if you will finance a trip for me to China, I’ll find a factory that can manufacture the pieces. I’ll put in part and you put in part, and then we will pay everyone back out of the profits. We’ll save that money right there, and then some, by going direct to the factory in China.” So that’s what I did.

Conan the Barbarian (based on the painting by Frank Frazetta)

I flew to Hong Kong. I set up some appointments prior to that. Then I set up some more appointments when I got there. I went into China and looked at the factories. It took a while to get used to the whole overseas production idea. But I had lived in Europe, so I was used to traveling on my own. I wasn’t intimidated by being in a different country where I didn’t speak the language. You have to keep in mind the fact that they are there to do business with you, so they are going to find a way to communicate with you.

I highly recommend any artist doing that, whether you’re doing sculpture or prints. I know that Chinese printing is more affordable as well.

So, that’s what I did. A lot of it was good luck, and a lot of it was common sense, combined with sticking to something your good at, which in my case is sculpture.

When I say I have a diversified portfolio it means that I do different work, and different kinds of things, but at the same time there is a single purpose, a single goal in mind, and that is to become, eventually, largely independent of the licensing realm. To become a company that is known for both original and licensed work. It’s still a case where I really do still enjoy doing licensed pieces and working with other artists.

Like the piece you did with Frank Frazetta.

Exactly. To be able to meet Mr. Frazetta, to go to Frank Frazetta’s house, to be able to hold his paintings in hand and to talk over those paintings with Mr. Frazetta, to meet his wife Ellie and have dinner with them and spend time with them was just a dream come true. If you had said ten or fifteen years ago that I would be meeting Frazetta and spending time at the Frazetta house and holding those incredible paintings, or watching Frank Frazetta work — I never would have believed it. To me, that alone has been worth everything. Personally, I do consider him one of the great artists of the twentieth century.

To a certain extent, meeting any of the artists whose work I admire — after growing up on comics and science fiction/fantasy, getting to work with someone whose work I admire is very rewarding. Mark Shultz for example. Mark and I have become good friends — he and his wife Denise. He’s one of the greats of the industry, just an absolutely remarkable talent. He does some of the best brushwork I’ve ever seen. That’s just such a plus in this industry.

I don’t always work with somebody because I’m going to make a fortune. I can also work with them because its mutually beneficial, business-wise, to do it, or because I admire their work and I know that if I do it, and it’s of their work, I’m going to have nice solid core sales. I’m not going to make a fortune, but I’ll have something that I’m very, very proud of. So what I try to do is to work with people who I really admire, whose work I would like to do — like Terry Moore of Strangers in Paradise, David Mack of Kabuki, Mark Schultz with his various properties. Then also to do the Witchblades and the Fathoms, and possibly the Marvel stuff — things like that.

Of course, when you work with a corporation, it’s never going to be the same as working with an individual. Luckily, Top Cow, which does Witchblade, is in between, and it’s a real pleasure to work with them. The little compromises aside — compromises are always going to happen — it’s a good company to work with, and the characters are very popular. And the success frees me up to start to do some more original work again.

Of all the different pieces and types of pieces that you have done, what are your favorites?

Well everything you do in commercial art has a series of headaches or lost battles, whether it is the hand position or the torso proportions. Licensing is a compromise. You accept that or you don’t get into it. There’s a trade off — commercial success against those compromises that you have to make to bring your vision and theirs together.

That said, one of my favorite current pieces is Witchblade. That was a piece that it was pretty much a case of them looking at my design and saying, “This looks great! We love it! Go after it!” That’s the kind of response you want. The best moments in your career are where a company wants to work with you because they want you to do it your way, show your vision of the character.

The Pitt sculpture is another of my favorites. The character was created by a very popular artist, Dale Keown. He pretty much said, “Do the piece how you envision him.” And that’s what I did, and I think that it’s a much better sculpture for it. So, when I look back on it, I see The Pitt as one of my more successful pieces.

That would have to be the Frazetta pieces: Conan the Barbarian, and The Princess. Frazetta is incredibly talented and could pull what he wanted out of his mind and make it work. My challenge was to make it sure that his paintings were brought to life in a way that worked from the back as well as the front, so that he would be happy and his fans would be happy. Taking most of his painting, The Barbarian — the interaction of the two figures — and doing it in 3D was a tremendous challenge. One of the changes that he made was to lengthen the Conan figure. I had made the figure too short. In retrospect I look back and wonder, “How could I have done that?” Because, I now see it in the photos. But when you are involved in a piece, you get caught up and do the best work you can at the moment.

But he was right. It was about a quarter-inch too short. So, we cut the figure, and I raised it. But then I had to stretch out the whole torso — in a very miniscule step-by-step way. When I look back on it, it made me a better sculptor.

