Heath Ledger Joker bust 1:1

johnnyhungus

Active Member
Long story short, after letting a well known sculptor sit on my money for a year, giving me multiple excuses and not supplying the goods, I got my money back and am now having a go myself at creating a Heath Ledger Joker bust.

Sculpting in Chavant NSP soft, this is my first ever sculpt and I am still learning, so please be gentle! I have never done this before :)

This is very, very early and I intent to take my time with it, at this stage I thought I would show it - this is literally just my base to work from now and I have taken a month or so to get to this (though not a non-stop month!) tinkering with it a couple of evenings a week and reviewing it as and when I can.

It isn't much to look at right now, but I am happy with the basic shape as I needed a structure to work from and look forward to any advice on the general look. It is kind of tricky to get the eyes right, especially as Heath has a wilder look in them when he was made up. I have redone the eyes about 12 times now lol and would not be surprised if I do them again!

I looked at the face cast style sculpts that are about and they just did not seem to look like Heath very much and some sculpts in the wild seemed to rely too much on the makeup giving the look as opposed to the face underneath. I am determined to get the look of the eyes right, have measured against photos, so they should be pretty close, now just to work on getting them more lifelike.

The ultimate aim is to mold and create a silicone head with glass eyes, punched hair etc.

A slow burner but hope to create a masterpiece! :D

IMG_4175.JPG
 
Fantastic work! - Why wait for someone else to do the work when you can learn a new skill eh? My Rancor I did a few years ago was my first ever serious sculpture and it took months and months to do. The amount of progress you will make will surprise you and you'll soon be a master. Be patient with yourself, set a high standard, and keep thrashing away. Seriously, you are on to a winner here.
 
Thanks christrom, it is definitely going to be a long process but I am determined and being a perfectionist, it will have to be damn perfect :lol

I did some overlay photo manipulation to see how it sat against a real photo and it is not a million miles off but can see where my adjustments are needed. The biggest problem I seem to have at the moment is that the head hat size is a bit bigger than I would expect so need to shave it down an inch or so, which is quite a chunk! Lots of work to do!
IMG_4221 (1).PNG
 
A bit more work on the lips, going to move onto the eyes soon, some subtle differences showing but it's getting closer.

Must think about starting the ears too. It is quite surprising how different Heath looks in nearly all of the available photos of the joker, some amazing expression changes and tricky to pick a look.

Any advice is most welcome!

joker_bw.JPGheathledgerjoker.jpgheathledgerjoker2.jpgheathledgerjoker3.jpg
 
Well it all went a bit wrong :eek I got very annoyed with the sculpt and killed it. The profile view was just too far out, so I scrapped it and started again. Then that was off too, so tonight I am going to scrap it and start yet again! The head was just too damn big too at 25.5 inches, it needs to come down a bit.

so will update when I get this first phase right. One thing I can say, is that I am learning some great techniques by starting from scratch again!
 
That wasn't bad at all for a first sculpt. You do the right thing getting your money back. Always better to start again if your not happy otherwise it will bug you forever.
 
I thought it looked like you were on the right track. I could see Heath's likeness in the eyes. A trick that Jordu Schell uses is he traces the outlines of a reference photo onto a piece of acetate with a Sharpie. As you sculpt hold the acetate up and look through it at your sculpt. You will see where you are off as you're roughing it in. Then once you get close you can fine tune it using Photoshop like you were. It's a really affective way to get your proportions roughed in. It was looking good, johnnyhungus. Keep up the good work.
 
The guy who kept me waiting's first name began with an H.....

Not cool at all!

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Good tip Randy, thanks.

I have torn it down and rebuilt it about 7 times now and giving myself a little break from it. It stares at me though and is calling me over to get going again! I will most likely spend a while on it next week now but am rising to the challenge! Thanks for all the kind words.
 
Dude why did you kill in the first place? I thought it looked great! You really got the look down and you could definitely tell that this was supposed to be Heath Ledger. I instantely recognized him :thumbsup
 
Hi do you accepting private commission for the heath ledger blank interested to have one

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Hi i really wanted the Heath ledger blank do you accep order for this?
 
Has it been that long....over a year!

Well I have torn this down and remade it so many times now, it's been a steep learning curve for sure but I feel I am making some progress now. I must have remade the eyes about 20 times and hacked away at the whole face countless times.

As this is my first sculpture, I want it to be as damn perfect as I can get it, so am taking my time :)

Working on the eyebrows and forehead at the moment...

FullSizeRender (1).jpg

A quick photoshop mockup to roughly see how it would look with makeup...

joker_mockup.png
 
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