The Official Angler Fish Story

Now that the dust has settled, I can finally write about the wild journey of The Angler Fish by Brandon McGill! If you go through the slideshow at the top, I show you basically how I put it together, from start to finish.

Massive thanks to Seth Powers, who was a HUGE part of this, not only modelling, but assisting with painting/building/testing. This was such an ambitious idea, to say the least!

It all started, because I was asked if I would like to return to the Body Painting Extravaganza we have every year during Phoenix Fan Fusion (Comic-Con). The theme? Animalyze!

Of course, I asked if could choose an Angler Fish. I've been planning on making one for YEARS, and now the pressure was on. Hahaha

I started the project with the plan of using EVA Foam (a multi-use material commonly found in Yoga Mats, Gyms, and Cosplay). It's support to be pretty easy to use... yet originally I found the opposite to be true.

My biggest challenge? Cutting it! I started with really thick EVA foam though, and once I tried the thinner stuff, it was much easier to use. Never the less, I was determined, and I built a mockup model to test my concept.

Here you can see the rough design we had planned! It's pretty close to the final version, with some important changes.

Once I had a general direction decided on, I started painting the pieces and officially assembling everything. You're supposed to use Contact Cement when using EVA foam, but I used Hot Glue because I had no time! Plus I was worried about fumes, and I was not about to work outside in 100+ degree weather.

The eyes were something I wasn't sure at first about, until I figured out this cool design! Of course, it was later covered up, but that version looks neat too!

Here I am testing the light function, and kinda imagining what it would look like attached. You can see the the top antenna like light is vibing, but pretty simple.

The shape started to REALLY come together here, don't you think?

I then started adding copper to the edges after Seth started adding some to the tail!  Speaking of which, you haven't seen that yet!

Things were really solid here, but it started to get a little front heavy! Don't worry, we sort of balanced it out later ;)

You can see that it looks great from the back, but needed a butt! And who doesn't love a good butt?

It was time to take it to the next level... Since my hands were tied finishing up the headpiece, Seth started to work on the shoulder armor at the same time. I gave him the direction/shape, and he came up with a few versions until we found something we fell in love with. If you recognize the steampunk stuff, it's because we sacrificed a certain helmet... O_O

Oh yes, now things are coming along BEAUTIFULLY!

Here we are testing what the entire artwork would look like, without the paint!

Are you enchanted? <3

The tail was made out of News Paper, Modge Pdge, Paint, and Fake Plants!

Confident that we had something that was ready for the stage, we went to bed and got ready for the show the next day.

Seth, Jerome, and myself arrived at Fan Fusion in good spirits! We had a lovely time looking at nerdy merch, catching up with friends, and walking around everyone!

Want to know something WILD!? The Universe must of been smiling on me, because I left the head piece in my car, with my driver window rolled down, and nobody stole it! So appreciative! X_X

Luckily I had Tyler Monzingo with me to assist during the show!

Another funny fact:

I was in charge of the music. About 10 minutes in, a strangely dressed DJ duo showed up and said they were asked to play music. They showed me their "Animal Themed" playlist and after taking one look, I said "We'll stick with what we have". And thank goodness, SO MANY PEOPLE complimented the playlist! It's only on Tidal at the moment:

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/890a0c2c-479b-4e2e-884d-c44151a6bab3

Hope you enjoy! The audience certainly did, and we didn't have the Bloodhound Gang follow Rock Lobster by the B-52s. :P

I wish you could of been there to experience the good vibes! So many people came up to give us words of encouragement, or complimented the art!

I was riding on cloud 9! This is always one of my favorite shows, and this year was no different. Really good crowd, and group of artists! I was dancing for most of the session, even though my body was tired.

We're only given two hours to paint him on stage, which is why I spent a month building everything beforehand :P

It was well worth the effort though, don't you think? Tyler made the cute claws here.

Which complimented an AMAZING side profile! I mean... WOW! Mark took this photo, who is the main body artist of the show. You can see his creation in this group photo at the bottom! We originally had 5 artists planned, but one dropped at the last minute. A lot of people liked the intimate set up though!

This isn't a competition though, so there is no winners, except you! The viewer!

I even managed to get some fun photos on the way to the parking garage!

THANK YOU for your support. Because of you, I'm able to afford to experiment a little with my art and have big ideas! It means the world to me, so I want to stress that YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN MY LIFE.

If you got to the end of this post, leave a comment <3

-Brandon