Ryan Peterson: Sculpting Lord

So I was gleefully wading through the vast expanse of behind-the-scenes goodness on the Hellboy II DVD, when I saw this image onscreen and began yelling incoherently to my wife, "It's his! Oh wow -- THAT'S HIS!!!" After calming down a tad and reassuring Glynis that nothing was actually wrong, I replayed the segment on the disk with director Guillermo del Toro speaking that featured a bust of Hellboy in the background created by my good friend Ryan Peterson. An immensely talented sculptor/artist, Ryan created his own version of the comics titular character after falling in love with Mike Mignola's creation, and had sent a copy to del Toro after the first movie was made.

Ryan has worked for many years in the special effects make-up industry in Hollywood, but relocated back to his beloved Utah to pursue his own artistic projects. I was lucky enough to work with Ryan on several video game productions, and have always enjoyed vicariously his experiences with the make-up legends that I used to idolize as a teenager (most notably Rick Baker and Rob Bottin).

Despite not having the opportunity of working on either the original film or its sequel, Ryan generously sent a copy to del Toro, who responded enthusiastically (and apparently took a shine to it)! I thought his version was realized with extreme skill, and I look forward to collaborating with Ryan one day -- he is both a fantastic talent and a wonderful person.