Neil Winn at his Monsterpalooza 2011 booth
“There’s nothing like a monster,” artist Neil Winn tells me at Monsterpalooza, where he sits behind whimsical, grasping imps of his own creation. To Neil’s right, an unfortunate scamp with an under bite futilely attempts to get a big lollipop into his cage. Though he sits on a pile of colorful candy, he only has eyes for the oversized sucker. It’s fanciful storytelling like this, along with attention to detail that makes Neil’s work endearing. His monsters ooze character and charisma.
Between his day job as a visual effects artist and his art, Neil’s life seems to be all about monsters. It’s no surprise that his favorite movie, Dark Crystal, does not have any human characters. “It’s pure imagination,” Neil enthuses, “that’s amazing to me.”
Sketch
A self-described, “big wimp” as a kid, Neil avoided horrific monsters like Nosferatu in favor of monsters that mixed cute and funny with their dark elements. He cites Jim Henson as his biggest inspiration and admires Visual Effects guru Stan Winston (Predator, Pumpkin Head); animator Don Bluth (The Secret of NIMH, The Land Before Time); and early video game Dragon Slayer.
After growing up in rural New York and studying at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Neil moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film effects. His first studio job was in the seaming department, trimming and patching latex seams so they were no longer visible, for the first Hellboy movie. He worked his way up to the paint department and for Hellboy II painted the Abe Sapien suits.
“That was a big big thing for me,” Neil said, “because the original Abe Sapian was painted by and sculpted by Steve Wang, and he’s a really big name in creature design. So I was nervous trying to match his paint job from the original movie. It was nerve-wracking through the whole thing, but I got a lot of great feedback from it, even from Steve. Steve said it looked good so that meant the world to me.”
At the end of last year Neil had the opportunity to do some design work for Jim Henson Studios and he hopes to do more with them in the future.
Digital painting
Neil crafts his monsters from a variety of mediums including pencil, oil paint, resin sculpture and computer programs such as Photoshop and Z Brush.
Oil painting
“Just getting stuck in one thing gets a little repetitive and kind of boring for me,” Neil says. “I like to dabble in a lot of different stuff. It keeps my creative juices flowing.”
Regardless of the material he employs, Neil always strives to get one thing right to give his pieces character.
“I think the eyes have to have a soul to them. Even with sculpture and my illustrations, I really try to get the eyes to have some kind of emotion behind them to sell the piece.”
Digital painting
To see more of Neil’s work, visit his website.
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