It was proof that not all changes are compromises. Sometimes they actually improve you. As an artist, you have to keep an open mind. But when you know something’s right and it shouldn’t be changed, I say, stick to your guns and make the argument. Ultimately, if it’s a licensed piece, it’s their choice. But you should still make the argument. On the other hand, you want to keep an open mind and realize that you’ve got something to learn from just about everybody out there. Certainly from someone like Frazetta, but also from just about anybody that you work with. You should admire their work enough and admire them as an artist enough to realize that you’ve got something to learn from them.

So how do you turn a comic or TV character into a three-dimensional sculpture or action figure?

First, like any writer or musician — you sit down and tune your instrument — you start to read over the material. You start to gather your thoughts. It’s a similar process with art. For me, it even becomes almost a little kindergarten game, where I cut out pictures of the figures, and I laminate them and I think about setting it up, and I think about the character in my mind. It’s not a big esoteric thing. I just familiarize myself with the character. Everything is about characterization to me. When I do a character, I try to remember that.

The process of choosing a pose can really run the gamut. An artist can say, “Refer to this drawing and base it on that.” And I may say, “but we need to make changes in it, because I think that pose doesn’t work as a three-dimensional piece. I think it will work better like this.” And sometimes, as I said before, an artist will say, “Take the ball and run with it.”

The Fathom sculpture was based on a very tiny — almost thumbnail — panel in the comic that I just thought was fantastic! Sometimes I think the best work you can see by an artist will just be a thumbnail or a pencil sketch. This becomes the spark, which I take and run with. Sometimes the genesis will be straight out of my mind, using their character based usually on a composite of their panels and things.

So if it’s a commercial assignment, I may do five or six ideas, and either take pictures or a video of it, and send it to them so they can pick. That’s how Lady Death was done. We had six ideas. That’s how the original Savage Dragon was done.

There seems to be a lot of passion in all your work — even the action figures. Is that what makes you pieces different? The passion?

I would like to think so. There’s a great amount of gratification that comes from the fan of a show looking at something and going, “Oh my God! That’s it exactly!”

After you’ve got the character and decided on a pose, how do you take it from your studio to becoming an actual finished product? I imagine that its different, depending on whether it is a bronze, a resin collectible, or an action figure.

Bronze casting is separate, though it is kind of similar. There are two main processes between collectible statues and action figures. I didn’t know how to do action figures when we started, so I just applied the same rules and processes of the statue business to action figures and said to the factory “Here, make it work. We’re not going to give you a wax. We’re going to give you a fully painted resin, and an unpainted resin.” They had to solve the problem of how to take a resin piece and then build a steel mold, using that piece. And that’s what they did. And they solved the problem in order to work with us. .

Of course it all begins with the sculpting process. When I sculpt, I don’t use wax anymore. I don’t use clay anymore. I use Super Sculpy®. Super Sculpy is just synthetic clay that you can buy anywhere. The advantage to it is that you can bake it, harden it, and add to it, so that you don’t have to nick or scratch the rest of the piece to add on or correct something. If there’s a part I’ve finished and I want to save it, I can bake it and I know I’m safe.

Then I go through the approval process. The sculpting phase can take anywhere from a week to several weeks. Once the piece is sculpted, we send pictures or a video of it to be approved. We don’t typically send the piece itself anymore. In fact, I’ve fought that from the beginning. A lot of companies wanted us to do that. But to me that’s so unsafe. And since I wasn’t willing to sculpt in a hard wax, we had to do approval by photo or videotape. Fortunately, most people were agreeable to that.

The approval process might take four to six approval steps, to make sure the creators are happy with the piece. That way I don’t waste time re-sculpting something. By the time the piece is finished, I bake it, making sure all parts are fully baked. Once the approval is done, and any changes are made, we take a silicon rubber mold off the piece. That is done here in Texas. Then we cast three pieces from the mold. One piece we have painted, and that is sent to the factory to use as a Master paint scheme. We will send that piece to the clients themselves, so that they can look the paint over and see if it’s really true, because photography can vary. So they approve or they make some changes.

Then two unpainted production pieces and one fully painted piece are either hand-carried or sent over to the factory in China, depending on the schedule. They use the two production pieces to make the master molds from which true production will be done. From the original to the piece that’s on retail shelves is two generations away. One generation is the casting we do in Texas, for the master prototype. The next generation occurs when those master prototypes are made into the production molds, and from the production molds, we cast the retail pieces.

Then we design the artwork for the boxes and we design the ads. We go through the approval process on the ads and boxes and any artwork as well as any press releases and things like that. After approval by the client, we send the film over to China and they manufacture the boxes for us. Throughout their production process, they send over pieces to us as well, for us to approve — usually at the beginning and the end of the project. At sometime during any major project I go over to China — either one or two times — to check the progress to see how it’s going. That way, if needed, I can check the quality of every single piece before its boxed and shipped. Then they ship the finished pieces over — takes about three weeks –and we send it out to the distributors. By the time it arrives in the retail shops, it’s about another two to three weeks.

