Ask Felix Paniagua: the answers
Felix Paniagua, the sculptor behind the Avatars of War range amongst others, has kindly taken some time from his sculpting schedule to answer the questions that TGN readers posted for him.
Are GW players your target audience, or do you plan to break out and do heroes stylized to fit other games, other races or perhaps even come up with your own unique heroes?
My intention is my target audience being every miniatures gamer and collector. It is true that due to my sculpting style, my figures specially attract GW players, which is something I am very proud of, as I believe GW already provides them with a really wide and high quality range of figures.
What games do you play and how does this influence your contract/ personal sculpting projects?
I have played a lot of games. I like saying that more than a sculptor I am a gamer who sculpts. I currently play Hordes, Warhammer and RPGs when I find the opportunity to.
How important is concept art to you as a sculptor? And do you prefer doing your own concepts or working from concept art done by other people?
I do not use concept art for the Avatars of War range. I am not very good at doing illustrations so I prefer having the ideas in my mind. Also when I start a figure I really do not have a definitive idea of how it will look detailwise, most of the details & ideas will emerge during all the sculpting process.
I just need to have a clear idea of what I want the character to communicate, say pride, honour, heroism, evilness, arrogance. This is to me the most important thing on a figure: it must “communicate something”. I sit for hours and hours just thinking about that, and actually I spend more time during this process than on the sculpting process itself. Of course, I personally prefer much more this creative freedom than working from a concept art done by another artist.
Do you have any business and career tips for sculptors aspiring to work for the large miniature companies?
About working for large miniatures companies… trust me, it is better working for the small ones, you get better treatment and more recognition, and what is even better & more important, you can maintain a much more closer relationship with the gamers & collectors that like your work.
If your work is good enough it is just a matter of exposing your sculpts so that manufacturers can see them. If so, sooner or later you’ll receive a job offer from someone, as thanks to the appearance of so many small manufacturers there is a lot of work for freelance sculptors nowadays. Set up a website and place pics of your figures on it. Show your figures on Internet forums, where you will get lots of constructive criticism and different opinions that will help you to improve. Also it is a very good idea to visit conventions and show your sculpts to the different manufacturers there, specially the small ones.
What are your top 3 personal visual classics in terms of movies, comics, art? And how have they influenced you in your work?
I get ideas and influences from too many things to mention only a few… and there are really no top 3 at all: every illustration and sculpt that I have seen, story or novel that I have read during the 20 years that I have been into the hobby has influenced on creating my personal taste regarding fantasy stuff.
Now that your single characters have been so popular do you have plans to expand your solo produced range to include non-character models? Perhaps generic command figures for specific races?
I do not plan to sculpt non-character models, at least on the short term. My plans are to release one hero at least for all the main generic fantasy races: Orcs, Elves, Men, Goblins, Dwarves, Undead, Lizardmen, Ogres, Halflings … After that, I will carry on with a second hero, and so on. Also mounted heroes are in the pipeline as well… so there is a lot of heroes to sculpt.
Will you ever do a ” Vote for the next sculpt” poll?
That sounds like a cool idea, and it is something I will probably do. Thanks for the suggestion.
FC Barcelona or RCD Espanyol?
Blaugrana al vent, un crit valent, tenim un nom que el sap tothom!! Barça! Barça!! Baaarça!!!
Any plans to sculpt sci-fi or historical figures?
I do not plan to sculpt sci-fi or historical figures in the near future. I have always been into fantasy as a collector, painter and gamer, so I really enjoy sculpting fantasy characters & villains, and one of the main reasons behind AoW is being able to sculpt what I really look forward to.
Would Avatars of War be possible without the Internet?
It definitely would not. Thanks to Internet AoW figures can be seen by a lot of gamers and collectors all around the world. Apart from that, AoW figures are only sold through my website, so AoW depends almost 100% on the Internet.