Long Running WIP

[Elder one]

Well - I spent the entire weekend cleaning out my garage (that made my wife estatic)

Bought sculpting tools I didn't even know existed before last week.

Came home to 50lbs of Klean Klay on my doorstep from BITY. (wife wasn't too estatic about the bill)




Although I'm ready to jump in with both hands, now that I'm staring at a 50lb block of clay - it's a bit intimidating.

I'm going to start with a foot. Seems harmless enough, and doesn't necesarily have that much detail.

I was thinking about how to reduce the clay "working" time. So, I'm going to put portions into an aluminum tray and try a heating pad on low under it. Then a towel over the tray to keep the clay just over room temperature. I may end up with clay soup, but I understand it goes right back to form once cooled. I'm using Ex Firm - because I understand it's a bit more forgiving in case you bump your work.

So - wish me luck - you may or may never see an update to this thread EVER.

Elder-one

 

[shaka-zulu]

Sweet pile of clay !!!!!

 

[Cavaler Urban]

let the wisdom lead your hand! I hope you know what you are doing! good luck and keep us informed!

 

[Usurper]

lol , well the 1st sign of secover is admitting your a addict, buthey who wants to be cured from this?

im sure youll get more adventurous with your sculpting as time goes on, nice start also

 

[xdmray]

nice man. i just jumped into sculpting too. the most important thing you will need is patience. to make something look like the masters on here, is to keep at it. the more time you spend on it the better it always looks.

a tip- a crock pot is a good way to warm your clay. sometimes you end up with clay soup, but when doing large sculpts i prefer this. it's much easier to glob on when blocking.

keep it up man.

 

[PredaHawk]

Great start on 50lbs of clay! Best of luck!!!

 

[Elder one]

As the title says - - long running WIP. This is going to be a LONG thread. But, here's an update.

I finally recieved my armature this afternoon. Wasn't quite the quality I expected, but it should be ok. As I mentioned at the onset, I'm a clay sculpting virgin, but like pretty much everything, once you've lost it.... you just can't get enough. ere's a couple of progress pictures from this evening. I can tell you, my hands and figures are cramping like crazy. Nothing spectacular, but I'm ok with it. I did make one change after I popped off these pictures. I dropped the chin. I'm going to make it stand out a bit more.

oh yea... don't ask me what look I'm going for - - - at this point just recognizable is my theme.



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[Usurper]

Off to a good start, just keep blocking out until you get the rough size and shape you want, do not worry too much about forms and details yet.

good luck

 

[Elder one]

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E-O

 

[xdmray]

looks good man. a quick question. are you going to be using it under a Bio from here? if so it looks like you sculpt might be on the small side.

 

[Elder one]

Actually I have a couple of different bios I'm using as a guide for sizing. I think the pictures may be misleading from a proportion standpoint. It's actually a tad bigger than standard. I'm 6'3" and I want to keep the larger proportions. So, I will probably end up casting a custom bio to fit the mask, rather than using an existing bio and build a mask to fit it.

Either way - I'm jsut way happy that the damn thing is recognizable as a predator. I did make some changes late last night. Lazrith(chase my son) pointed out that the skull sloped too much, so I built up the forehead and top of the skull.

 

[Elder one]

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E-O

 

[pdisc]

Looking good Dave....not bad. I look foward to watching this one

 

[Elder one]

Getting one side to start taking on a look you like is tough.....

Getting the other side to match is a down right BYATCH!!

Here's my progress for the night.


Sorry if resizing the image to reduce file size has given the appearance of a "squatty" look. I'll move back a bit and use a bio for reference next time.

 

[pdisc]

Not bad,are you going for an open faced or closed?

 

[Elder one]

well actually when I got home last night I was in a fowl mood from a ****** day at work. I sat and looked at this thing and all i could see was an orangutan staring me in the face. So - At this point I've pretty much cut off the majority of the face and am going with a semi closed face. I hope to have a better day today, allowing some "relaxing" time tonight.

Note to self - when your in a ****** mood.... don't even look at something you need creativity to complete.

 

[irricanian]

Yep, sometimes it's better just to step back and take a break. I hate working on something when I'm frustrated or tired. You'll find that when you get back to it you'll have a renewed interset and it will all flow out of you (creativity)

Looking good so far

 

[Elder one]

well as I posted a couple days ago, I had a bad day at work and pretty much took out my frustrations on my sculpt my removing pretty much the entire face. In the long run it was progagly best it happened since i wasn't seeing how to fix things I knew weren't working. So - I've taken another stab at this. I feel a little better about it this time. Although I now see I am going to have to put some vertical rise in the back of the head. What's another 6-8 lbs of clay between friends?

I did want to ask those with actual skill at this.... what is an average use of clay in pounds for one of your sculpts?? I probably have 25lbs on mind already.

anyway... here's a couple of update pictures. I am slowly starting to understand how to add and remove clay to get a desired effect.

 

[Elder one]

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E-O

 

[pdisc]

coming along nicely.....these things take time.