Larger Than Life Portraits

At the Carfagno studio, we've made a lot of things.  I think everyone at the studio would agree; our backpack mascot portraits are the studio's claim to fame.  The most well known examples would be the Washington Nationals' Presidents, originally four, but recently added a fifth.  Unfortunately, I wasn't involved in the first four, but I've been a major part of the "big heads" following them.  As Randy often says: "We don't have big heads; we just build them."

Here's a few you can look up to:

William Howard Taft is the recent addition to the four presidents on the Washington Nationals.  Being the most recent one we've made, I was involved in almost every step, excluding the clothes.  I created the patterns for the structure of the skull and face, built the foam sculpt and inner metal frame, painted his eyes and skin, and made that manly hair style and 'stache.  He stands over 9 feet tall and has about a 4 foot diameter, given his apparent... robustness.

Jim Bowie was one of the first "big head" portraits I was majorly a part of.  He was made for the Texas Rangers' hero line up for their half time show, along with Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, and Nolan Ryan.  The shortest of the team, he stands at a mere 8 feet tall.  I created the patterns, built the foam sculpture, painted the eyes, and made his bowie knife, sheath and all.

Later on, Earl Campbell joined the Texas Rangers line up.  This one turned out to be quite a fun build, given the huge shoulders.  When said and done, this mountain of a portrait towers at almost 10 feet tall.  Again, as with Taft, I was involved every step of the way, but this time I also got to design his caricature as well as make patterns, build the sculpt, shape his hair and beard, and paint his eyes and skin tone.

Who said every president had to look heroic?  This was created for a more political minded client that wanted to use this giant evil caricature of Ahmadinejad for several protests concerning the Iranian president.  Unlike most of our portrait pieces, they asked for props to go along with the 9 foot tall villain.  He comes complete with a bomb detonator, a WMD, a bullet belt, and some atomic bling for good measure.  I created patterns, built the sculpt, and carved his hair.

And here we have George and Tom.  No, these aren't the Washington Nationals, they're the mascots for Washington Jefferson University!  Looking for a different caricature than their national counterparts, I got the chance to make the caricatures myself.  Afterwards, I once again made the patterns, built the sculpts, and painted the eyes.

Mascots! Mascots! MASCOTS!

While working at Randy Carfagno Productions, I've worked on many different projects, but our bread and butter lies in mascots.  Yes-in-deedee-do, we build those fabulously furry lovable characters that romp around your favorite sports team's field.  I've worked on many aspects of them from foam under sculpture, to creating eyes, and even styling their hair doos.

Here's a few examples to grace your ocular nerves:

The Phantom Beaver!  I admit, he's a bit goofy, but I'm sure he'd give Space Ghost a run for his puck out on the ice.  This hockey team mascot was a fun challenge, since his fur posed the problem of masking the sculpt underneath.  Our solution was to not only exaggerate the foam sculpt, but to 'sculpt' the hair as well.  I built the head, created his eyes, and trimmed his facial fur to not turn him into a giant furball.

Built to be the mascot for a news station that sees it all, this here is C. Moore.  As you can plainly see, he's mostly eyes.  This is particularly interesting, since this is one of the few mascots we've built that literally sees through its own eyes!  They were formed using a moldable net, which was covered by a very very fine fabric net to allow for a nicely painted iris and pupil.  I created the eyes, the foam sculpt, and his oversized shoes.

Angel the Crab is one of four large mascots we built for the Miami Marlins.  Normally, we would classify this specific build as a "backpack mascot", since their size requires a harness with a metal support frame on the inside.  Most of these are portraits, but the Marlins asked for something special: aquatic animals! After I worked out the patterns, I built the foam sculpt and installed the metal frame that supports the body.  

The second tallest of the Miami Marlins mascots, Bob the Shark stands over 9 feet tall.  His open mouth can actually fit a human torso inside, but hopefully they feed him regularly at the stadium to prevent any "incidents."  I created the foam patterns, built the sculpt, installed the metal support frame, and gave him the captivating smile that intrigues the Marlins' fans today.

Puppetry Fun

Over the past few years I've dabbled in the artform of puppetry.  Some was done on my own in college at the Rhode Island School of Design, but a large part of it happened at Randy Carfagno Productions while working for a variety of clients such as Comedy Central, 30 Rock, and various other companies. 

Here's just a few for you to take a gander at:

This is Berry Cherry and Mushroom Swiss.  Comedy Central asked us (Randy Carfagno Productions) to design and build these puppets for a brief McDonald's spot on their channel.  After doing the designs, I constructed the puppets out of foam and colored them with paint and markers.

A refined rat, even if he's naked.  An odd job at the Carfagno studio, he was built along with three other rats to be used in an interactive educational performance for children about early immigration to the United States.  I designed their look, created the patterns, and constructed the foam sculpture.

Gomby the Goat.  I built and covered him for a clever live action short  to help promote funds for the college WPI.

A Zombie head built at the Carfagno studio to promote the game Plants Vs. Zombies.  I built the foam understructure, created the eyes, teeth, and hair.  And the hair on his chest is a sample of my fine penmanship on fabric.