Posted 01 July 2012 - 09:49 PM
I sculpt mostly in sculpey clay and haven't yet tried green stuff, so take this with a grain of salt. With tiny things with a lot of nimble features like this, you want to sculpt it piece by piece and add to it after it cures. That way you won't fudge up parts you've already done when they're still soft and malleable.
So on this little guy, you're going to want to start with his body and work in basic shapes. His body is sickle shaped, so start with a slender egg form that has pointy ends where his neck and tail will go. Make it thinner than it has to be, cause it's ALWAYS easier to add to a piece after it cures, than to carve away when it's too fat. =)
His head and neck are the same way. As the body cures, you can go ahead and add a tiny cylindrical piece at the neck. You can sculpt the head(another sickle shape) separately and attach it when everything has cured, using more green stuff as a bonding agent or pinning it if you're more comfortable with that.
The wings look trickier. If I was using sculpey, I would take a doubled piece of aluminum foil and cut it to the right shape for each wing, coating the whole piece in the tiniest possible layer of clay. Can you core green stuff with foil? Does that work the same way? If you can, that will help it hold its shape until it cures. I might even wrap the upper edge of the foil wing over a floral wire "rod" with a centimeter of rod sticking out where the wing will connect to the body to form a pin connection.
This is just my process as to how I would try to sculpt him, and you don't have to follow it. The basic ideas are again: Sculpt in parts, building up from basic shapes and letting them cure before making connections, and always make the parts thinner than necessary and build them up slowly to the right thickness.
As for detailing like skin abrasions, his back ridges, and his eyes and mouth, I personally find it easiest to add excess strips of clay to an area and carve out the details. Like for his ridges, I'd have a spinal strip and I'd use a small pointed tool to carve dips out of the spine and leave the ridges in place. Other sculptors like to only add what clay they need, in this case adding and blending each individual bump along the spine. Both methods are valid, you just have to choose the one that works for you.
I hope this helps, and good luck! I look forward to seeing what you can come up with. =) Also, if any of that was confusing or you need a visual, I'll be glad to model what I mean and post pics of whatever you need to see.
-
