Sculpture - Old Face.

Fancied a bit of sculpting inbetween all the other stuff going on (animateclay quarterly challenge underway!).

Haven't decided if it's an old man or an old woman, but it's definitely old. There are some flaws. Some things I like, some I don't. Sculpted in Chavant NSP Le Beaux Touché - way too soft. It's softer than plasticine.

Yep! Toilet roll tube for a neck.

Tie

Hopefully, posting this now, will show how much I will have improved in 12 months time. If I don't, I'm gonna give up. You can probably tell I'm not over-the-moon with this short. I had about 4 hours to shoot, compile and edit in time for the deadline, so I'm sticking to that as a reason why it's not very good.

Animateclay.com June challenge entry. Theme was 'Tie'.

Some progress shots: (click to enlarge).

Limp stills.

A couple of stills showing the puppet and partial set of my animateclay.com monthly challenge entry for May. The challenge theme was 'Limp'. I've had a few problems editing the final film, and as it's now middle of June, this short might never be seen. I just  thought I owe it to the poor doll to post her picture.

Extra lighting for photo purposes. The actual film is darker than this.

The doll was a nightmare to animate. Too tall, no tie-downs.

Spare Parts.

Unlucky old Rough Puppet had to be stripped down to make new puppets this week. I extracted his eyes and nuts (tie-down nuts!), leaving him in a sorry state. Goblin did his best to console the poor fellow.

Puppet Preview.

I was hoping to get this puppet finished for the weekend and post it in full, but that's unlikely to happen. I have college work, baking work, a family christening and other social functions which take precedence over the next few days. 24 hours in a day?! Come-on!! They should be 3 times that long!

So, here's what I've done so far (cos I can't stand not updating any longer). I have to detach the latex face from the skull and put the eyes in. Then maybe add some eyebrows - I haven't decided yet. I'm holding the fur in place for photo's sake. Hopefully, I can complete it within the week, depending on how much sleep I require.

Mobile phone pic.

New Goblin

I wasn't happy with the lack of control over detail in the previous attempts so I decided on a different technique. I sculpted a face in plasticine, made an open plaster mould and slush cast a thin latex mask. After dipping the upholstery foam head in latex, I grafted the mask on while the head was still wet. I don't think I have a career in plastic surgery, but it worked ok.

Slightly disturbing!

Mask, mould, sculpt.

Still a bit rough but getting nearer to what I envisaged.

I have to thank Jon for the photo backdrop technique. Cheers, pal :)

Puppet FAIL.

I wasn't going to post this, but I haven't updated in a while. Below you can see the latest failed attempt at a goblin. Before I dipped in latex, the puppet was spot-on. The proportions were all nice and it was feather light due to it being made from upholstery foam, then wrapped in bandages. For some reason I didn't take any photos of the pre-dipped phase.

Then it all went tits.

The latex soaked into the bandages too much (perhaps I should have foreseen this), resulting in a very heavy body and I couldn't achieve the 'smooth' finish I was hoping for. The right arm became detached from the wooden chest block - probably because I used metal epoxy, which set rock-hard but didn't bond to the wood. The right leg came loose from its wooden block too - same reason. Overall, it just didn't look the way I wanted it to. Back to the drawing board. Oh, and the latex dried much darker than I had anticipated, despite adding gallons of white pigment. After I finish the puppet I'm doing now, I think I'll get back to the Dragonskin silicone. I'm losing faith in liquid latex.

Quite a big puppet. About 13 inches.

I don't like the face. It's too generic.