Sculpting a minor demon for the Heresy contest

[Bodhi]

Well I have no idea how a blog works but I'll give it a try. I had an imp that I thought would be fit for the Heresy contest but the armature construction wasn't sturdy enough so I'm starting from scratch and thought I'd try a step by step on it.

Here's the start of the sculpt that I'll be remaking from scratch. Pretty crud* now that I look at it. But the IDEA is sound. I'll use it as a concept sketch. I'll probably continuing using procreate mixed with Fixit sculpt for quick sketches (and maybe bulking) but nothing else. It looks bloody awful:


So here's a porcupine:



The left leg and the right wing are formed from a single piece of wire and my thoughts are that it should be castable from a profile view of the figure as a single piece. Pieces of wire stuck in are for making right leg (raised as if running), left arm (held straight down supporting the body) head (well of course...) which will not have to be a separate piece and right arm (forming part of the right wing  raised up as if striking and thus also not necessary to cast as a separate piece.

So body, head, right wing+arm and left leg will form one piece. right leg and left arm will be separate pieces.

A note on the fastening of the armature: I've stuck it in a pinvice but in order to avoid it turning about during work I've encased the pinvice in green stuff which will be easy enough to remove once it's done.

Sticking to pure green stuff now. Had a long experimentation with various mixtures in various sculptures but it really ISN't much good. Green stuff is by far the most durable solution.

By the way: Both me and my daughter are enjoying the Manga "Death note" right now and I'll let myself be inspired by the Shinigami (death god) Ruyk from that comic. I'll downtone the modern day "goth" style clothing though and make him more fantasy. I'll keep the insanely grinning face. I had trouble finding a good linkable picture of him, sorry. Just google "death note" and you'll find him.
 

[Bodhi]

As the first day draws to an end (I have by no means been working ONLY on this and besides I've been alone with the three kids on summer holidays today) I have removed all the lose pieces of wire, done a ribcage and started on the right wing. I build up a VERY thin layer of hardcuring putty (green stuff-FIXIT sculpt mix) to have as a firm foundation to work on. While realistic it's far to thin for casting so I'll fatten them up using green stuff and will then also add texturing. You can see that I've started a bit on it. I'll go for the typical batwing with the wings as arms and extremely long "fingers". Just made the start of the "arm" musculature. He'll have an extra set of trapezoid muscles for the "real" arms.






If you check the second and fourth picture you'll see how I imagine the moldline to run diagonally along this figure. I hope that works...

Incidentally. I had my holiday pictures from Greece downloaded at the same time and thought a picture of my oldest son pulling a face would make an excellent reference for a mischievous Froudian style goblin  :icon_wink::

My youngest son (age four) was the photographer so I din't see it until now when I downloaded it.

[Custom_Hobby]

What did you do with the original?

[Agentmolar]

Nice to have you back Bodhi. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

[Bodhi]

What did you do with the original?

Nothing. It's still there but the wing broke when I tried to handle it. That's the reason for the new armature. I'm sure it could be saved and done to a decent standard but it would be more work than making a new one really. I think I'll be doing a lot of this blog thingy in the future. Normally I keep the taking of pictures until last minute (because I'm scared - simple as that) and then get a shock on seeing the finished sculpt. I'm sure it's wiser to take pics all along the progress and force myself to moan at imperfections (and above all be able to correct them!) at an early stage instead of receiving it all as one hard blow once the figure is almost completed.

So for commisioned figures I'll make a private blog for just myself that can then be published once the figure has been released.

Any of you others read Death Note by the way? It's a fun story. A death god "loses" his notebook in which he's supposed to write the names of people who will die. A young student finds the book and decides to write the names of known criminals in it to make the world a better place and of course everything goes terribly wrong  :icon_wink:
Turns out the death god didn't really "lose" the book but dropped it on purpose simply out of sheer boredom to see what would happen.

[Agentmolar]

Thats a japanese anime story isnt it? I saw the figurines and merchanise for that in Harajuku. The manga looked interesting, but it was $30 for each vol and had 10 volumes of manga from memory. Couldnt justify all that cash to read a comic book backwards!

[Bodhi]

Did a little more today but It's to late to upload the pics. Of to visit the moomins for a few days in Finland with the kids. I'll continue after that (on Wednesday) with more pics and comments.

Oh and yes Agentmolar. Death note is first a manga then an anime. Seems they're making a real movie of it now to with actors and all. At least my daughter says so. I haven't seen the pictures from the movie myself.