Finished!

Here is the finished set. Thanks for looking.

This is the other set I was able to work on. Did not get the white rabbit done. Oh well!
Have a great week! Hope to see some of you in Philly.
Mark

Scarecrow

Finished this guy. Now to get a presentation ready for the show.

Last Big Push!

Working as many hours as I can the past few days to get sculptures finished for the Philly show this week.

 Finished the Lion yesterday.

Will post the Scarecrow tomorrow. Hope to post the completed set as well so you can see how they all get along. Have a great day!

TINNED MAN

*** Special announcement, to all my friends from facebook: My login will no longer work so I have no access to Facebook. Therefore, I will no longer be posting there. If you find me and want to communicate, you will need to email me. Sorry!

Finished this guy last night. Hope he will be received well at the Philly show this month.

 

All the "metal' is sculpted polymer clay. The costume is silk with an applied trim and leather belt. His boot is leather as well. I will post images of the lion when he is completed. Hope to get on the Scarecrow this weekend.

Thanks for looking, have a great day!

SORRY!

Hi, just a quick update to those following our "demon" sculpt. Had to take some time off to get sculptures finished for the Doll and Teddy Bear Artist & Collector Convention in Philly next month. Attempting to get two sets of figures finished: my OZ pieces and Alice in Wonderland set. Here is the Wizard from the oz set.

I am working off the Wicked book for my concept. Adding a touch of steam-punk, a bit of fantasy, and maybe something good will come out of the studio.

 Yesterday's sculpt of the lion. Off to the oven for him.

Hope you all have a great day, and that some of us will meet in Philly on May 12-14.
Mark

Child Limbs

Lets look at the proportions for the limbs before we go on.
LEGS- to get a simple measurement and location for the knee, use the head height from the crotch to the knee (number 4 on the drawing). Keep in mind that the upper leg extends past the crotch to the hip joint or a measurement of 1-1/4 heads in this case. The lower part of the leg is the same length of 1-1/4 heads to the ankle joint. The ankle to bottom of the foot is going to vary but should be about 1/8th of a head high.
ARMS- For most figures, the following rules apply: the shoulder joint is located at the end of the collarbone. This is the start of the upper arm. The shoulder muscle (deltoids) will make the shoulder slightly higher than the joint.
The elbow hits the space between the ribcage and the hipbone (pelvis) on the side of the body. On the drawing this is shown by the two faint lines on the side; the downward arching one is the bottom of the ribcage, the upward arc is the top of the pelvis. Use that same measurement from the shoulder joint to the elbow as the measurement from the elbow to the wrist.
!!!!NOW, take all the proportions and rules I have laid out and disregard them!!!!
Every person I have met has a slight variation to the length of the toros, legs, and arms. You must adjust the "rules" to create a body which pleases you. BE AN ARTIST! Experiment with the form and make art which is beautiful to you. I give you permission to ignore all the rules for the sake of your artwork!

Having said that, lets take a quick look at how to manipulate the clay into some kind of humanoid limbs.

 Condition your clay and press it onto the armature. Add a little more clay than you need.

 This is not the pretty stage, just get the warm clay on the wire without air bubbles under it.
Use a very sharp knife to cut the profiles of the limbs. A dull knife will rip the clay and leave white marks in your finished surface.

Let the clay cool before you do your final shaping and smoothing or you will be pushing hot clay off the armature as you attempt to finish the sculpture. Work back and forth from limb to limb to let the clay cool as you finish them.

 Have a great day!
Mark

Sculpting the Wee child

Back to our little creation now that anyone following along has had time to make an armature; I hope. Once again, I am sorry for the quality of the images. One camera won't focus all the time and the other stopped working. I am sending them one at a time for repairs as the funds allow.

 When last we met on these pages we completed our armature for the child in our story of the psyche (not sure if it be human or monster psyche).

 As you can tell, the little child is in motion- notice the figure is blurry...motion, get it?
What can I say, one of those days again. Meds time yet?
So, condition a ball of clay and apply it to the torso of the armature. We want as uniform a layer of clay (about 1/4- 3/8 inch thick) as we can get. Be sure to press out any air which may be trapped between the clay and the armature.  Let the clay run onto the upper legs and arms as well so the transition from torso to limbs can be sculpted easier.

 Once the torso has an even layer of clay, lay out the center line of the body from the neck to the crotch being sure to follow any slight twist of the body.
Keep in mind that my wee one is moving (skipping, running, whatever) so the hips will be tilted from side to side as the center of balance is shifted during the raising of the leg. The torso also twists slightly as the lifted leg is brought forward. Skipping and running use two different approaches to hip movement. While running, the hips should remain almost level to conserve energy as the trailing leg is brought forward. The result is that the hip drops slightly on the trailing leg. If you look at my skipping child, you notice the trailing hip is higher. Skipping requires that the person hop forward so the trailing hip is raised so the center of balance is positioned over the planted foot. The waist will then bend to shift the ribcage over the hips to attempt to keep the core of the torso centered so the body will not fall over.
The main body mass markers of collarbone, ribcage, and pelvis are laid in at this time as well. (1 head height from collarbone to bottom of sternum, 1 head height from sternum to bottom of crotch for our child)

 The back gets laid out  as well following the twist or tilt of the waist and hips.

 Side view; just in case you had not figured this out yet.

Basic sculpting is done to the torso. Notice the smaller ribcage, swell of the tummy and rather straight sides from armpit to hip. If you are really observant, you will notice that I have added some clay to the neck and stuck the head on as well.At this time our child is neither male nor female so there is not genitalia.

 Torso from the back.

And the side.
We will do a little on the arms, legs, and fitting the demon support rod into the support tube when next we meet. Okay, your turn. Catch up!
Have a splendid day!
Moi!