Legalities of Sculpting Celebrities

            I’ve been wondering what the legalities are about sculpting someone famous and selling their likeness. I mean common sense says there has to be some protection of freedom of speech, which is what art is. But celebrities are the ones with the money. There is that saying; those that have the gold make the rules. Well, I’m a rebel. I figure there must be some away around that gold for someone like me who isn’t going to make anywhere near what they make and certainly be no threat to their income off of similar images, or in my case; sculpture.

            My first attempt at sculpting a famous person went rather well, but I had no plans to sell it because she is a Hungarian actress, Andrea Osvart, and not a lot of Americans even know who she is. The sculpture turned out pretty good. Not perfect. The clay was new to me and too soft, but quite frankly doing a portrait sculpture was simply pushing the envelope for me at the time. In fact it’s still hard to do, but I’m more confident about it now.

            I posted a link to the picture on her fan site on facebook. She took a look and actually wrote me a very nice note saying she was honored that I did that, and posted the picture on her fan page. And to show how nice she is, she added me to her personal facebook page. 

Andrea Osvart

            Also on another personal note, the angel pilot sculpture I did, since it was inspired by Yvonne Scio who was in Tal Bachman’s music video; She’s so High, I put a picture of that up on her fan page on facebook. She “liked” it from her personal page.

            So far things have worked out pretty well for me regarding celebrities, and yes, these two are not considered super-stars here in the US, but it shows they weren’t ruined by success, they were very nice. And I wasn’t making any money off of it, but I don’t think they would care.

            So what happens when you make money off of a celebrity’s likeness? First of all you make money and second of all you may be sued by them. I read an interesting legal paper about sports figures and sport figure sculptures and how it has worked out in the courts. You can read the whole thing here: http://www.willamette.edu/wucl/pdf/sportslaw/spring05/mcmillens.pdf

I’m going to talk about the highlights of the cases in that paper.

The basic problem always seems to be a balance between what is allowable free speech on the part of the artist, and how that affects the right of publicity for the celebrity. Right of publicity, as you might guess, is all that licensing they do of their image and name. Do you have to have their permission to make any likeness of them? From the above linked paper:

In Comedy III Prod., Inc. v. Gary Saderup, Inc., the California Supreme Court fashioned

Its own balancing test to determine when a work of art outweighs a celebrity’s right of

publicity.  When an artist’s skill and talent is manifestly subordinated to the overall goal of creating a conventional portrait of a celebrity so as to commercially exploit his or her fame, then the artist’s right of free expression is outweighed by the right of publicity. An artist depicting a celebrity must contribute something more than merely trivial variation, [but must create] something recognizably his own.

           

            This was a California case, which would apply only to California, but could be cited as an authority in your state, whatever that state might be. In this case an artist made t-shirts with the Three Stooges on them from his own drawing. The court said it wasn’t artistic enough, basically.

Cardtoons, L.C. v. Major League Baseball Players Ass.n, 95 F.3d 959 (10th Cir. 1996).

            This is a 10^th Circuit case which is above the State level, the final level before the U.S. Supreme Court, and again can be cited as an authority in your state even if you aren’t part of the 10^th Circuit, and I forget where that is. I used to know. I know I live in the 9^th Circuit which has a reputation for just making up crap as they go along, and sometimes, surprisingly, making a good decision.

            Anyway, in this case a company was making trading cards ridiculing baseball players, I guess as caricatures. The court found that the Oklahoma law protecting the right of publicity was too protecting and that society would be deprived of entertainment and social commentary, and the baseball players stood to benefit very little from it.

            Where this puts us is; if you get sued, it’s up to the Judge to decide if your art is artsy enough. And the argument that a perfect likeness takes incredible talent and time and is the highest form of art, doesn’t count. Or it may count. Each case is different. That argument hasn’t worked in the past, but it may in the future with different circumstances and different judges.

            My personal opinion: I would not sculpt other people’s artwork. For instance all the comic book heroes, at least not without permission. It’s going to be pretty hard to say you are making art that is different in a very different way when you are copying them. Duh. Secondly I don’t want to copy someone else’s artwork. Creativity isn’t copying.

