Saturday, September 24, 2011

2nd to last Illustration: "Ice Cave"


So I've started work on the second to last illustration. I want this one to be an underground ice cave, most of it cast in clear resin. The sketch up above is still very loose and not a tight sketch at all, but I'm moving forward anyway. I'll deal with composition and pose when I sculpt it (not a good habit at all, but I'm tired of drawing and not sculpting).
I'm doing something I've never done before, but should have the whole time. I'm scuplting several maquettes to work out the main figure. I also need multiple maquettes to test the resin on. I need to know how the paint will be affected by resin. I need to see which technique will not warp the light so you can still see all the detail. You'll see what I mean when I start posting final test shots. The whole idea is this little eskimo kid and her dog stumble upon this violent frozen scene while exploring an ice cave. I thought it would be funny to have several polar bears attacking a snow-monster for his 'cola' . Now I could have them all frozen in one huge block of ice, but I think that would look a little too cartoony and cheap. That would be the easiest answer as I would only have to put them behind a piece of plexiglass and sculpt icicles around it. But I want to try having them coated in icicles themselves, hoping that they wouldn't be too distorted through the resin to see detail. Anyway! It will all be clear once I get on with this and start posting more photos.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Behold AVARICE!








Yay! She's done! No, I'm not happy with this photo shoot. Now this is just a side project, certainly not portfolio material. If she's lucky I'll try to sell her on Etsy. I want good pictures for the archive though and I think she'd do well in real sunlight!

As you can see, the decals worked PERFECTLY. I'm very very impressed with Testors simple, easy to use package and I WILL be utilizing this new knowledge in the future.

Primer stage!


Now she's ready to paint, and decal!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Custom water slide decals! Woo!

I bought a Testors package of water slide decal paper for ink jet printers, so I can design and print my own decals! So here's the sheet I've got for Avarice. The eight dollar sign designs on the bottom are the hoof armor decorations. I threw in a few extra Sculptwerks logos because this stuff's expensive and I don't want to waste any space. I'm printing multiples of everything because I'm not sure how opaque my printer ink will end up being. I guess I'll just have to find out tomorrow! She's all together and sanded and primed. Tomorrow I can begin painting her! I'll post photos of her in the primer stage.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Hair!

Not much to say here. I sculpted the hair. Maria critiqued it and I had to resculpt the entire back. Now it looks much better!
The Head does still move! This was important to me to make it still move. I want this to be as if Hasbro produced a very cynical real My Little Pony with major safety issues. The Wings will, of course, not allow the head to rotate all the way around, but that would just be creepy anyway!
The wings aren't permanently attached yet so I kept them off for these photos. The tail, however, has been attached, so it's one step closer!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Wings and Tail!

The wings and tail are finished! The tail is a core of aluminum foil which I then cover in clay and sculpt. This reduced the amount of Apoxie Sculpt I have to use.

The base of the tail and the base of the wings still need to be sculpted on, but I'm going to save that until I get the hair sculpted.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Of Avarice.

You're probably wondering what ever happened to my side project "Avarice"! Well, I've been working on her, and she's coming along well! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about here's the breakdown: I needed specific electrical parts for the "Carbonite Doughtnut" and I found them in an eight inch Princess Celestia doll from "My little ponies, Friendship is Magic" ( a fantastic show by the way). Once I had gutted her of her circuits and LEDs I had a perfectly good princess to modify. I decided, being a cynical bastard, I would create a my little pony based on money and greed. And what better name for a pegacorn than "Avarice"! And with this, a side project was born!!!! Behold! The process so far!



Here she is as Princess Celestia once I put her back together. The circuits and lights were installed in "The Carbonite Doughnut". She was all ready to transform into Avarice!

First step was to fill the inside so that I could cut into her as deep as I wanted and still be able to sculpt the inner space. To achieve this, I filled her with "Great Stuff" expanding foam insulation and taped her up so she wouldn't expand apart, then dry.

Here she is after the first day of sculpting. I expanded and sharpened the horn and ears. I also lengthened the muzzle and added a smile. The hind hooves were enlarged slightly and all seams and holes were filled in.


The next day I drilled holes for the tail and wings and set the wire in so that the clay would cure to the right size hole. I also added the eyebrows and bags under her eyes. This immediately made the smile on the muzzle fit! Now she's evil! Yay!!!

A close up of the evil face. I've ordered water slide inkjet decal paper for the eyes themselves. This will be the first time I've ever made my own decals and I'm excited at the prospect! I'm also going to use the decals for the 'cutie mark' on her ass and the detailing of the armor on her legs. Tonight I'm sculpting the wings. I'll post those photos tommorow!

Thanks for looking!!!