Aztec/Mayan Inspired Wall Relief Designs
- Thread starter LandronArtifact
- Start date
LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
lol. Hardly. People assume my house looks like a freak show but it's pretty ordinary aside from the man cave with just a few props. My house just ain't big enough.
MKWJTC
Active Member
Well frakshow..., I've just assumed that the fine works of yours sit in few places, like it was with mine few years back, giving the atmosphere.
LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
Lol, like I said. My tiny house wouldn't handle it. Plus, got a wife to keep happy and she puts up with enough. 
Anyway, working on the outer areas now...
-AL
Anyway, working on the outer areas now...
-AL
Last edited:
MAKE BELIEVE
Master Member
Very good idea! Great work
LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
More clay...
v3d
Active Member
Here are a couple pictures of styrofoam sculpting. The "Life in Hell" Binky
is a sculpt in Styrofoam I did around 1987(?) with a high density Styrofoam Brand insulation foam.
The picture of foam with the cuts I did yesterday using a sharp knife and X-Acto blade. The foam will dull a blade pretty fast so you need to resharpen
the edge frequently with a sharpener. A small inexpensive V shaped sharpener works great. You can find them in outdoor and sporting good stores for less than ten bucks.
This particular foam comes in 4x8 foot sheets in a variety of thicknesses. If
I remember correctly you can get it up to a foot thick. Most cities have a building or insulation supply house that will carry it. Home Depot and Lowes sometimes carry a similar product that is pink in color and used for insulating
homes. You want the very dense material. The white cellular or puffed and compressed foam is too crumbly.
The dense stuff that I used is carveable and sandable. I word of warning. If you are doing a lot of sanding, wear a mask. Small foam particles get airborned and can be inhaled. Since they are not biodegradable, they will stay in you lungs pretty much forever.
I only carved and painted my stuff, so I don't know if a fiberglass type coating would work or melt it. Someone here probably can answer that.
I used to work for a company that used it for set pieces. We would melt Van Aken clay in a double boiler and brush it on to the foam. Then sculpt or texture additional details.
If you are making a large scale sculpture that you intend to mold and cast in
something else, this technique will let you build big items that don't weigh a ton.
is a sculpt in Styrofoam I did around 1987(?) with a high density Styrofoam Brand insulation foam.
The picture of foam with the cuts I did yesterday using a sharp knife and X-Acto blade. The foam will dull a blade pretty fast so you need to resharpen
the edge frequently with a sharpener. A small inexpensive V shaped sharpener works great. You can find them in outdoor and sporting good stores for less than ten bucks.
This particular foam comes in 4x8 foot sheets in a variety of thicknesses. If
I remember correctly you can get it up to a foot thick. Most cities have a building or insulation supply house that will carry it. Home Depot and Lowes sometimes carry a similar product that is pink in color and used for insulating
homes. You want the very dense material. The white cellular or puffed and compressed foam is too crumbly.
The dense stuff that I used is carveable and sandable. I word of warning. If you are doing a lot of sanding, wear a mask. Small foam particles get airborned and can be inhaled. Since they are not biodegradable, they will stay in you lungs pretty much forever.
I only carved and painted my stuff, so I don't know if a fiberglass type coating would work or melt it. Someone here probably can answer that.
I used to work for a company that used it for set pieces. We would melt Van Aken clay in a double boiler and brush it on to the foam. Then sculpt or texture additional details.
If you are making a large scale sculpture that you intend to mold and cast in
something else, this technique will let you build big items that don't weigh a ton.
LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
I have worked in XPS foam quite a bit in the past but find the fumes pretty unbearable. Here's a couple things I did:
Not so good ventilation in my work area (which I'm planning to change). Also with clay you have TOTAL control, and you can easily correct and revise areas as many times as you want. Foam on the other hand is once cut and you're done, and you'll never get the same detail on foam as you would with clay without adding mixed media to the surface. Totally different techniques for different applications. My particular design I'm working on here might have worked on foam (may have been faster in hindsight), but I currently don't have the right tools for the job, and again, ventilation is the biggest issue.
I haven't actually worked all that much with traditional clay so this is a great exercise for me.
-AL
division 6
Master Member
That JP logo is totally sweet.
LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
Revised the twin serpents. Finally starting to come together.
(Concept sketch.)
-AL
(Concept sketch.)
-AL
LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
Revised the top a little further with added skulls on each side, as well as two serpent skulls in the diamond-shaped niches. Added preliminary cleaved stone texture throughout.
Sill a lot of cleaning up to do on the sculpt but I think it's really close.
-AL
Sill a lot of cleaning up to do on the sculpt but I think it's really close.
-AL
LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
Finally completed the sculpt. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. It's difficult to photograph in its unpainted original clay form (hence the directional lighting and monochrome images) but here it is...
I made the surface look like it's been lost for centuries with cracked and cleaving stone textures.
I love this last picture. Looks ominous...
-AL
I made the surface look like it's been lost for centuries with cracked and cleaving stone textures.
I love this last picture. Looks ominous...
-AL
LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
Recently ordered silicone for the mold. I'm hoping to cast this the coming week. In the meantime, I'll be working on a few other projects. First up is this new little sculpt that I made on-the-fly in a matter of a couple of days. I'm hoping to also have it molded and cast in the coming week... which is a record for me.
Here it is in its virtually completed stage (still needs minor cleanup).
-AL
Here it is in its virtually completed stage (still needs minor cleanup).
-AL
LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
Continuing on in the series of Mayan-inspired pieces here's my latest little project. I was thinking I should work on various smaller, quicker projects. This little guy in its early stage so it has a lot more work left to do on it. Down the line there will probably be additional tweaks to the overall design but it's coming together.
-AL
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LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
Adding some more details to the last piece. I'm still wondering what to do inside those four niches.
-AL
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LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
I recently pulled a handful of castings from the mold and are coming out great. The images shown here are of a raw pulls fresh out of the mold so no they have not been cleaned up or touched up where needed. They'll take another week or so to fully dry, at which point it's on to sealing, priming and painting.
Back with wire loop for wall hanging.
Here's the other sculpt fresh out of the mold.
-AL
Back with wire loop for wall hanging.
Here's the other sculpt fresh out of the mold.
-AL
LandronArtifact
Well-Known Member
Here's the completed sculpt of the "Fangs" Mayan-inspired mini wall relief. This will probably get molded some time this week if time permits.
-AL
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