Silicon Valley Comic Con Spotlight: Owen Gildersleeve

By: ZeloOmega[robo-gallery id="19747"]Well it's been a wild series and it's been great sharing all the individuals we spoke to at Silicon Valley Comic Con with you all. Today we will introduce our final installment in our SVCC Spotlight series, and it's with someone that I found to be just absolutely mind blowing. When you walked through the doors of the Silicon Valley Comic Con show room, one of the very first things you stumbled upon was a life sized figure of Iron Man. This wasn't your typical Iron Man cosplay though, nor was it your normal statue, this was a Iron Man figure made completely out of paper. How you ask? Well we asked paper illustrator, Owen Gildersleeve, co-creator of the massive Iron Man paper illustration (along with Thomas Forsyth) just how he pulled off this feat.[iframe id="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DrjsVl2tl3Y"]The entire process started when Owen was commissioned by the folks at Silicon Valley Comic Con to create this life sized Iron Man after they saw one of his other creations, a life sized Nissan Juke to celebrate its fifth birthday. The initial frame for the Iron Man figure started a month and a half ago in their London studio. The frame that would hold onto the paper cut outs was then shipped to San Jose and assembled over the three days of the convention, live in front of the passing con goers. Luckily everything fit together on the first try! It certainly attracted large crowds as people stopped by to ask Owen just how he created it and to take the obligatory picture or two.We were amazed about how life-like the figures at Madam Tussauds looked, but Iron Man did not disappoint either. We actually saw one con goer come up and confuse it for an actual cosplay. Can't blame the guy though, it looks incredible and from a distance you wouldn't know any better. What we found even more awesome was the incorporation of lights into the chest piece and eyes. Owen and Thomas really went all out in order to deliver a paper illustration and was worth checking out and talking about. It was a wonderful and unique way to watch art in motion. On the final day of the con, we stopped by and saw that the figure had been completed and was standing tall in all its glory. I had never seen anything like it before.So what's next for Owen? He has a few projects lined up that you'll be able to see in the future, and if we're lucky the organizers at Silicon Valley Comic Con will invite him back for another set. Maybe the entire Avengers crew?! We'll have to see! Until then, you can learn more about Owen and his work on his website, keep up to date on him by following him on Twitter and Facebook, and have your mind blown by looking at some of the other work he has on his Instagram account.That's a wrap for our Silicon Valley Comic Con Spotlight series! We hope that you have enjoyed learning all about who we have spoken with as much as we have enjoyed speaking with them. It's been one wild ride and experience, and we hope to bring you more installments of other cons in the future!