            Sculpting a celebrity is different. People look up to them, or admire their talent, and/or their beauty and I don’t see what’s wrong with immortalizing that in a sculpture. I don’t stand to make nearly what they make from their talent and publicity. Even if I make a sculpture of say, Angelina Jolie, and I make 20 of them and sell each one for $2,000 (similar case in that legal paper) $40,000 is a drop in the bucket to her. She probably makes that much in 10 minutes. Quite frankly if that caught her attention and she wanted her cut, I don’t care. It is true I wouldn’t be making anything off of it if it weren’t for her fame. If she demanded I stop because she thought it was a terrible sculpture, ok, it is her likeness. I’m reasonable. That doesn’t mean everyone else is reasonable, or that being reasonable would keep me out of court. Remember a woman sued McDonald’s for spilling coffee on herself. Court sucks, you never know what will happen in court, try to avoid it.

            I’m going to go see if I can sculpt Alison Krauss. She looks like a nice person.If you don't know who Alison Krauss is, here's a video, relax and take your mind off the stinking legal system. 

Art Snobbery

I am not an art snob. I like what I like regardless if it’s approved by the art snobs. By art snobs I mean those that have a preconceived notion of what art is and what art isn’t. Why are bronze statues referred to as “fine art” while the same thing cast in concrete or resin isn’t? The same skill in sculpting went into all of them.

Norman Rockwell was looked down upon by the art snobs and his art wasn’t considered fine art because he did commercial artwork. Rockwell even agreed with them. But you know who Norman Rockwell is, you may even have a painting of his hanging in your house, I do. Comic book art was looked down upon as sleazy commercial artwork. Now there are galleries that specialize in selling comic book art.

Ancient Greek potters were the lowest of the low in the Greek pecking order. They began putting art on their pottery. At first they copied Egyptian and Syrian art. Then they surpassed those art forms. Now the low of the low’s art goes for millions of dollars. The art snobs eventually catch up to the rest of us.

Now for the next great thing that the art snobs will have to accept, someday: Comic book hero figurines. I would say this art form is on the cutting edge of sculpture today. Bronze is so yesterday, yesteryear, yestermillenia. Move on art snobs. Look at this. 

Yes, this is a sculpture.

 You can see more like this at: http://www.hottoys.com.hk/product.php

The two videos below is about Tony Cipriano, the artist talks about how he got into sculpting commercially (funny story) and shows the process it takes to make those amazing figurines.

 

Clay Sculpting Advice for the Beginner

Inspired by Tal Bachman's music video and the actress Yvonne Scio

 

            I am going to talk about general design and personal technique on the human form, because that is what I sculpt most of the time. I use clay, different kinds, and I’ll talk about the pros and cons. There is no one best way to sculpt. You will develop your own style and find your favorite tools over time.

Anatomy is the key to good sculpting of the human form. Many new sculptors focus on a smooth surface. I know I did until I realized; what good is a smooth surface when it doesn’t look right in the first place. My first sculpture barely looked human, there were eyes, a nose and a mouth and I thought my mistake was just being able to blend them all together seamlessly. Wrong. There are a zillion details and they all have to be in the right place. Thankfully clay is very forgiving, just remove it or add it.

I find myself studying people. I look at very specific things, the corner of their mouth, the arch of their brow, the slope of their forehead; the details. Unless you are very talented, you will need some photos of the human form. Don’t go looking for a picture of a beautiful model. Those photos will be in color and have many details airbrushed away. You need details. Black and white photos show more depth too. What you want are anatomy pictures, or even go buy a book on anatomy. There are such books for artists; your local craft store should have some.

For me the easiest clay to sculpt is oil based clay. There are different kinds and different levels of hardness. A number 2 plasticine clay is about the right hardness to do a bust. It’s hard enough to sculpt detail but still soft enough to push around. You will find the kind you like. What’s nice about oil based clay is that it doesn’t harden. When learning sculpting, and even later, it’s a good idea to get away from your sculpture, cover it up and don’t look at it for awhile. Your eyes can and will get used to looking at flaws and accepting them as accurate. But when you leave it and come back and see it anew, usually flaws will be glaringly obvious.

