Creature Sculpture

I used the design from my last blog to create a small sculpture. This was the final project for my animal construction and creature design class. Sorry for the sideways scrolling on these images, but it seemed like the best way to present the progression.

I started out building a sturdy armature with wire on a wood plaque. I used plumber's apoxy to weld the wire together. Then I started building the actual shape of the creature with tin foil, because it's lighter than clay and because it makes for a quicker baking time when you go to fire the super sculpy.



I realized that the right shoulder was way too low and didn't look natural, so I had to pull off some flesh and do bone surgery on him. On the last pic you can see that the shoulder looks about right. Sadly, it was about this time that I realized that I had made the arms way too short for the original design which had more like monkey arms. I chose not to correct it at this point, because I felt like the sculpture looked natural this way and because time was an issue.



These are a progression from basic shapes to more finished fleshed out creature and base. Thats a fish he's stabbing with the spear.



More of the same.



And finally here is the finished, painted piece. I used an airbrush almost exclusively for this. I only used regular brushes to add a gloss varnish to the water and to the creature's eyes. Total sculpt time was around 20 to 25 hours and the paint job was another 8 to 10.