Maquette Project- entry 4

Greetin's fellow humans! And Happy Birthday to my oldest brother!
Well,the details have started! I kinda approach sculpting like I do when I'm drawing something... you start rough and continually add and take out what's needed or not until the final shows itself.


I haven't mastered doin hair yet, so I knew that was going to be a challenge for me. I simply started rough laying in the main structures of his head and face and hair planes, like his eyes and mouth and ears..

I periodically checked Erick's sketch so everything was staying in line with everything else.

The eyebrows were a landmark on his face so I added rough ones. His upper lip took some designing to work in 3 dimensions. Remember- it all has to work from ANY angle!

As you can see, the main points on the hair are in so I can line things up with other landmarks, always keeping the size and scale matched to the drawing. Some points are missing because I simply will mess them up trying to redefine something else. One thing at a time.

I placed some rough pupils on his eyeballs to see if he was in there... it looked like he was who he was supposed to be so I was happy. Sometimes everything on a character can be spot-on-model but if the eyes are off a bit, it doesn't work.

Our short guy so far...! Notice his arm is pulled away from his face so I can get at it. After I'm satisfied with his head and start working on his hands and arms I'll move it back into position.

VIDEO ENTRY #4

Thanks! See you all in 2 weeks.

Maquette Project- entry 3

Hey Friends! I'm really sorry I'm late with this entry. No excuses... just lost track of the weeks. But I just got a new printer that has a button to print calendars so hopefully yours truly won't get lost in time again...!






I started putting the masses and planes onto the armature dolls, using the sketch I made from Erick's drawing. I'm not too worried about putting in details and facial features just yet. I'm simply trying to get the overall silhouette of the characters' shapes generally laid in over the armature.

The short guy was pretty easy. He's just a doughboy shape. What matters most at this point is his mass. I don't want him too fat but right on the money because if I put details on him and find he's too big- I gotta scrape all my details off to get him the right size.

The taller character presented a common problem... big body with tiny legs! After my Batman sculpt, which really pushed this problem to the extreme, this guy was pretty simple to figure out.

A common "trick"(I guess?) is to use aluminum foil to fill out some mass instead of using the sculpting material itself. This way, the sculpture will be much lighter and the legs can support the weight better.

I could've put brass rods in his legs like I did with The Batman (*which I'll post on this blog after this project- if you want a sneak peek- look in the VIDEO BAR on the right!*) but this little guy wasn't that heavy. I made sure I didn't use too much foil either or again, when I put the sculpey over it, the character could be too fat.

The tubes for the arms and legs were next. I'm not gonna worry about hands right now, because if you remember from the drawing, they are holding signs. So the arms will have to be repositioned for that later anyways. Always plan ahead!

I roughed in the taller guys head mass. He is going to be really top heavy! So because I'm aware of that, while I'm sculpting him, I'll constantly be checking his center of balance. Even though I'm planning to mount him onto the display stand, I still want to design the sculpt so that he can stand on his own, by himself. Hopefully it will result in a stronger design and less broken legs!

The Dover boys... no- The 2 doughboys (that's it) in their rough forms so far. Next I'll start workin' on just the sort guy for a spell and just concentrate on one character at a time.

VIDEO ENTRY #3

Thanks for checkin' in everyone. See you in two weeks.