An Amazing Resource for Sculptors

Until very recently, I've been a little out of the loop as far as the sculpting community, but I found out last week that one of my favorite sculptors teamed up with two other wonderful gentlemen to give sculptors one of the most thorough, detailed books on sculpting and mold-making that I've yet to see.

Pop Sculpture by Tim Bruckner, Ruben Procopio and Zach Oat would be a steal at twice or even thrice the price Amazon is asking. That's no exaggeration when you consider that EVERY page contains tack-sharp, full-color photographs that detail every step of the process of taking concept artwork and turning it into a three dimensional piece of artwork. There's also a section on sculpting a fully articulated action figure, as well as in-depth discussions of tools, different sculpting media, paints, and photography, not to mention some advice on good business practices. Tim even shares his own recipe for the sculpting wax he uses! The writing is entertaining, informative, descriptive and detailed without being dull for one second. Each page is skillfully laid out in a way that makes my eyes happy, and oh, there are SO many photographs of beautiful, finished sculptures from a variety of artists in addition to everything else I've described.

It will have you lusting after wax pens and cel vinyl paints, but it will also inspire you and encourage you to explore your sculpting potential to the fullest.

What else can I say? It's 272 pages of full-color goodness, for around $20 on Amazon.

Ijiraq: In-process and Completed

I've known about the Alphabeastiary Challenge for a while now, but didn't seriously consider joining it until about two weeks ago. Suddenly it occurred to me that the bi-weekly challenges posted on the blog would be a great way for me to work on my speed as well as my creature design.
The first challenge I participated in was the blog's most recent: the Ijiraq. Here's a quote from the blog describing the Ijiraq:

The Ijiraq ( ee-yee-roc ) is a monster from Inuit mythology whose name literally means "shapeshifter". They can come in a range of different shapes and sizes, even going so far as to copy the appearance of other monsters. The Ijiraq is a gruesome shadowy phantom that can appear as various arctic animals. Among these are the polar bear, arctic hare, raven or even the Tariaksuq (a half-man half-caribou monster). Some versions of the myth claim the Ijiraq and Tariaksuq (most often described as a great shaggy man with a caribou's head) may actually be the same creature in different forms.

Using tricks and disguises the Ijiraq steal children, hide them, then leave them out in the wilderness to die of exposure. Along with this gruesome hobby these creatures love to scare hunters and try to get them hopelessly lost or trapped in bad weather.

It is said that the Ijiraq lives in a strange no-mans land somewhere between the world of the living and the world of the dead. If an Ijiraq does manage to trick an unfortunate soul into following it into this strange frozen purgatory, they will be trapped forever and condemned to become an Ijiraq themselves.

 I immediately got a picture in my head of how I wanted my sculpture to look, just from the wonderful description of the creature. So I started sketching, scanned my sketch into photoshop, and kept working with it and tweaking it until I got an image that I was pleased with. My sculptures always start with at least one drawing that I use to plan out the look of the sculpture, as well as the armature.
So here is the concept drawing I did, as well as the plan outlining the armature I built for the sculpture:

This process is nearly identical whether I'm working in Sculpey or Chavant. The only difference is that I bulk out certain areas of the armature with aluminum foil when I'm working with Sculpey, just to save on clay, minimize weight as well as baking time (since the thicker the layer of polymer clay is, the longer it will have to bake). Chavant is cheaper than Sculpey, and since it is an oil-based clay, it doesn't go through a curing process and is reusable. I use my supply of Le Beau Touche for sketching and working out ideas since it is very soft, sticky, and allows me to work quickly without refining a piece too much. These properties make it ideal for the Alphabeastiary challenge since I only had two weeks to sculpt the Ijiraq.
Unfortunately, I don't have photos of the armature or the armature building process, but to make a long story short, I printed out the second drawing on an sheet of printer paper and laid out pieces of aluminum wire of different gauges on the drawing and bent them following the lines I planned out for the armature. Then I used plumber's putty to attach the limbs to the spine. Next I made adjustments to the armature to make sure it was posed how I wanted, and then drilled holes in a wooden plaque for the leg wires. From there, I began layering on the clay. I don't have photos of the early part of this process, but my boyfriend Dave (who is an incredible photographer and artist) was kind enough to take some later in the day. The first stage of sculpting is really rough--I basically just want to cover most of the armature and establish basic volumes in the piece. From there, the addition of clay is more careful and gradual, and I begin to slowly refine the forms in the sculpture using my fingers as well as various tools.

I was lucky with this piece in that everything went so smoothly and quickly. Not every piece is as "easy" as this guy was. He came together in about 16 hours of sculpting, which is much faster than usual for me. Sometimes there are areas of a sculpture that just don't come together easily, and sometimes I get stuck when trying to decide on the direction a piece should go.
Once I'd refined the piece until I was happy with it, I got out my light tent and camera and took these photos:

And that's that, pretty much. My next blog entry will probably be about the other sculpture I'm currently working on, which is my take on the Hindu deity Ganesha.
For now, so long and thanks for reading!

Here we go!

I decided a few days ago that it would be fun to have my own blog, one that focuses on my sculpting, although there might be some posts about drawing and metalworking as well. I work primarily in a polymer clay called Sculpey Firm, but I am always eager to familiarize myself with other media, so I am currently experimenting with Chavant Le Beau Touche plastilene and want to try their NSP clays as well as Castilene. One day I would like to work in wax and really get into moldmaking, but for now, Sculpey is the clay I'm most comfortable with.

Without further ado, here are some photos of my work in sculpey:

My next entry will have some in-process photos of the piece I recently completed in Chavant. So long and thanks for reading!