Today we’d like to introduce you to Yoni Baker.
Yoni, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Highly influenced by my parents as artists, at around ten years old I took lessons in ceramics and sculpture, and a few years later began pottery at the potters guild in the Spanish Village located in Balboa Park, San Diego. Also from a very young age, swam and played tennis with my dad whom I was never able to beat. He had this wicked down the line one handed backhand that got me every time. In high school, I was both on the swim and tennis team.
One day my dad called me into the living room of our house, and there witnessed the glory of the original Terminator with Arnold Schwarzenegger. In an instant I was both captivated by bodybuilding and special effects makeup. Throughout high school, I was part of a “film crew” and shot many a movie in super 8 and VHS.
It was the summer of 1995, and just graduating high school, my friend Phil and I took off with our massive backpacks to Israel for two months. Part of which was to stay on Kibbutz Nir David as a volunteer and the other spent traveling and meeting up with family. That summer would be one of the moments that changed me. Meeting people from all over the world would enlighten me in more ways than one.
In 1999 I got into retail at the Sharper Image but kept up my skills with art and makeup. Also enrolled at Grossmont College and taking a theater makeup class, I grabbed a business card at a local costume/makeup store, I was fortunate enough to intern with another special effects artist, Tony. Soon after, he brought me in to assist in makeup application and removal at the Haunted Hotel.
“Carnies” would describe the actors there and being a mama’s boy, it was quite a game changer. A year later Tony left and there I was, lead makeup artist. which at the time was located in Downtown San Diego. We have since moved locations. Twenty one seasons later you can still catch my makeup and airbrush caked hands with an actor seated in front of me.
Around the same time, I would meet David, an animator at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) at a makeup trade show in Pasadena. We are still friends twenty years later, and to this day if I am not working in the bay area, have our annual reunion at the San Diego Comic Con.
I mention David because he was a spark that led me to a new career years later…
When the Sharper Image went out of business in 2008, I had lost my ten year job. Compounded with a breakup, things were mentally not looking good for me. I smoked cigarettes and drank and had to move back home for a brief period. Picking up work and now renting my parent’s apartment I was constantly in the gym and made my days listening to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rules for success. Climbing my way out of this hole, and learning from things ended and began a brand new chapter.
With a run of odd jobs at an end, a new door opened and in speaking with my good friend David, he suggested art and character modeling (as they use at Lucasfilm, and to which last January of this year, able to coordinate a full schedule of modeling in the bay area including Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic!) With lots of digging, web searches, phone calls and emails, I had finally had my first gig at Location 1980 in Orange County!
Who in their right minds would take off their clothing (in certain instances) in front of people with drawing pads?
To be sure this rang in my head as I prepped for my first gig. That day I was introduced to my first anxiety attack which I thought would be the end of me for good… but pushed through, and once that robe came off for the first time, a great calm set in, let’s get to work, let’s make these poses well!
Haunted Hotel makeup artist Stu said to me one day that I would probably meet my next girl on set. This, someone, came in the form of a little eight-year-old girl named Hannah. While doing zombie makeup (Tales of a 5th grade zombie slayer on YouTube) she spoke to me in Hebrew. The next day her mom Kim came along to the set to say “hi” … seven years later and one daughter in her senior year of high school and the other daughter a senior in college, I had become a family man. A look back, I can see all the puzzle pieces work their magic and see how one thing evolves and connects with another. My goal all along has been in some way to bring it all together. I have been successful at that, but I am eager to see where the next chapter ends and begins.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Do we want a smooth road? Is it not the excitement of the journey? I would say the greatest obstacle was losing my way of life in 2008, with a breakup and my job going out of business, needing to moving back home, loosing what I had made real, what I had been taught was real. These were incredibly dark but also enlightening times for me. In many ways, I had become more in touch with who I was, what I truly believed in, and gained strength, courage to move past but also gain from the experience. My connection with people and events grew stronger, I had more to relate. I believe that I had graduated and become more whole. Which is strange considering I thought I lost so much.
In business, a lot is word of mouth, its gaining trust, and making your reputation solid. Dealing with your own business can be stressful but also rewarding. The little things, the paperwork, the pains and aches, are a drain but at the end of the day when I get to see the finished products, always worth it.
We need those challenges, we need adversity to move us forward. They can take time to heal from, or they can just be a speed bump. I always like to say there is no failure if you learn from it. My Rabbi says failure only comes in the form of repeating your actions and expecting a different outcome.
Please tell us about your work.
So as an art/character model I work with schools both public and private, ateliers, private artists, comic artists, gaming companies, and figurine companies. This can range from the traditional to photography and 3D scanning Depending on the instructor or job, this entails nude or costumed live figure modeling in front of a class who are using a variety of different mediums to capture a particular pose.
In a class setting, the instructor will have their lesson plan, and we work together on the best ways to accomplish that and meet the needs of the students. Most of the sessions are 20-25 minutes long, and poses can be reclining, seated and standing, or anything in between. In the 20-25 minutes poses can range from quick more gestural 30second to five minutes, to longer more static 10, 15, 20, 25 segments.
Since I am a body builder and athletic I am known for my action poses, and anatomy. The musculature of the body and what they do in certain movements. positions and poses. Also as important as that, I always try and tell a story and create a moment. I am known for my use of props (swords, hats, etc), and my love of quick action poses! Those combined and always trying new poses, stories, props sets me apart from others.
I am proud to have worked with as many amazing and talented people that I have! There are creatures in games based on me somewhere, there are action figures that have me as a reference, there is an installation of Mercury in LA that has my initials on it, and was the reference for. There are so many drawings, paintings, sculptures that I have been involved with. My latest venture is three model pose books that I self-published with San Diego artists available on Amazon.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Desire to succeed, be inventive and have loving support. I am always talking with someone, and can pretty much talk to anyone. I inherited that from my mom. Don’t get me wrong, it’s genuine, and often get more leads from those relations that I build!
The thing that centers me the most. However, it is the gym, and exercise. Without that you can ask Kim, I’m an asshole. Well that and food, healthy food. Greens, lean meats, good carbs. Carbs are not the enemy!
Pricing:
- live class model sessions 25.00hr
- private artist model sessions 50.00hr
- photography reference sessions 150.00hr
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bakermodel.com
- Phone: 6197013788
- Email: yoni.baker@gmail.com
- Instagram: @bakermodel
- Facebook: bakermodel
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/Yoni-Baker/e/B07F1HCZ11?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1572126565&sr=8-2
Image Credit:
Erik Gist ,Matt Smith, Peter Nguyen , Graham Smith, Richard Becker, Pavel Sokov , Andrew Cawrse Anatomy Tools, Blizzard Games, Valve Games
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