Another Maquette- WIP *image heavy*
polycounter lvl 18
I mentioned in my demon maquette thread that I was making another one and offered to take more WIP images from it, so here it is! The maquette I'm working on now is getting
close-to-being-done-ish, so I thought I'd post a whack of them. The picture quality isn't great, but the light in there doesn't make it easy to get good photos without a tripod.
Yes, I do sculpt in my living room in front of the TV :P Those are not my pizza coupons.
Armature -- a combination of thick armature wire, thinner wire twisted together with a power drill (that's the arms -- just something I'm trying), plumber's epoxy putty (that's the brown stuff) and white fimo that I had lying around just to stiffen it up a tad and give the sculpey a surface to grab on to.
Just laying in the rough shape of the creature now. Trying to get volumes approximately where I want them-- keeping everything pretty loose, but keeping in mind his anatomy. Laying in the sculpey as if they were muscles from deep to superficial makes it easier to get it looking right.
I use a small dental pick-type tool to blend areas together using a cross-hatch type motion. It's easier to see the actual shape you're creating after you do this.
going, going, going...
redid the face a bit -- initially I just wanted teeth, but I decided in the interim that it didn't have the impact or evilness I wanted.
At this point, I use a small paintbrush to lay on solvent (odourless mineral spirits in this case, but anything that thins paint will generally work)which melts the surface of the sculpture, gets rid of tool marks and allows very fine detailing. I'm not 100% sure that this is the way it's gonna end up, but trying a few things out.
Hope you guys enjoy. Cheers, everybody
close-to-being-done-ish, so I thought I'd post a whack of them. The picture quality isn't great, but the light in there doesn't make it easy to get good photos without a tripod.
Yes, I do sculpt in my living room in front of the TV :P Those are not my pizza coupons.
Armature -- a combination of thick armature wire, thinner wire twisted together with a power drill (that's the arms -- just something I'm trying), plumber's epoxy putty (that's the brown stuff) and white fimo that I had lying around just to stiffen it up a tad and give the sculpey a surface to grab on to.
Just laying in the rough shape of the creature now. Trying to get volumes approximately where I want them-- keeping everything pretty loose, but keeping in mind his anatomy. Laying in the sculpey as if they were muscles from deep to superficial makes it easier to get it looking right.
I use a small dental pick-type tool to blend areas together using a cross-hatch type motion. It's easier to see the actual shape you're creating after you do this.
going, going, going...
redid the face a bit -- initially I just wanted teeth, but I decided in the interim that it didn't have the impact or evilness I wanted.
At this point, I use a small paintbrush to lay on solvent (odourless mineral spirits in this case, but anything that thins paint will generally work)which melts the surface of the sculpture, gets rid of tool marks and allows very fine detailing. I'm not 100% sure that this is the way it's gonna end up, but trying a few things out.
Hope you guys enjoy. Cheers, everybody
Replies
This is just pure win.
If you put simple black board (roll of black paper would work as well) as temporary backdrop when you take a picture of the maquette, it would be much nicer ... although I don't mind to sneak peak your living room...
Keep up good work!
I swear its like your pulling shit that I want to do out of my brain and doing them first. So don't be surprised if my future work has a vague resemblance! Makes me jealous
I look forward to seeing more
"Wow. Never tried solvents on my sculptings before. Does that stuff works on the polymer clays like Sculpy?"
You can use rubbing alcohol also, there are different distillations available in grocery stores, one has more alc in it than the other and the more alc in it the more it will melt the surface. In the past I've made one or two further dilutions so you might have 100% undiluted, 75-50% and then 25% or just plain water. One time I tried lighter fluid.. it was way too strong.
That epoxy putty is awesome for making teeth. You can also boil sculpey so if you made some teeth or claws and wanted to firm them up so they won't get damaged while you're sculpting the body you can drop them into a pot of boiling or just off boiling water to firm them qucikly.
I've sometimes coated my armature with sculpey and then baked it before adding more sculpey for modeling, sometimes that helps if the model is top heavy and starts to bend your wire.
In return I shall offer one I discovered yesterday - if you're going to try and dry epoxy putty quickly in the oven, make sure you have adequate ventilation of your entire house fills up with evaporated solvent which I imagine is not something one should be inhaling.
Doc_Rob: I think you're kinda right -- it's a bit tough to see the larger forms in those photos cause the background is so contrasty it kills the silhouette. IRL it looks better than in the photos, I think. When I go to do nicer photos I'll put a background in there like rybeck suggests.
Asmuel: I has a bug in your brain! O_o My feelings would not be hurt
Robioto: That's a great tip, I never thought of boiling sculpey! I'll bet that could work really well for firming up just a couple areas so that the sculpture can be baked on its side without smooshing away detail.
I like epoxy putty for claws, but for teeth there's nothing better than translucent sculpey
I coated my armature with fimo in this case -- I don't like the stuff for sculpting much but for that it works just fine.
Jackablade: What sort of epoxy putty are you using? The stuff I use hardens up in just a few minutes. I would advise against using the sort you get at Games Workshop--it's good for some things, but you can't beat the real plumbers stuff you get at big DIY stores. It's extremely hard, strong, dries fast and you can sand it really sharp for claws.
Clee101: I actually only did one small sketch
but the real question... does he like hot wings too?
Sorry for big images...
Unfortunately, I think it's the weakest of the three pieces I've done for a number of reasons. I'm still fairly satisfied with it and I learned a bunch that I'm applying on my next piece.
Next piece being... Allosaurus!!
Biggest change is I'm using a mix of half and half Super Sculpey and Super Sculpey firm. This makes it a medium opaque grey, which fixes the issues that the translucent stuff has (i.e., making it difficult to see surface detail and the general shapes of things). So I'm going a bit nuts with the scales, but I think it's coming on well
The wire support isn't permanent -- it's only there while I'm working on it and the sculpey is still pliable. Once it's baked the whole thing will be firm enough to support itself, but until then it needs a little help.
What do you guys think?
allosaurus looks poised to overshadow your previous maquettes.
Piotr: What makes you think I've done much physical work? I get by solely on my good looks and charm.
Sculpting part of Allosaurus is done! I would once again like to thank the lovely Mop for taking such nice photos for me. He's kinda shiny because I'd just coated him with solvent -- he's not staying that way. I bought myself an airbrush kit , so I'm going to attempt to paint him with that. Painting with brushes only on this stuff is a real bastard. I'm also learning that getting used to airbrushes when you've never used them is tough! So we'll see how this turns out O_o
For scale reference, the base he's on is 12x12 inches.
SDK!
10 characters
Rube: I have thought about it! I think there are positives and negatives associated with it -- if I ever wanted to do these things professionally I'm sure I'd have to learn to do that, but for now I think I'm happy just making one-offs. I've done enough casting to know this sort of thing is extremely complex, and casting of any sort requires a very good sense of the materials you're using. I only have very basic casting knowledge. Right now I just do these for my own fun after work to unwind, but maybe I'll give it a go one of these days.
Ged: Nose to tail, he's about 23". And I'm glad you like it! I was like that when I was little as well, but now I've grown up. Now it's only dinosaurs some of the time
Sectaurs: I'll get right on that SDK
very nice!!
How tall is the character 40 cm?
I love the first shot of the dino!
I finished painting him today. The airbrush kit is really working out well! Kind of pricey, but worth it. MoP made a nifty little turning movie of him!
Okkun: Tell her to get sculpting and post the results so we can see! Not enough dinos in the world