33 replies to this topic

[Hellbeard]

In this new project I hope to implement the lessons learned from the previous work and try some new things. My main concern is polish- I want things to be smooth and crisp as I can make them so I'll put an emphasis on that. Part of my strategy is to come back as things are curing at different stages and make sure they're nice and smooth.

I chose an evil genius type for the piece. I started by doing a head study in Super Sculpey. The main thing here is that you have to work in front of the reference and constantly compare to get the right look. It doesn't work to look, take note and then go and work on the side. The idea with the head study is to figure out the construction and plan to replicate it in miniature as successive stages.







Sort of getting there...

Next is the miniature itself. I decided to use this much thinner wire because then I could have more control over how thin certain parts are. I kept carving into the metal sometimes with the thick type. I measure 28 mm. Marked the middle for the crotch and marked halfway down for the feet. The wire came out a bit short so I compensated with some GS.





In the meantime I read a tutorial on how to make hands for 72mm statue and figured I might be able to replicate the technique in 28mm. I took some measurements from my own hands and scaled them. At first I thought 28mm was 1:72. But then the hands would be 2mm at the longest point, way too small. So I reverse engineered it by dividing an average height of 180cm by 2.8 and figured out that the true scale was 1:64! At 1:64 the hand should be a bit over 3mm which seems more reasonable.

I started the experiment with some wire I stripped out of TV antenna cable:



I let the putty cure and carved it a bit. I then added putty and tried to cut the wires and bend them to make a first layer that I will then work on top of to get the final look. It didn't work well:



There was just not room enough to work in layers and the stuff was so delicate I could not manipulate the shapes after adding the putty. I tried a different approach using super glue to hold the shape and give some tooth to the wire. First I shaped the wires the way I wanted and decided to just work in one go with the putty. I had some distractions so I couldn't really polish it so well but the concept proves sound. Also the size is around 4-5 mm at the longest point so while it's acceptable as an exaggeration for a miniature it's not exactly what I wanted so I'm probably going to re-do it.




[pictured: distraction]

[joshuaslater]

Rock on!!

[Hellbeard]

Rock on!!

Thank you, sir.



The head study is sort of stuck. I learned some very good lessons about the head shape and how to do certain features but I'm kind of blocked in the more likeness department. The eye balls seemed to big so I took them out; it was very disturbing to do. I just need to work on it some more.

Exciting update: I prepared armature for two new, to scale, hands and worked on one.
The most important aspect I realize now is knowing how to approach the Green Stuff in the different curing stages. It was very intense but I have a very pleasing result with hands that are 3.5mm! :)

The armature is more gradually beefed.



Preparing the new hands- note one is open on the right. The left most is the first experiment and so on. I trimmed the finger with an X-Acto knife and not clippers- they are too cumbersome at this size. Used tweezers to manipulate the shape.





Comparison:


I spotted some rough spots in the macro shots I couldn't see with my magnifying visor so I went back again.
Super close up:

[Shogan]

This is incredible. I really appreciate you sharing this. You obviously have a tremendous amount of talent. Can't wait to see more. :)

[MonkeySloth]

Agreed. I love the system you're using for the hands.

[Hellbeard]

This is incredible. I really appreciate you sharing this. You obviously have a tremendous amount of talent. Can't wait to see more. :)

Agreed. I love the system you're using for the hands.

Thanks guys! I appreciate that you're enjoying it and I'll post my updates as I do them.

[joshuaslater]

Wow!! I'm glad to see our constructive criticism of the hands go to such progress. That made my day.

[Hellbeard]

Wow!! I'm glad to see our constructive criticism of the hands go to such progress. That made my day.

I'm glad it did. Criticism is crucial to make progress; it helps, as in this case, to put the focus on things that can advance the work forward. Thanks.


Progress report:

Made another hand. Was ever slightly larger than the first so I trimmed it mid sculpting, still too big. Made another hand. Came out too big. Went back to previous other hand. started on the face. Placed a nose armature. It's still a little wet as I'm writing this so I might push and prod it a little more. I intend to add, after curing, the nose and eyes and extend the chin a bit. Maybe do the nose in two stages...




