BACK TO THE CLOBBER MONKEY!

Now that I have the body straight I want to flatten the bottom, get it nice and level. In the end I will probably cut out a piece of styrene plastic to finish the bottom.
First it gets a light raking to take down any light bumps or ridges. Then putting the piece on the flat tabletop I press it down and twist it.



Now there are shiny spots where the contact was made, these are the areas where we need to rake it down a little more.



That will take care of the bumps, now to go after the depressions. Take a straight edge lay it across the surface gentle drag it across.



Create a grid pattern. Now it will be easy to detect low points where the ruler didn’t touch that need to be filled in. Just repeat the process until you feel it as flat as you want it.

CUTTING LETTERING WITH CLAY!

I’m sculpting away on the Clobber Monkey and will have new updates this week. In the mean time I was thinking of what other past projects did I have to show and tell some sculpting techniques. The Frank Kozik Ho Chi Minh figure had a couple tricky bits.
I took an actual plaster bust that Frank got in Vietnam, added his logo and enhanced some of the facial features. The lettering on the plaques were done by a lettering company with lasers and plexy. The “Kozik” logo on the back of the figure I wanted to sculpt.



I used “Hard” Sulpher Free Chavant clay. Warmed up in the microwave, then rolled into a thin sheet with my handy pasta maker (A tool every sculptor should have) the logo was printed out at the size for the sculpture. I literally traced the outline with a pencil right onto the clay.



Now with the outline in place the clay has to be very firm for cutting such a tiny piece. Circuit Freeze spray is great for instantly freezing the clay, it can be bought at most electronic stores. Freeze the clay, and use the tiny X-acto blades for cutting.



You may need to re-freeze the clay as you work. The freeze spray is also great when you are trying to sculpt tiny details, or sharp edges on any sculpt.

FIRMING UP SUPER SCULPEY!

Even while I’m sculpting the Angry Cobber Monkey I’m preparing some Super Sculpey for my next project. I love working with SS although I find it isn’t always ready right out of the box. A little too mushy for my taste. Even SS Extra Firm can use some help, it varies from box to box. I take the new SS and roll it into several thin strips with a pasta maker. (A Pasta maker is a fantastic tool for the sculptor) Roll it out on sheets of paper towel, and roll it up. The paper towel will soak up the extra Plasticizer and give it a more leathery consistency. Usually I leave it rolled up for 2 weeks to a month. I always mix a little black Super Sculpey Three in so it has a gray tone.

10% SHRINKAGE!

Wow, I’ve been busy as a Mo’Fo’ lately just wrapping up some projects.
I dug up the old Sour sculpt as a good example of the 10% shrinkage I was talking about.
The original sculpt is on the far left, in the middle the resin master, and lastly the final product. Usually the sculpt doesn’t survive the molding processes but if it does I wrap it up, and box it for storage. The resin master has a little shrinkage, but the vinyl clearly shows the most. More Clobber Monkey sculpting this week!

BTW- Brendan Monroe has a show coming up at the Richard Heller Gallery if you haven't seen Brendan's work up close don't miss it! October 13th through November 10th

TOOLS!

I received a couple of emails requesting more detail, and a closer peek at the tools that were being used in the demo.


The wire tools that are used to plane out the rough spots. And the cable rakes, small and large. I have made a few little custom wire rakes from guitar string.



The same techniques work on the small and large sculpts. This big guy I’m working on was for a Pizza Hut commercial a few years ago with Miss Piggy and a talking Mount Rushmore. I sculpted the Teddy Roosevelt head. Basically using the large cable rake and the same types of tools in a larger scale.



An other large-scale piece was the Borg outfits for the Star Trek Borg Invasion 4-D at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Same deal just bigger, lots of detail lots of precise smooth contours. A combo of big tools for the armor and little tools for the details. A combo of big tools for the armor and little tools for the details. Always take the time to experiment use the tools that feel most comfortable to you.

MORE SMOOTHIN’ AND MEASURIN’!

As the form is being built up and planned down. We always have to keep an eye on the shape and the size. After smoothing it with a flat stick, I’ll use the flat wire rake, then use one of my favorite homemade tools the cable rake. It’s basically a cable housing (Like a bicycle brake) looped into a brass tube.



This helps to bring down the shape in nice even strokes.



I’m lying the sculpt down on the art to check the over all shape. I’ll add a centerline to drawing and a line to indicate where the arms will live. Always keep an eye on the center line of your sculpt, the basic landmarks of where everything will go. I ultimately like my finished pieces to be a little hand made looking, with some looseness in the sculpt. But that can come later after a firm foundation of symmetry is set.





I detect a little wonkyness, it’s a little bigger on the right side. Focusing on the centerlines and making the 2 halves match can fix this. Next I'll even out the 2 sides and map out the other parts of the figure.

LET’S GET STARTED!

The prototype is all taken apart, I think he is pretty much retired, but I will use it for reference.



In the same way you build a wooden model airplane by pinning the parts right onto the plans, I like to do the same with sculpting. I layout the template to make sure the things are the right shape. I measure the height of the core with calipers to make sure there’s at least an inch for adding clay. Now with the foil core in place I’ll start applying the clay. I like to microwave the block for about 2.5 minutes. This way there is liquefied clay in the center and very soft clay on the outside.



Dig into the middle and spread the first coat like peanut butter. Once the first even coat is applied. I’ll start a little smoothing to get it in shape, not too much we’re still in a very rough “Getting the basic size and shape “ part of the sculpt.



With the side view I’ll check the height, length, and width, adding rough lumps of clay as indicators. With all the indicators in place I’ll build up more bulk just using more rough lumps. This is called “roughing out the shape”



After adding lumps, the shape is basically there, give or take a few areas. Now I can do a little smoothing, mainly to find uneven areas, and start the refining of the form. Using my big flat stick, I’ll just start planning it down using the tip and the flat area of the tool. This is an area where most people need advice when they start sculpting, how to get the clay smooth. It’s done in steps. Vary the direction of your strokes, vertical, diagonal, horizontal etc.





Next we will get into blocking out where the parts will go.