Thursday, October 18, 2012

Ijiraq Version 2.0 is Almost Done!

It's been way too long in between updates, but I didn't really have a whole lot to post. I've just been sculpting along very slowly. No new updates on Ganesha, but I am nearly done with the final version of the Ijiraq (see my post from last year for the sketch/rough version in Chavant). I'm really happy with how he's turned out and I'm just a few days away from being ready to bake and paint this sculpt.

Without further ado, here are photos of the sculpture, this time sculpted in Sculpey firm and Apoxie Clay.

I used Apoxie Clay to create the weapon (refrenced a bear femur and jaw and sculpted each component separately, then glued them together; once this piece has been baked, the top of the weapon will have waxed twine wrapped around the jaw and the femoral head) and the antlers. Because Apoxie Clay is self-curing once the two parts are mixed, it lends itself very well to creating durable parts that wouldn't be all that feasible to create in sculpey. You can work layer-by-layer and then just leave the piece alone to cure by itself. Once cured, the piece is sandable and carveable. The horns and claws of the dragon sculpture in the post below this were all created using very fine guage steel wire and Apoxie. It handles going in the oven beautifully, and you can even speed the cure time by exposing it to low heat (or retard it by putting it in the freezer). It's great stuff for parts like these, though expensive enough that it wouldn't really be feasible for me to make an entire sculpture from it.

I am a big believer in using reference whenever possible, and was lucky enough to be working on this piece in a time when a brilliant reference tool just happened to become available. It's called L'Ecorché, and it is currently available to use on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, though the developer is currently working to put out versions for Android, PC, and Mac. Below are some of the sample images of the app from the iTunes store. What the app does is pretty simple and straightforward, but the benefits of such a tool are nearly immeasurable. You can rotate this three-dimensional anatomy model in every conceivable direction, and the high-resolution of the model allows you to zoom in as much as you want. The app comes with several different versions of the model, including a full skeleton, with all bony landmarks highlighted in orange on the skeleton. It's only five bucks, and though it doesn't replace my anatomy books, it goes a very, very long way to help me visualize the muscle groups detailed in them in three-dimensional space. I highly recommend it to all artists with an interest in anatomy, especially fellow sculptors.



As always, thanks for reading, and I promise not to wait nearly an entire year before my next update. It will be soon, probably only a matter of weeks!