Don’t be afraid to jump around to different details of your sculpture. Sometimes while working on an ear you may find yourself drawn to that little flaw on the eye. I just quit on the ear and go fix the flaw on the eye. I work all over, where I see the need. It all comes together in the end. The end is an elusive place. Don’t declare it the end until you are sure. Go away and come back and see if it still looks complete. Bad sculptures are just sculptures that aren’t completed. Oil based clay needs to have a mold made and a casting made from the mold. You can use the clay over and over.

I learned to sculpt on air dried clay because I could buy it locally and it’s pretty cheap. I used Amaco terra cotta clay. It must be kept wet. I use a spray bottle and keep it wet while working on it. When not working on it I would spray it down with a spray bottle and cover it with a plastic bag. It slowly dries out anyway. You have a limited amount of time you can sculpt with it. This kind of clay will have different consistencies depending on how wet it is. When you first open the package it should be soft and moist, it won’t hold detail very well. But the nice thing is, when you get the general shape done, you can control the drying so that it gets leathery, then detail is easier. I have re-constituted dried clay by soaking broken pieces in water. It’s a mess, and takes time and effort, but you can do it. There are other types of air dried clay and you can find reviews of those on my blog.

Most of your sculpture can be sculpted with your hands and fingers. When you get down to details too small for your hands, you will need some tools. One that is probably universally used is one that is slightly spoon shaped, and it is used for smoothing and adding. My other favorite tool is a straight needle, and I have three different sizes of diameter. The thickest one accidentally got slightly bent on the end and I have found I like it that way; I can sculpt very tiny curved lines with it, like eye lids. I also use a couple of wire loop tools. Loop tools are used for cutting away and can be used to smooth a surface, or the edge can be used to push clay. I use a round one and a square ended one mostly. I also like a triangular one for making slightly undercut, well defined lines. You can buy sets of tools at craft stores like Michaels, or order them online from a specialty store. You will find your favorite ones to use; there is no one best way to sculpt. Or you can even make your own tools from household items.  A rotating table, or lazy susan to work on is invaluable.

You will need to look at your sculpture from many different angles. When sculpting a head I like to hold it in my hands, that way I can turn it any way I want. Looking down from the top will reveal flaws in the forehead, cheeks, and nose that you may not have noticed when looking straight at it. You probably shouldn’t worry about sculpting facial expressions until you’ve mastered sculpting a face. But don’t let me define how you sculpt. We all see things differently. We all do things differently. Don’t worry about trying to duplicate someone’s exact technique, and beware of teachers that tell you their way of moving clay around is the only way. It may be the only way for them, but you aren’t them. Be you, everyone else is taken anyway.

The Making of an Angel Sculpture

Here is a video of still pictures taken of the process of sculpting an angel. She is about 3 feet tall. I didn't think to start taking pictures till I started sculpting, so it doesn't show the making of the armature. The armature was 1/4 inch steel rods welded together and covered with newspaper, aluminum foil and tape. I had to do some modifying of the armature, which you will see in the video. I used the foil over the paper so that when I was done I wouldn't be picking pieces of paper off my oil based clay. I was picking pieces of foil instead. Use thick foil if you do this. It wasn't bad though, not as bad as the paper alone would have been.

Some thoughts on sculpting. To be precise when sculpting the human form it's best to sculpt it nude. Get everything right. The thing is, you aren't going to actually add clothing. You are going to add folds and wrinkles where they lay on the body, and if the body isn't right, your clothes are going to look like they are laying on a deformed body. I added nipples, even though I knew they wouldn't show when finished. They were reference points. It's hard to judge how and where something should be round with no reference point on it. Some people use lines. I've tried that and my lines just get demolished. I fail to see how a lump of clay is erotic anyway. So if you are easily offended by bare clay, you might not want to watch this video. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GlU18gEdMI&feature=plcp

La Doll Paper Clay Review

La Doll Paper Clay            

                La Doll clay is made by Padico and distributed by Activa, and can be found online at activaproducts.com.  I recommend you check out my angel sculpture to see what kind of sculpture I do to compare to how I talk about this product.

