Clone Wars Force Priestess (Work in progress)

[inkblot]

So here's a project I'm hoping I'll be able to take to Dragoncon; compared to some previous projects, it feels like it might be less work, but with my timing, who knows?

Anyhow, I've wanted to make something from Star Wars for a while and one of the characters that really stuck out to me (that I haven't seen done before) would be the Force Priestesses, from the final few episodes of The Clone Wars. If things go well, I may modify the file to fit the other four aspects (Priestess group at Dragoncon anyone? )

I sculpted basic shapes in ZBrush, then retopologized the geometry so that it'd be low-poly enough to split up in Pepakura
.

Since the Serene mask is symetrical, I just Pep'd and cut out half, then cut two of everything. If I go ahead with the other masks, Confusion will probably need the full mask and not just half, since the expression is a bit asymetrical.




I cut out all of the pep pieces and removed the flaps, transferring the pattern to craft foam and a single layer of Worbla, so I could glue everything together then hit it all with a heatgun and shape it the way I want. It's not quite done yet, but foam and Worbla have helped me form smoother curves a lot quicker than if I were to glue paper together and coat it a whole bunch. (Plus i don't really have a good place to do a ton of resin work)

In any case, I've coated most of the deeper creases now with wood filler and am waiting for it to dry so I can sand them out.



Long term, I think i need to start looking in to suitable patterns to use as a base. Offhand, choir gowns come to mind, but I would like to keep the pleating to a minimum - probably just the two along the front and two along the back. I'll also need to work on a lightweight cowl - I was thinking of foam on the neck (for flexibility) and covered Kobracast for the head (for breathability and shape)? Not sure about the stole. Perhaps just fabric? I was also thinking about makeup on my hands and ways of making the feet work out; they basically have bare feet, but with two giant toes, and the concept art shows they are predominantly standing on their toes, so I was thinking some sort of high heel setup? Maybe I'll just paint my feet too.

 

[inkblot]

Re: Force Priestess (Work in progress)

Things are coming along slowly since I last posted. Or at least they seem to be, since the bulk of my time has been spent doing a lot of sanding. I managed to patch and smooth all the seam lines with wood filler, then reinforce the back with smaller pieces of Worbla to prevent warping and cracking. I then went over pretty much everything on the front with wood filler to get a much more consistently smooth surface.

I have been taking some time to modify the mouth area so that the upper lip is more curvy and transitions in to the face a lot smoother.

There are still a lot of areas that still need patching and sanding, but for the moment, I've sketched the facial markings on and am figuring out what I want to do with the eyes.

Since this mask is intentionally large (to recreate the stylistic proportions of the character art), my eyeline will line up right a long the bottom of the current eyeholes. My current plan is to spray paint (black) some pieces of Kobracast I cut and shaped to fit, since the mesh allows for some visibility while retaining shape.

I have also been debating between modeling some eye inserts for the center using Blender or just making them from Friendly plastic or poly clay. The end product should have some translucency, so I'm also thinking about an LED setup, with perhaps occasional blinking.

 

[inkblot]

Some side-by-side comparison makes me realize the lower lip is severely under done. it needs a lot more volume. On the other hand most of the rest of the mask is more or less done. I have been going over everything with 400 grit sandpaper here and really just need to finish up the lip before I can start painting. Unfortunately it's been very cold here lately, so I won't be able to do any priming until it hits 15C or so.

 

[Blue Leader]

This is looking to be a really interesting project. Nice work so far!

 

[inkblot]

With the lower lip fixed and pretty much everything smoothed out a lot more, I started applying some thin washes of gesso last night and in to today, since the weather here will not cooperate and just give me 15C to spray paint in

Fortunately, the winter conditions have caused humidity to take a nose-dive, so I find I am able to apply many thin layers in succession. I figure I'll still have to do more sanding though!

 

[inkblot]

Drafting out some basic shapes for the robe in Blender. I'm wondering if I can unwrap these and transfer the pattern to paper as I would with pep? Am eager to pick up some muslin to try this with.

 

[Helpful Nerd]

This is looking great.

Looks like there is going to be a good group of us that can meet up this year for Star Wars related photoshoots.

 

[inkblot]

Painting progress. A clear pearlescent coat over a black under painting looks like aged pewter, but that wasn't what I was going for here. I added some white to add a bit of opacity, then built on that to make it more metallic. The mask was also masked off and I added a thin dark brown wash for the markings and to add back more shadows.



I later made a few passes with more pearlescent paint (it really isn't very opaque at all, even at full strength) to help blend the markings down.

Next step will most likely be getting the eyes modeled, printed and inserted, then working out a proper pattern for the robes.

 

[Helpful Nerd]

Hey that's looking really cool. I learned the black under silver paint trick recently and will be using that technique on some projects.

Looks like it's coming along nicely