“War of Kings” - Custom King Korpse by JRYU for Instinctoy @ Tokyo Comic Con 2018

"“War of Kings” is my contribution to the special INSTINCTOY custom King Korpse live auction taking place at Tokyo Comic Con 2018 this weekend (Nov 30-Dec 2). The OG King Korpse piece is a work created by the incredibly gifted James Groman & produced by Instinctoy. The original design of KK is one of the most impressive pieces of vinyl art I’ve ever seen & I knew that whatever I created for my contribution would have to at least come close to the standard of excellence that Jim imbued in his work..."

"“War of Kings” is a custom King Korpse with a scratch-built, three-headed dragon that was made of mixed media with approx 2000+ 3D-printed scales. I want to thank my friends Habiteer Workshop and Hoku Props for their help in getting the scales printed (I ran of scales twice becaue I am terrible with estimating total dragon body surface area). Painted with acrylics, approx size is about 19”x19”x21”."

"I hope that I have honored Jim and Instinctoy with this piece, an homage to the love for kaiju, my fellow sculptors, & those who enjoy watching two big-ass monsters fight.

PS The original name of this piece was “King Korpse (with decorative base)" - shared JRYU (Instagram / Online Shop), who will be in attendance at Tokyo Comic Con! And he has as well shared the following personal journey he has taken for this custom...

"I want to also take this moment to thank Instinctoy for asking me to participate in this project for many reasons. As I may have alluded to in previous posts, I had a pretty heavy health-scare earlier this year & during that time, I lost my vision to where my eyesight was diminished approx 70-80%."

"As a visual artist, it was quite scary to possibly face a future where I might not be able to do art in the same way again. This King Korpse piece is the very first major custom piece that I worked on & candidly, was not very easy for me to work on because it was just simply difficult to sculpt with the same level of comfort & familiarity as before my illness. At times it was very frustrating to spend more time that I was used to achieve what I had in my head, or having instances of insecurity in my ability to execute."

"But as I got back into the groove & persevered through those thoughts of self-doubt or found workarounds to compensate for my eye issues & not being able to see all the detail so clearly, I slowly regained my confidence & found a lot of joy again in the simple act of being able to create again - with my mind, eyes and hands.

Luckily, my eyesight is now back to approx 80% clarity and I am excited to get back to working on my outstanding projects. So I want to thank Hiroto and his amazing team at Instinctoy for the invite & Jim for making such a beautiful (& thankfully large) piece for me to interpret. This piece will always be very special to me because it helped get me back into the game, & reaffirm all the things I love about being able to create.
I hope to continue creating things that you will enjoy or remember. Thank you for your continued encouragement & support, I truly appreciate it.

Your pal,
Jess
Nov 30, 2018
Tokyo, Japan @ Tokyo, Japan"