The shiny bit in the nose area is a thin brass wire pushed in there to support the making of a nose.

Note the face looks weird partly because the ears are missing and also there's no eyes.

[Hellbeard]

Turns out having a wire for a nose armature was a terrible idea. The scale of things is so small that what I thought was conservatively short turned out to be insanely huge. He's going to the plastic surgeon when it cures. The face is terribly rough all over. I don't know how, but I'll try to fix it someway. Looks nothing like the study. Maybe the nose job will help.

[Hellbeard]

Underwent rhinoplasty, also known as Voldemortization.



Material placed. It's funny, you cut a small piece of putty thinking it's about the size of a grain of sand. Position it on the face and suddenly it's super huge and needs to be cut in half. Added collar





The right half of his face looks funky. I might do something about it.

[evhorne969]

Hellbeard,

You've got a good start there. A couple of pointers for you. As I'm sure you've already found out by now, greenstuff doesn't work like clay. Which means you can't treat it like clay. Greenstuff is very finicky. You have to "coax" it into shape. The less you mash greenstuff around the smoother finish you'll get. I call it Jedi mind sculpting. You want to touch the putty so lightly with your tools that it feels like you're sculpting with your mind instead of your tools. I always tell my classes to think of butterfly farts. That's how lightly you want to touch the putty.

With human / humanoid faces you'll usually get better results by sculpting the face from start to finish all in one go. Have a small (about 1/3 the size of the finished head) understructure of putty cured and ready to sculpt on. Mix up a fresh ball of putty and LET IT SET FOR 15 MINUTES!! This allows the putty to setup a bit and get into its next stage which is much easier to work with. Add the putty to your understructure and start sculpting your face. Remember to sculpt VERY SOFTLY, butterfly farts. You'll have a good solid hour to finish so don't panic. If you don't think you can finish I an hour, sculpt some practice faces first. I use small brad nails to practice on as they have the perfect size understructure to work with. I think you'll be quite pleased with your results.

Keep up the good work!

Gene

[Hellbeard]

Hellbeard,

You've got a good start there. A couple of pointers for you. As I'm sure you've already found out by now, greenstuff doesn't work like clay. Which means you can't treat it like clay. Greenstuff is very finicky. You have to "coax" it into shape. The less you mash greenstuff around the smoother finish you'll get. I call it Jedi mind sculpting. You want to touch the putty so lightly with your tools that it feels like you're sculpting with your mind instead of your tools. I always tell my classes to think of butterfly farts. That's how lightly you want to touch the putty.

With human / humanoid faces you'll usually get better results by sculpting the face from start to finish all in one go. Have a small (about 1/3 the size of the finished head) understructure of putty cured and ready to sculpt on. Mix up a fresh ball of putty and LET IT SET FOR 15 MINUTES!! This allows the putty to setup a bit and get into its next stage which is much easier to work with. Add the putty to your understructure and start sculpting your face. Remember to sculpt VERY SOFTLY, butterfly farts. You'll have a good solid hour to finish so don't panic. If you don't think you can finish I an hour, sculpt some practice faces first. I use small brad nails to practice on as they have the perfect size understructure to work with. I think you'll be quite pleased with your results.

Keep up the good work!

Gene

Thank you so much. This is the best thing I ever read. I've had this feeling that I might want to do it all in one go but never heard from anyone with experience. Also the insect fart bit is interesting and I'll use it immediately.

[Hellbeard]

I definitely feel the improvement with this 15 minute, butterfly fart technique (sounds like a school of Kung Fu). Here's some shoe shots. The last picture is after I took the first pictures I saw how wobbly everything was and went in again sort of flattening and straightening the seams. The pants will cover the side and back and I'd like to re-do some of the sole when I de-cork him because of the uneven surface of the cork.

[MamaGeek]

The sculpey head is brilliant! Good luck with the green, it's coming along nicely!

[Hellbeard]

The sculpey head is brilliant! Good luck with the green, it's coming along nicely!

Thank you so much! Your work on your website there is very impressive.

Pant leg (leg pant?). Very pleasant to do. I just kept chanting "Butterfly Farts, Butterfly Farts, Butterfly Farts,Butterfly Farts, Butterfly Farts,..."