Work on the unfinished Troll Screamers shown above as well as several NEW Troll Screamers will resume soon. I have several body parts ready to go for the new creations.

Wednesday 23 September 2009

MASS PAPER MACHE ARMATURE PRODUCTION USING PLASTER MOLDS PART 2

I just finished sanding down by hand my dolphin armature. First with 40 grade glass paper then with 100 grade glass paper. It's now ready for me to paint on the details using my dragon skin. Thats the beauty of my dragon skin it not only can be painted on directly to vertually any paper surface adding strength without compramising the weight too much once dry, but also make a fantastic 3D paint medium too. 10 minutes by a 8 inch desk fan & each new layer is ready to be added safely without ruining the previous layer. Colour can be added during the mixing stage or after you have mixed up any size of batch of dragon skin easily. For the dolphin here i am using what i call a 'bone mix'. Basically it has a 3rd more PVA glue in it to give it a harder, smoother more bone like finsih. Then once dry i can then mass copy it in a plaster split mold. The final dolpins are to be part of a medium sized water feature. There will be a mermaid sitting inside a large giant clam teasing the dolphin pod as they leap up & over some waves with water pooling up & over the dolpines too... I hope lol.

I have not added to fins or tail at this stage to make copying using a plaster split mold process easier.




When i come to do the pod & the waves they will look kind of like this statue formation, though a little more spaced out. The waves are the easiest part of course lol. Please note this is NOT my work displaid here in the image below this text. This is JUST an image i grabbed online as an example for myself as to how to make the waves & an idea of how the dolphin pod should look when leaping. i have no idea of size, shape or even where this is displaid. I can't even remember where i grabbed the image from now. I only posted this image to show roughly HOW i will be doing 'my' version of my dolpins & waves.


My dolphin armature after 2 coats of dragon skin painted on as 3D paint. I should have the face finished pretty much by the end of today.


Now after 6 coats of dragon skin.


Tuesday 22 September 2009

SOME RANDOM DRAGON WIP's

Here are some unfinsihed random dragon WIP's i came across while image hunting through my files. Some are just test prototype heads. Others actually are unfinished dragons.










































INTERACTIVE MOVING DEMON & ANGEL SCULPTURE WIP's

One of the long term projects i started a little while ago but have had to put on hold thanks to lack of space. Is an interactive demon/angel moving sculpture (yet to be given a title). Essentialy it shows an angel sent to Hell for some unknown reason for punishment. When the activation string/or arm (undecided as yet) is pulled. The demon & the angel will react, moving in unison. The demon will point at the angel who will then bend backwards whilst her wings spread out. The demons wings i hope too will spread out also.
Anyway the angel is to be chained between two rock pillars opposit the demon. When she leans back her arms will raise as they are chained. I don't want to give too much away as this too is part of a project for my DVD BOOK next year. So here are some of the production pictures so far. You can actually find the first stage of the rock base (Hell) & the angels construction in a YouTube video listed at the bottom of this page. I will update these once i get some room cleared out in my work room. I can't do anything more to this yet as once i get going on it again it will have to remain in the position it is to be finished in & i just don't have the working space yet as you can tell from my messy room post earlier lol.

Both the angel & the demon WILL be fully anotomically correct. By that i mean they DO have or will have actual male & female sexual extremities. So if nudity or visual representation of nudity of male or female sexual parts offend then DO NOT watch the video. I HAVE censord the parts so far shown in the static images but they ARE shown clearly in the YouTube video.

Angel leg size & test fit on Hell base.




















Legs & body text size & fit on Hell base.






Angel torso fit & movement test.










Demon & angel body size comparison test.


Angel with layer of dragon skin pre-final sculpting taking place.
















Prototype moving angel wings.


More rocks added to Hell.


Monday 21 September 2009

LARGE ORNIMENTAL DISH PROJECT UPDATE

Well i said i might make up six or so of these to catch up on my painting skills. So i made four more new ones today & three stand bases to go with them. Once this lot dries out fully i will build the four new ones & get to paintig them. More soon on this project.

Click on picture for a better look.



LARGE PUPPET WIP - BONEY 'D

As well as two small/medium sized maggot puppets the prototype shown further below. I am working on a large demon skeleton puppet called BONEY 'D (Boney Demon). He may be larger, much larger than the maggot puppets i am working on but he will operate with the same simple principle mech system. The maggot puppets eye mech will instead operate BONEY 'D's jaw. The maggot puppets mouth mechs will operate BONEY 'd's arms. His head rotation & head nodding work on a completely different mech system. You can see a short video of BONEY 'D moving his head around on a YouTube video in my extensive video listing at the bottom of this page.

His arms are yet to be fitted along with his mouth mech, but you can get a good idea of how he works so far in the short video. He is a two handed operated puppet. Only his head, mouth & arms are set to move. I do have plans to attempt to add movement to his hands too, but this is no longer a certainty at this stage.

