The Captain Progress

One of my main problems when creating the Captain was that his head and body were more or less the same object. This made it tricky to create his head separately to his body and bake it beforehand. For the Captain the hat served in the role of the head. I spent a day or two working on it, refining it, and then finally baking it.

In reflection I think the reason I do this is that it becomes a solid 'foundation' or element to cling to as I make the rest of the character. It might sound silly, but having something solid and finished on a character that can't be changed sets a precedent for the quality of the sculpt, perhaps a goal of quality or a standard to be achieved. Structurally it's helpful too as it allows me (particularly in this instance) to push down on the solid piece lending weight and squash to the more natural elements such as the flesh of the head, neck, and shoulders.

The areas around the neck and shoulders are not as cramped as the design, but this is because I'm leaving room for the thick 'cloth' of the coat, lapels and shoulder-pads to do this. Just now I'm beginning to see that I've implicitly squashed the detail of the character towards his face, all other elements are being pushed or drawn toward it. The weight from his hat pushes down, the stretch in his coat and belly pushes up, and his little face is caught between them creating a nice focal point, and the face is where you want the focal point to be. 

The History of my Table

Before I write about my progress on the captain character, I feel I should mention the evolution of my workspace. At the beginning of commencing this project I documented it's state and thought it would be a good idea to give an update on it's evolution through working.

(Above: The old state)

(Above: The new state)

(Above: The old state)

(Above: The new state)

Aside from being more chaotic and a bit messy I notice the addition of several elements (the addition of more reference material, a piece of clean paper, and new tools). 

Another great addition is that of the 5 small posters above my work bench. Each is a 'tip', 'guiding principle', or 'guide line' that I found I was reiterating to myself subconsciously whilst I worked.

After reading Schön I knew that to pass off the opportunity to make these guide lines explicit would be a tremendous loss, so I made sure to write and expand on them as soon as I could. They have since become my primary product of my research, which is something that I never expected having spent the past couple of months slaving away at a pile of clay, and now these 5 bit of paper are my primary product!? What?!

The 5 Guidelines can be seen below:

They are: 

1) If you're unhappy with the structure of a piece; change it.

2) It's not finished, until it's finished.

3) Block out the basic structure first, don't race to the detail 

4) Always take the time to reflect on your work.

5) Don't be constrained and limited by the designs.

Each is specifically relating to my own process whilst sculpting, but I can see how they might also be used more generally in character design. 

 

The Captain's Armature

With Jangles sculpted I'm now trying to figure out how I should paint him. Oddly his colouring is something I've neglected until now and this has caused a bit of a problem. I think it's the size of his pants, if I paint them a vibrant colour/pattern they will detract attention from the face, but if I make them too drab then I have a large part of my character painted in an uninteresting way.

In the meantime I've started work on what will be my second and final character for this project; the Captain. As with Jangles I wrote a short list of defining attributes and described his actions and behavior. I've decided on his name being Captain Orton Titch, because titch is old english slang for a short person and the name 'Little Tich' originated from the name of a short english comedian who bore a resemblance to Arthur Orton the Tichborne claimant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tichborne_case).

"Orton Titch is the captain of the Mary Lou a small privateer vessel crewed by himself and four others. He identifies as a pirate, yet both he and his crew are all quite benign, preferring tricks and mischief to violence. They are the archetypical friendly pirates often associated with children's stories, tys, and films."

I've described him as being: Prone to illusions of grandeur, capricious, neurotic/irrational, lucky/fluky, a benign Napoleon, boisterous/energetic/lively, and cheeky/mischievous.

After this I then began work on his armature, I first drew up a quick map , going for the same techniques I developed through the creation of Jangles (and I was much quicker this time).

[Above]: The armature map for the Captain.

Through the lack of my usual thick armature, and a problem with 'shifting clay' that I encountered with Jangles (the clay slides along the armature instead of clinging to it) I decided to make my own thick armature wire with some light gauge wire and a power drill which I used to twist the folded wire together tightly.

This I then measured, cut to size, bent and then bound together to make the following armature.

The armature is little over 12cm tall and considerably small when compared with Jangles, yet both characters should still seem to be of the same scale. The size of this armature is quite deceptive due to the fact that his hat will be made almost entirely out of clay and carry a considerable weight.

Next I shall be bulking out the character with tin foil and beginning to build up the basic form with clay.

Jangles Sculpted

I've just finished baking Jangles the Clown (previously Dr. Jangles). Overall I'm quite pleased with how he turned out, there were only a few minor cracks after baking, but they sealed themselves back up once he was cooled and what remains of them will easily be covered by paint.