The process is the same for the collectibles and the action figures?

The busts and the statues are the same process. I art direct on most things. Aaron Ethridge is the project manager. However, Aaron also does some art directing, but the final piece will always have my stamp on it. I will always look over any piece that we do that I don’t sculpt, on any project that we do. I also look for comments and ideas from everyone in the company.

On action figures, the biggest difference is that they have to make a steel mold, and the steel mold takes about 60 days. But we do send over a paint master, and two unpainted masters for them to use. They only need one for the mold. That’s the piece they cut in the joints and the articulation for the action figure. If something goes wrong, they have a back up. That’s why we send two pieces for action figures. The steel mold is about a one-foot square block of steel, with the interior being copper plates. The copper plates are carved — what’s called “tooling” — in order to match the figure. It’s partly a casting process, and partly a retouching by hand process.

Once the mold is complete, rubber that’s called PVC (Poly Vinyl Casting) is injected — hot and liquid — into the steel mold. The mold is popped open and hit with water. The raw piece is still attached to the framework of rubber, like an old model kit. The framework of unusable rubber is called vents, sprues and gates. They take the rubber out of the mold and trim off the excess and clean the edges. They then paint the pieces before assembling them into the action figure, though they usually partly assemble the pieces before painting them. It’s all done on conveyor belts and things just like in the cartoons. They put the finished figures into blister packs, and then pack them into boxes.

Interestingly, in the factories in China all production begins at the bottom floor and the piece progresses up to the top floor. All packaging is done on the top floor of every factory I’ve ever seen over there. Then they just send it down chutes into the trucks. They use gravity, rather than manpower and heavy equipment, to just slide the boxes into the truck. It makes great sense once you think about it. It’s surprising that we don’t do it that way here.

Where do you see yourself and your companies in the future? Where do you want to go?

I never had it in mind to be a major corporation, or to become a Hasbro or something like that. That was never my goal. There is a danger of not being an artist any more, just a businessman. And I never want to quit sculpting. That’s what I do. That’s what I’m best at. And the one thing I do think you should do in life is to do what you’re best at. If you can find a place in the world where you can do that, then you’re lucky.

So, I never wanted to become huge, but we’re starting to get to the point now that I can start to do some original pieces again. My goal has always been the same — to do good work that makes me happy that makes other people happy. To create pieces that people want to own. It’s a fairly simple goal in life, and I think that a lot of us have similar goals, don’t we? To have a comfortable life. To make a bit of a difference while taking care of the people who are taking care of us — to take care of our families and such.

I think those goals are consistent with most people’s. Within my companies, my goal is to come around full circle by doing a combination of some licensed products — with those people that I really want to work with — while doing some original work as well.

I don’t sculpt all of our work anymore. We work with several sculptors all over the world. I sculpt mostly commercial things now. But I have a couple of personal pieces in mind: possibly military history or fantasy based characters. I’m not going to be changing the world. I’m not trying to make a huge statement with my artwork. I don’t know that that’s necessary. It’s certainly not necessary for me. I want to do those things that I like to look at — those things that I think teach me about the human figure — that make me better as a sculptor. I want to choose challenging subjects. That’s the three to five year goal right now.

Why is the human figure so important to you?

I believe that if you can understand the human figure, there are certain things you can understand about life. People respond to the human figure, and you can learn a lot about people by how they respond, how they react to the figures.

When people view your work, what do you want them to take away with them?

I think I want my pieces to represent the spirit of what we can be. That’s how I see the potential in people. Because I see a lot of art — a lot of fine art — that represents the way the world really is. And that’s very depressing. I don’t’ think that art should be a photo mirror of life; I think art should represent the spirit of who we are. It can represent the negative, the demonic side of us if that’s what the artist wants to do. But that’s not me. I’m not saying they’re wrong, but that’s not what I would choose to do as art.

The fact is that we lead these brutish, sometimes sullen, difficult lives, punctuated by periods of positive beauty and pleasure. And if you can aspire to make those positive parts a larger part of the human condition, then that’s what I try to do in my work — to show what we are capable of. To show what we are when we are at our best. Art must be more than a mirror. It should be a mirror of the soul. Art should evoke emotion. It should evoke passion.

Teresa Patterson

Teresa Patterson is the co-author, (with Robert Jordan) of The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, and with Terry Brooks of The World of Shannara. The writer of various fantasy stories and non-fiction articles, Patterson served two terms as president of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists. Before becoming a writer she produced science fiction conventions and received her Master Class rating as a fantasy costumer. Patterson lives in Texas with her roommate, nine cat children and an ever changing number of raccoons.

Click here to learn more about Clayburn Moore.