Before anyone asks i will not be showing you in any video's or in this blog HOW he works. He is part of the series of projects i plan to use for my DVD Book on advanced paper mache i will be working on at the turn of the new year. Even though i placed a blurb at the end of the short video saying not to ask i STILL get people asking how he works. I would appreciate it if people would recpect my wishes & not ask. I really hate to say no to people i already give a lot of my secrets away for free. Which includes the how my mech money box fish worked. This one is simply chalked up to my getting a little bit back later. I had hoped people might understand this?

To see more details on him so far simply click on any of the pictures below to bring up a bigger picture in your browser. I use IE 8 so cannot say how 'other' browsers may react to this.









P.S.
Balloons were used in his creation believe it or not lol.

Saturday 19 September 2009

LARGE ORNIMENTAL DISH WIPs

I need to brush up on my painting skills. It's been too long dodging actually painting anything other than monsters & dragons. I need to get back into doing some real painting. Some thing with flair & style. So i started making a couple of large dish sculptures seen below. The actual dish section when made was HEIGHT: 6.5cm (2.5 inch) x WIDTH: 43cm (17 inch). I have not measured the overall height yet since i added the stands.

Apart from a single layer of foil i used from the copying stage these dishes are PURE news print & white 80gm printer paper ONLY. Yet once finished they will easily be able to hold several pounds of real fruit or anything else you care to place in them for decoration.

To give me plenty of scope with these i was thinking of making around 6/8 of them since i can easily make 3 a day,  then trying out different painting styles on them to see what works best & 'what' i can still do or more likely what i have forgotten after all these years not painting anything properly lol. Anyway the two large dishes i have so far:








Friday 18 September 2009

UNDERSTANDING - STANDING

Not all sculptures truely require a stand be they in the form of an actual stand or a tail disguised as a stand or what ever device or method is employed. Take my screamers both troll & monster. Look carefully at them. YES, they have big feet but keep looking not all the foot/feet is actually on the ground at any given time. In both my troll & monster screamers ONLY the TOE or the HEEL section is EVER truely flat on the ground at any given time. Nor are the tails when present as with MOTS for instance. Look carefully at MOTS tail & feet in the pictures below. Click on each picture to see a BIGGER version in your browser.































































Not only is MOTS tail NOT on the ground but he IS only standing on the TOE section of his feet. Still not seeing it? Go watch the building of MOTS. In the HOW TO video i actually 'rock' MOTS back & forth whilst waving a length of card stock under his tail proving it NEVER touches the ground AT ALL.

All you need to do whlilst creating some sculptures, obviously there are going to be times when this gravity defying feat will not work, most but not all mind you. No all you need to do is create the feeling or the impression of big feet but in reality ONLY build them so the real required portion IS flat on the ground for stability. Saying that the feet do not have to be comically big either. Why big feet though? Well for one thing when people first look they see big feet & automatically think that's the trick to the sculpture standing up unsupported right? But when they look closer they then realise not all the foot/feet are on the ground or the tail or walking stick or what ever. It's little touches like this that keep people going "Wow how did you do that", then they look again & see something else. Then they keep looking to see what else they can spot. Then your at first simple little sculpture goes from 'thats nice' to 'WOW look at this & this, hang on & this too'.

Had a look now look AGAIN. Can you see they physically look like they are going to fall backwards? They won't unless you give them a hard enough push, but then ANYTHING will fall over in that instance. The reason they don't fall over is because of how i have factored in & built my screamers around a central point of gravity which is present in every aspect of every day life in each sculpture. Don't understand what i mean?

Maybe this will help you.

This is my first screamer, a troll screamer i called Sluggich in his pre-finished state. You can see him finished further down the page. The BLUE line IS the 'fixed' central point of gravity. This remains fixed under normal circumstances according to the laws of physics. In this sculpture the GREEN line indicates the only TRUE section of the sculpture that actually touches the ground at any given time. The RED line's indicate how i have compensated for the shift in the central point of gravity giving Sluggich the impression of not only leaning backwards but also of appearing to be going to fall over at any moment. He won't of course lol. Oh & the little triangles indicate an estimated 'strength' imposed by the angles i have set. The amount of triangles is an estimated amount of gravity times weight being imposed in that region.


Still not convinced yet? Here is Sluggich from a back view.


His arms stretch above his head adding to the weight of him leaning over. There is just no way his feet alone could hold him in THAT pose lol.

Why not experiment today with your sculptures & see how far YOU can push the envelope & gain more attention when people view your work. Once you understand the fundamentals of gravity it's not a challange it's pure fun lol. If you think these two guys are amazing how they defy gravity as the old saying goes "You ain't seen nothing yet baby". Wait until you see what my next four are going to be getting up to lol.