                My first attempt with La Doll was to make a figurine of a walking cowgirl with her raincoat blown behind her. This is the same thing I did with the Amaco Craft Porcelain and you can read my other review of that. It sculpts easier, for me anyway, than the Amaco clay. The La Doll smoothes out beautifully, no lumps and the finish is smooth. When you add a piece of clay, it blends well. The consistency is firmer than the Amaco clay. It reminded me of soft serve ice cream with maybe just a touch of ice in it. This is because of the fibers from the paper. They are very small but I could feel them, or feel them tearing apart, when running a tool through it.

                I could not get the La Doll into as thin of pieces as I could with the Amaco. When spreading it thin, it ripped apart. I could still get fairly thin pieces.  The La Doll did not dry as hard as the Amaco, but the Amaco looked plastic when dried, and the La Doll doesn’t. I have to talk about color here because it affects the look.

                I used the same technique to add color. I used non-toxic markers. I flattened out a piece and scribbled all over it and worked it in. The La Doll absorbed a lot of color. The Amaco dried brighter than when wet and the La Doll dried not as bright as when wet. The yellow for the raincoat simply disappeared with this technique. Over and over I added color with the yellow marker, the lump stayed white. I dug up my water color paint for my air brush and poured that in, twice. Finally I had yellow. I couldn’t keep the yellow off my fingers. This brought me to my “I hate this stuff, I quit.” frustration level. Then I thought about it, and the sculpture dried.

                La Doll looks good when dry. The color came out more subdued, almost pastel.  Tiny detail is possible. Even my finger prints showed up.  I decided with the remaining small lump of clay to do a small bust, and leave out color. I am happy. I liked the way it sculpted. I liked the way it dried. There were no cracks, though it was a solid piece, I did not use an armature. There was no distortion when it dried, as might happen with a solid piece. However, on the colored piece that I quit on, a crack did form. This was because I was sculpting with different colored clay and trying to keep them separate so the colors didn’t intermix. The flesh colored tummy drew away from the blue colored pants. I blame myself more than the clay, I should have blended it some by smearing some flesh colored clay under the blue colored clay.  Without using color, the white reminds me of pure white marble. This white/marble color appeals to me much more than the plastic look of the Amaco.

                                 This sculpture is nothing great, I know, it was just an experiment.

                When La Doll is dry it can be sanded, or moistened and added to. I carved on the bust a little to see what would happen. Even I didn’t ruin it. (I am not a carver.) The scratchy marks I made to hollow a cheek and make the cheek bone more pronounced, were brushed away with a wet brush. The little bust was only 3 ½ inches high and took several days to dry. It is stone hard though. I sculpted some hair falling over her face like Veronica Lake, or if you’re young and know Jessica Rabbit, like that. I left some of her hair hanging away from the body to see how strong that would dry. It took awhile to dry but it doesn’t move anymore.

                This La Doll clay was easy to keep clean, and I have a cat, and I’m a guy; this means I may go work on my car and then go back to sculpting. You do need to keep things clean. Even when it’s dry, be careful. I picked up the bust after I came home from work to see how it was drying and the dirt came off my hands and on to the sculpture. Luckily it was dry enough that it brushed off, but beware when handling this stuff even when dry. Since it is water based and picks up dirt even when dry, it needs to be sealed. I haven’t done this yet but I hear that matte acrylic works best. If you want it to be shiny use gloss. Something most people don’t think of is UV protection in their finish. I just went to look for my can of acrylic spray but I must be out. If I remember right acrylic is a good UV protection. It’s not that the sculpture needs UV protection, it might yellow in the sun, I haven’t had time to test that, but the finish itself can turn yellow in the sun if not made with UV protection. Even lights in your house can turn it yellow over time, not as quickly as the sun, but it will darken the finish. Don’t just spray any ol’ clear finish you can find on your sculpture, check for UV protection, it should say on the can. Another good finish is shellac, though it might be too shiny for some tastes.