ChickenHaunt's 2015 Aug-Sep Sculpture Contest Entry

[ChickenHaunt]

I'm sculpting a zombie! He's a little kooky.
I've been playing with clay for a long time, but only with any seriousness about four years ago. This piece will have no seriousness.

I had the idea pop into my head a few nights ago and doodled it out (I can't draw, but I can doodle!). Didn't think much of it, until the next day, when I thought it would make a fun little sculpture.


I decided to use Super Sculpey because I had some, and most of my oil clay is tied up in my Vincent Price project. Plus, this way I'll get to have a hard copy to keep without molding it. Also, it's a medium I'm not used to, so I'll get a little extra education out of this.



This is about two hours in. Didn't think to take a picture earlier because I didn't know if I was going to want to continue with the idea. I started with just the head and neck, propped it up on the block of wood to get a better look at it, squished a bit of clay on either side to help support it, and realized I could add some more interest by adding a bit of chest.

Proof shot:


to be continued...

 

[reaton89]

Looking good! Love the expression... Sucks when your "clay is tied up" huh? A couple of months back, I had to steal 2 lbs of oil clay off the head of a Karloff Frankenstein I've been working on for a quite a while. I did it because Batman's neck was too skinny. Go figure.

 

[ChickenHaunt]

Oof. That sucks. Would love to see your Karloff, though

 

[reaton89]

Oof. That sucks. Would love to see your Karloff, though

 

[Cadeus]

I like it! Thanks for joining in.

 

[ChickenHaunt]

Thanks Cadeus.

Next I put a little more detail work into the face


I realized I'd really need to rethink how it's on the base. So I built it up a little bit



Oops! More than I meant to, though. Guess I've got more sculptural ground to cover than intended.
I thought about giving him arms at this point, but decided that opened the flood gates a little too much. Trying to keep this quick and fun.

 

[Sinned]

Looking great!

I think it'd look better without arms anyway. Just my personal preference.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Good luck!

 

[Cadeus]

It really looks like that vampire zombie from Lifeforce. Looking good.

I am gonna have to step up my game, I think.

 

[ChickenHaunt]

Thanks Sinned, Cadeus, and Michael!

A couple of assorted thoughts: The inspiration for the ears are dried apricots. I really ended up favoring character over polish on this. I guess I was sort of testing the limits of how far I can push it into cartoon land. It's definitely not perfect, but it was satisfying to turn it around in a few evenings and call it done.

And I think that's going to do it for me. Here's the final submission shots before baking.

 

[ChickenHaunt]

This is of course beyond the contest (so judges, turn around and go back!), but I got excited and had to paint him. I went with all cheapie acrylics and 5 min epoxy on the eyes.

 

[Sinned]

This is of course beyond the contest (so judges, turn around and go back!), but I got excited and had to paint him. I went with all cheapie acrylics and 5 min epoxy on the eyes.

Oh damn! Missed the final update somehow, that turned out so cool! Love the paint job!