CUSTOM SKULLY!

I'll have 2 custom Skully's in the custom mini Skully show at Chuckwa in Fullerton CA. Over 90 artists took a whack at making this cool little piece their own.







"There's Something In My Eye" #1 and #2 will be available at the show, opening May 16th! I'm really into rusting up toys lately.

THE SHADOWS KNOW!

Another aspect of the smoothing technique, using light and shadow to reveal tiny details.
I'm again using the old YHWY sculpt for a demo. Usually you will use his method when you have reached the final smoothing stages, at the finishing point.

THE SMOOTHING TECHNIQUE!

I was looking for any good coverage I might have of the smoothing technique that I talk about. That is one of the number one things I am asked about when it comes to sculpting.
My good friend Don Asher helped me out by shooting this short video. The YHWY sculpt still exists. It's kind'a beat up, but was in great shape to do a little demo. I keep almost all of the sculpts that I make for vinyl. Unless they are completely destroyed by the molding process.

WHAT ABOUT THE BODY!

The roughing out of the body, legs and arms. The figure has to balance on it’s own before the sculpt can move forward. The foot positioning was going to be the solid foundation for the figure. I arranged it so the right foot was flat and the left foot toe made contact with the ground to form a solid triangular base.



The legs and butt form a flat table top for the body to rest. The bell shape of the dress is solid in the interior and has a flat level surface. You can see a line on the forehead this is to center the head body and legs. When the sculpt is converted to vinyl there’s no way to control any shifts the material will make over time. Figuring out which parts will be rotocast “Hollow Vinyl” or injection Solid plastic. Any part that bears weight will usually be injection plastic.



Tiny arms tiny hands. Check out the previous post where I go over how to set up the armature wire with thread: http://davepresslersculpting.blogspot.com/2007/11/sculpting-arms.html Getting the tiny fingers with finger nails is going to take allot of freeze spray and a magnifying glass.



The rough arm and hand taking shape. I ran into a piece of armature wire (I hate that!) It got buzzed down with a dremmel tool.



Checking that the arms are the same size. And the pose matches the original panting as closely as possible.



My work space in 2006. Hmmm cluttery!













THE HEAD THE FACE THE EYES!

As the face was coming together it was time to insert the eyes. It’s necessary to have a full hard plastic half sphere the eyeball remains consistent.



Hey it’s children of the damned! This is the initial positioning of the eyes. The orbs will be the perfect size when they are set back in the head. All of Mark’s girls have very large saucer eyes. Also you notice there is line etched in the center of the face. At this point it’s important to define where the center of the face is.



After gouging out a socket for the eye, I started to rough out the lids and brow ridge.



This is the part where it takes the most concentration. To keep smoothing, comparing to the art and getting the face just right. At this stage I use smaller loop tools. It’s almost like doing cross hatching on a sketch, removing very little clay.



Having a small mirror helps to make sculpting the symmetry and ears easier.
Study the mirror view and copy it.



The mouth was not working out. Mark and I had some conversations about the mouth being cuter and more full. Sometimes for me the easiest thing is to wipe the slate clean and start fresh with a new idea. Never be to precious with your sculpts! Always be ready to slice off a nose or chop the mouth off. It feels like “Oh my god, but I put so much work into that!” If it’s not working it’s just in the way. Besides doing it a second time is always faster, you already did it once.



The new mouth was based on another of Mark’s sketches. More full “Sexy Innocence” if you will.



Again with the freeze spray. Once the shape is right I want to start tightening the detail. The circuit freeze is again my best friend. Freeze up the clay and sculpt it while it is rigid. Repeat as necessary.



Another good technique for attaining symmetry, turn the sculpt upside down. The new perspective will reveal areas to address.

WHAT ABOUT THE EARS AND THE GIRL!

When I’m working on a sculpt I want to get the entire piece roughed out. That way I can just see the entire form at once and make adjustments. The ears were going to be interesting. Not only do they have a fur texture, but some amazing folds that I wanted to really get to look right. It the same process adding hot clay to an armature, getting the rough form, then using finer tools to smooth and refine the shape.

The delicate fur texture I’ll make with a small tool. A simple etched line repeated over and over until it feels like your hand may fall off. At that point I was almost finished.
After the first pass of fur texture the clay gets brushed down with 91% Alcohol then I’ll etch the texture again. Doing several layers like this will give a richness to the overall fur texture. With vinyl it is always better to go a little deeper with the details. Details can get toned down in the process of manufacturing.





In this picture early on there fur on the outside of the ear too. Mark thought it would look better if the outer ear was smooth to contrast with the texture on the inside. This was a good note.



The outside is smoothed, it’s time to get the position on the head right. The ears had about 2 inches of armature wire sticking out so it was easy to just stab them in and play with the pose. Once the pose looked right then I added the clay, and sculpted the parts that would join them smoothly to the body.

At this stage I had done much smoothing and refining of the body and eyelids. The smoothing technique is what I get asked about the most. It’s mostly just taking a flat tool, working the clay into the rough curves and shapes, then using a large rake to take down the sculpt to smoother plains and slowly graduating to finer and finer rakes.



When it’s time to start working the final smoothing these are your best friends.
A mini torch, 91% Isopropyl Alcohol and circuit freeze spray. The first step I’ll take alcohol on a sea sponge (I like these better then the artificial sponges) rub down the clay with the sponge and smooth it out. Next fire up the torch, (Put the cap back on the alcohol and move it away. A couple times in a concentrated work frenzy I have set a lit torch down flame pointing to an open alcohol bottle) Hold the torch about 5 inches away from the clay until the surface gets nice and shinny. The blast it with the circuit freeze.
Repeat. I’ll have more smoothing as we go through the project.

I’ll return the YHWY but we must start the girl. As I said the girl was going to be challenging. Mark has mastered a very specialized female characterization of his female subjects. Capturing the subtleties was going to be hard.



The additional challenge is only having the semi 3/4 art to work with. The first step foil ball with armature wire. There are many ways to make the armature, some sculptors prefer a ball of wire. I like my foil. Next step to just get the very crude building blocks of the head and face in place.



See it looks just like the art! Next step, to just start measuring the head and face to create the rough land marks of where the features will live. In marks art I thought the eyes were a good feature to use as the measuring standard. How many eyes wide is the head? How many eyes tall is the forehead? Etc.


Many hours later the very rough face and head with basic facial geography is taking shape.


Also just looking at the art in the same angle and seeing if it looks right.



The other aspect of figuring out the girl is how will she fit together. She has a very specific pose in Mark’s painting. There was talk early on about changing her position so the vinyl would have better balance. I believe the vinyl should be a replica of the painting as much as possible. I was determined to work out a way for the girl to stand firm even with one foot up on the toes.

LEVEL NO. 36!

Swedish game magazine LEVEL no. 36 has a nice little piece on my custom NES Advantage joystick I created for the "I Am 8Bit show" in 07. Thomas Sol Sunhede from Level no. 36 sent me a scan of the page.





Here is the article translation:

"This is not an copy like the rest but rather a nice "development" of the original. This piece was shown at the exhibition I am 8-bit in Los Angeles. With it's $700 price it is probably the most expensive of all NES advantage versions and it sure makes you want to take out the paint bucket again. LEVEL now wonders when the first Swedish joystick remake will pop up on Tradera (our Ebay). This writer has already sold a pink SEGA Saturn and a black Amiga but without any great profit. You'll find more funny art at davepresslerart.com."