This week the Directory of Illustration would like to offer a special feature on the unique and instantly recognizable work of Chris Sickels, the creative genius behind Red Nose Studio. Based out of Greenfield, Indiana, Chris creates endearing characters, intricate sets, and eccentric worlds that we’d all love to climb inside for a visit. It’s easy to see that there’s a magic behind the scenes at Red Nose Studio, but Chris Sickels is one magician who’s not afraid to reveal his secrets.
Step 1: Gather a variety of materials including: wire, fabric, wood, and anything within arms reach.
Step 2: Build characters using wit, love, and good old-fashioned elbow grease.
Step 3: Be Chris Sickels.
Add one wave of a magic wand, what are you left with? Hand-sculpted puppets whose imprecise, surreal representations have an awkward beauty that captures the imperfection and tenderness of the human experience.
We hope you enjoy this small sampling of Chris’ work as much as we enjoyed gathering it together! If you’re curious and want to see more, be sure to explore his website, agency, and online portfolio for more illustrations and animations!
Chris Sickels’ 3-D illustrations are built from a variety of materials. Sets and puppets are a combination of wire, fabric, cardboard, wood, miniatures, found objects and anything within arms reach. Any object is fair game, for one illustration he constructed an old-fashioned canister vacuum cleaner from a jumble of materials including a garlic press, a tire gauge and the cord from an old electric skillet. This series below shows Chris’ work process developing 3-D versions of the characters from Antoine Saint-Exupéry’s book “The Little Prince,” for an adaptation by Onyx Films.
“The sculptures sometimes look pretty crude, or the stitching is really rough, or the buildings are painted really sloppily. They’re not poetic, there’s no rhythm to them, there’s no math to them like a good poem. But that’s how my work is. My work isn’t really graceful. It’s usually pretty awkward – like if the puppet moved, he’d fall off or he’d trip or he’d run into a wall. It’s a bit of beauty and a bit of awkwardness. And I think that’s kind of how I am.”
“I grew up on a small family farm where working hard was the only option, things had to be fixed with what was on hand. Now I create 3D illustration and stop-motion animation with what is at arms reach here in the studio. Making my images come to life with textures, light and elbow grease.”
Generally the puppets are 6 to 8 inches tall but the objects used can dictate puppets of another size making scale a pivotal component of the work. In some cases the environment or the puppets themselves are more important than the objects used.
“The objects take the pieces in different directions. It’s not always in your complete control. So you have to work with the objects instead of trying to bend the objects to fit your idea. If it’s more about the puppet itself, then usually the head will kind of start it, because that head is the emotion. In a lot of my pieces, the characteristics in the face are the soul of it. So the face is usually one of the first things to get done.”
Chris’ stop-motion animated short films have screened at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival and the Montreal Stop-Motion Film Festival. His illustrations and animations have been recognized by American Illustration, Communication Arts, and HOW. In addition, The Society of Illustrators has awarded three golds and a silver medal for both his illustrative and motion work. In recent years, some of his favorite projects have been illustrating book covers and children’s picture books, some of which he has also authored.
