Making Money With Your Art With Creator Creator Lionel Vogt

Lionel Vogt is one of those rare artists who actually makes money with his art. His unique life-size, and often life-like, creator creations were a huge hit at the recent DragonCon convention. Moon_Shadow, our Renderosity Front Page News contributing reporter, was able to drag Lionel away from his creative dungeon to answer a few questions, and perhaps get your creative-juices flowing, so that you too can Make Money with your art!

What inspired you to create the masks at DragonCon?

I started nine months ago to resolve a problem we had run into. I had a friend in need of a fox role-playing mask. We searched for three months for one. Finally, as an act of desperation, I decided to make it for him. We went to a thrift store; picked up stuffed animals; skinned them; and proceeded to make the mask. I worked on it for about a week, then held it in my hands and asked, "Where in the heck did you come from?" I was very nervous about it and gave it to my friend. He was absolutely delighted with it. The next step, if I could make the fox, could I make the lion? The lion took two-and-a-half-weeks. It was a creation I had always wanted. It was like some after school special If he had only tried! It's not just making the masks it's giving people a dream, giving people a piece of themselves. The mask becomes an extension of the person. What do you think the future will hold for your creations? This is all extremely new to me, so I'm still overwhelmed by the response from people who have seen my art. I'm not going to get a swelled head, because I know how quickly things can change. Ultimately, I wait by the phone hoping for a production company like Jim Henson's Creature Factory to give me a call. I honestly don't know if I'm going to make it or not. It has been a whirlwind trying to make rent, but I hope I'm going to [make it]. Stay tuned and keep checking the website for new creations. What sort of magical functions can mere humans do with their masks? Basically the entire idea was to create creatures with realism that was functional. It occurred to me that the masks themselves should no longer be a hindrance, but instead, should be an augmentation. Since I had a serious background in electronics, I decided it would be best to utilize that knowledge to allow people to see the world in different ways. The masks have a certain technological novelty to allow the user to see and hear the world in many ways. The Lion mask has an infrared sensitive camera system, with a fish eye lens (which is a wide-angle lens), that allows you to see clearly. Also, the high-brightness infrared L.E.D.s gives a low-level light vision to about 50 feet.

Right now, on my desk in my workshop/studio, is a wolf that has an amplified hearing system. Microphones in each ear allow a person to hear a whisper across the room. Because the microphones are in the ears, it's directional. This is the first series of the wolf masks. The second series will have modified amplifications, so it will convert ultra-high frequencies into lower frequencies; that humans can hear as wolves actually hear. As each mask is so unique, what are the steps to creating the basic mask? I start with photos of the actual animal in front of me. Then I use recycled foam from packaging materials. It's attached to a hard hat helmet band, which is adjustable and strong enough to support the weight of the mask. Then, I put layers of sculpted aluminum mesh to bring up the structures of the face. Next, I make a plastic cast jaw, or make the teeth by hand. I begin working with Celluclay [Instant Paper Mach]. It adds rigidity to the mask. There are several stages of sculpting individual features before adding the fur. If it doesn't have fur, I'll begin the next step, which in the case of the dragon would be scaling.

Lionel working in his dungeon on his award winning dragon mask On the masks that do require fur, I apply the fur in various lengths, and can use up to ten different pieces on the face to make it go in the correct direction to give a natural, realistic, appearance. The final trim work is airbrushing the eyes and using Fimo [oven baked polymer clay] to sculpt the nose. After the upper jaw is finished and the teeth are inserted, I set the lower jaw mechanism in elastic for the neutral balance. Then the component that holds the lower jaw to the chin is placed so it reacts well when the user speaks (for articulated masks). Original masks [as well as other creations] can be found on Lionel's web site: