Personal IP
Katochi
Behind the Scenes
After making some bizarre illustrations as pre-development references, this piece basically sculpted itself. I just started pushing clay around and let things happen in the flow of the work. Obviously, sculpting flames is a matter of stylistic choices, and you hope people don’t think it’s just a weird skin condition, but you can’t control that.
The final piece was cast by the master mold maker Mark Brokaw of Earthbound Studios, who did amazing work for LAIKA studios casting the hundreds of pieces for their stop-motion marionettes. Mark is the master of resin casting, and this piece needed all his expertise to capture the dozens of little steampunk-style gadgets embedded in Katochi’s body. The prototypes were painted by Dan Colonna and Steve Riojas, master painters of all things resin. I painted one as well, after adding the sculpted flames venting from the wounds in his arms and side.
Katochi
I came up with this character, his design and back story, in a feverish month of creativity. I had wanted to sculpt something that was radically different from anything I’d done to date, and this piece basically erupted from my consciousness, fully realized. Besides sculpting this maquette of the character, I came up with a mythos and some supporting characters—one of which I sculpted another maquette of, Mr.X—and with the help of some incredible digital artists, launched a website that laid out the story in the form of a scrapbook full of diary entries and newspaper and magazine clippings I created to tell the story on a meta level, as if it were real.
A lot of people dug it. Some video game companies sniffed around it. The site won some horror and fantasy awards. And a couple of interesting people wrote me very heartfelt letters thanking me for uncovering the truth about this character they swore they had seen and interacted with…
Did I mention he’s a nine-foot-tall fallen angel whose right arm, head and torso are on fire?
My mom, bless her, loves the tragic (and slightly macabre) story I came up with for this guy and she swears it will be produced some day. That’d be cool. From her lips to God’s… eh, maybe not.
Developmental Art
Behind the Scenes of the painting processes
Dan’s process of building up layers step-by-step, initially in a chromatic sketch with the airbrush and then in subsequent alternating layers with both acrylics and oils, is a masterclass in nuance. He picked up on the interplay of warm and cool colors in my developmental sketches and translated it to the sculpted figure, contrasting Katochi’s fiery arm and torso with the sickly, lifeless white flesh elsewhere. Those shark-belly-white parts still look alive and connected to the fiery parts because of the subtle hues of fire and blood pulsing beneath the surface of the skin. He can make the grotesque, beautiful.
View Collection
Let’s make something amazing together
Please note, all Manifest Sculpt work is completed with traditional sculpting techniques—modelling and carving—rather than through modern digital techniques and programs. Consequently, the resin and bronze castings in this edition were also produced through traditional mold making and manufacturing processes. Final Manifest Sculpt commissions are available in a variety of materials, but they are not 3D printed and are not available as printable files. Copyright Notice: all work, including ideation, concepts, stories and their development, character design and production are the property of Carlos Soca unless otherwise noted, and all rights are reserved. Should you wish to discuss collaboration or licensing of an intellectual property or its design, please contact Manifest Sculpt.