Forum Artist Spotlight: Herman Silesky and his "Old Bones" mask

Chris Ellerby

Forum Artist Spotlight - October 2016

The Forum Artist Spotlight is a monthly event where we showcase the work of one of our community members here at the Stan Winston School Forums.  

Every month we select the work of one of our community members to feature both here on the forums and on our social media channels.

We are excited to have this opportunity to celebrate what makes this community so special... you!

Whether you are here to ask questions, share your knowledge, get critique on a project, or just to continue to learn and grow as an artist, you are what makes this such an amazing place.

So without further ado, here is our Forum Artist Spotlight for October 2016.

Herman Silesky and his "Old Bones" mask

A bit more from Herman about himself and his "Old Bones" mask:

My name is Herman Silesky, I live in Costa Rica, a beautiful country but with a very small visual and special FX industry. However, I think I’ve been really lucky; of my 35 years I’ve spent 16 working as an animator and lead 3d modeler in Marte Studio, one of the most important animation studios in the region.

After many years of digitally modeling all kinds of objects and characters, and then, subscribing to the Stan Winston School of Character Arts, the need for learning to model and build things with my hands and out of the computer, was compelling to say the least. Now I’m finishing a career in fine arts specializing in sculpture and my next goal is to be involved in the production of audio-visual content, but using my skills to make practical FX.

Old Bones mask project.

In the final stages of my fine arts studies, I had to write a small thesis related to the specialization of the career, in my case it was sculpture. I’ve always meant to apply what I learn to the audio-visual production industry, so I wrote the dissertation about the sculpture techniques used in that industry. The last chapter of the thesis was a catalogue of some pieces of my own making with the purpose of using them for visual and special FX. And that's how this project came to be. I wanted to create a character that had to survive in a wasteland, so he needed to have some equipment to help him do that, survive. The mask instills fear on enemies and protects him of the sun, wind and sandstorms.

The inspiration and technical know-how came out in a big deal, thanks to the Stan Winston School’s lesson of how to make a wearable mask, imparted by Bruce D. Mitchell.    

I hope you like how it came out,  and that it inspires you to make your own pieces.

Many thanks to the Stan Winston School of Character Arts for giving me this space, and the opportunity to share my story and work.

- Herman Silesky

You can learn more about the "Old Bones" mask and see how it was made here on Herman's original forum post.

We would like to thank Herman for sharing his work with our community here at the Stan Winston School Forums.  We love seeing progress updates and finished works from our students, and it is very rewarding to see how our lessons like Bruce D. Mitchell's lesson on mask making can inspire and enable artists to realize their creative visions.

- The Stan Winston School Team