GoldMane Entertainment is a continually growing company that will not only develop prototype sculptures but entertainment properties for all media.
Who? Eric Nocella Diaz(a.k.a. E.N.D.)
What? Sculptor/Artist/Toy Designer
Where? Hoboken, NJ
How?
Graduated from Art and Design in the early eighties (won the school medal for cartooning and animation) back when it was a "hard core" art high school. Did some pro ink work at Curious Pictures for a few years off and on. Worked with heavyweights like Mo Willems and Steve Dovas inking their animated pencils on shows like Mo's OffBeats, and his Suzie Kabloozie for Sesame Street.
Discovered sculpture in the early nineties. Just picked up the clay and never looked back. My first semi pro sculpts were for Joseph Naftali, writer and Publisher of his own comic book franchise (Continuum Comics/August House) featuring The Dark, Foodang and The Mighty Mites. Word of mouth landed me another gig with writer, director, illustrator Rhyan Scorpio- Rhys and Juanita Hicks of Visual Assault Comics/Of Our Hue. The Starlene model kit, the Nixa and Dimensioner maquettes and a bust sculpt for the cover of his Xeric award winning graphic novel Sofa Jet City Crisis, resulted from that collaboration.
Mshindo introduced me to Digger at the Art Asylum in the mid nineties. Made a few action figures there. Left the Asylum late 1999 and started up the Funhaus. Sculpted up some cool ass projects at the Funhaus, the two Beatles lines for McFarlane Toys, a bunch of sculpts for ToyBiz, Hasbro and the ET toys for Toys R Us. Dissolved Funhaus in late 2002 and took some time off. Now I'm back doing what I enjoy most - sculpting.
Clay pushers that inspire:
Wayne the Dane - Garage kit sculpting guru, this talented guy has multi-hour sculpting tutorial videos that are just unbelievable, and he makes tools for the trade too! Digger Mesch - extreme toy maker, the Art Asylum was my sculpting college, got thrown to the wolves there. Thomas Blackshear, Michelangelo, Lucchesi, Fredric Hart, Takeya, Nirasawa, Kevin Mercado, Dave Cortez, Igor Fernandez, The Shiflett Bros, Randy Bowen, Clayborne Moore.
Art pile:
Jaques Bredy, Lesean Thomas, Mshindo I. Kuumba, Gil Kane, Travis Charest, Dale Keown, Bart Sears, Frank Frazetta, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, Adam Huges, Frank Cho, J. Scott Campbell, Alex Ross, Ralph McQuarrie, Juan Jimenez, Joe Chiodo, Doug Chaing, Corey Walker.
Library:
Armor, Vampire$ by John Steakley
Area 51, Atlantis by John Mayer
Anything written by William C. Dietz
Lightning, Phantoms by Dean Koontz
Comics:
Metabarons, Arkanium, Batman (Hush) - the up and coming "Cannon Busters"