Above: Jangles the Clown after baking.

The trickiest part was perhaps his pants as they were quite bulky and it's difficult to get some good 'squash' and 'stretch' happening when you have so much stiff clay to shift. For his socks and stockings I made my own stamps and used them to imprint fine details. This required quite a bit of experimentation with various methods. At first I tried a basic flat stamp and tried to push it into the surface of the leg to give the impression of fishnet stockings. The clay was far too stiff at this point so the effect was fairly minor, it also resulted in the leg being distorted too much and required some fixing.

The second attempt was made using the same stamp on a flat strip of ribbon like clay which I would wind around the leg. The ribbon was too short however and needed to be stretched. I played around with a rolling-pin cross stamp method in which the stamp was cylindrical so the pattern would be continuous, but sculpting a consistent pattern onto the stamp was too difficult. In the end I just made a longer and more defined version of the first stamp (I made it's grooves and dents deeper to allow my detail) and then pressed this in a long strip of ribbon like clay which I then wound around the leg. The same process was used for the socks. I was quite impressed by the level of detail they produced and would like to develop a few similar methods for perhaps the texture of cloth and fur.

Above: Two of the stamps used. To the left is the original, to the right is the final.

I've been reading 'The Illusion of Life' lately and came across a few quotes by Walt Disney describing his attitude to the development of a character's history and personality. This has inspired me to write a few biographies for the characters that I may use in my research. The important distinction between the written descriptions and those I've written before is that I'm making no mention of a character's physical features, only their mood and personality which has shifted my thinking and attitudes toward them. I no longer see them as static artefacts, but a freeze frame of a character's life. The pose they strike in the sculpture is not their only and most defining pose, but just one of their many and it could be an insignificant and pedestrian pose (how they would stand normally as they go about their day) or a pose that defines a large aspect of their personality and story. In animation lingo, I see it as the difference between a 'key frame' and an 'in-between' frame, which is something that perhaps I will elaborate on later.

To Sculpt a Clown

I've forgotten how much I enjoy the process of sculpting a character. It can be so rewarding when everything happens just as you envisioned it. I have only just baked the head of Jangles the Clown which I have been working on over the past couple of days.

In the more recent past I find that I've rushed through characters in the hope of creating something great, quickly. The results of doing this are always personally disappointing (Wormwood in particular).

Starting with a bare armature I bulked out the characters basic form with some clay, being careful to maintain symmetry at an early stage (which means being careful with the quantity of clay, being sure that it is added in even quantities around the character). It's a slow process and the firm clay doesn't make it any easier. It took me from roughly 12am to 4pm with a few breaks (and lots of movies, James and the Giant Peach & The Witches in particular, why Roald Dahl? I have no idea) and I managed to get to this point:

It might not look impressive, but at this stage most of the laborious work takes place at this point. Moving around relatively large quantities of clay and trying maintain some symmetry isn't exactly difficult, but it is time consuming and requires a pair of enduring hands.

The next day I managed to bulk out the legs and add some shoes, which took another 2 hours.

It's at this point I realised how out of sync the perspective and foreshortening in my sketch was when compared to the sculpt. When faced with this it's better to ignore the conflict and just accept that you've made a mistake in the sketch.

Then the face, this is always my favourite part and I should really have left it until last for desert, but I think I needed to enjoy myself after two days of boring work.

At the end of the third day, at around 10:30 at night I ended up with this:

I knew it was a good start, but wrote a list of required changes like: "change ears, smooth out lips," and left it for the next day in which I finished and baked the head:

[Note]: It doesn't look anywhere near as dusty in real life, that's odd.

Dr. Jangles' Armature

Another quick update on my progress.

I made the basic armature for the Dr. Jangles sculpt today. After going over the old armature map, I decided that a 6 piece armature was probably a bit too fragile and fiddly, so I reworked it and managed to design a much stronger 3 piece armature.

I measured out the rough lengths of each of the parts, rolled and straightened roughly 95cm of heavy gauge armature wire, marked out the measurements and bending points, and then cut them all to size.

Armature wire, being made of aluminum, is incredibly hard to solder so I usually wrap thin copper wire around the various parts of the armature that need to be bound together (in this case the spinal area).

The copper does a surprisingly good job of holding everything together, but to be safe I added a few blobs of super glue to the spinal area and waited for it to dry, then wiped off any excess glue.

When measuring I made sure to leave a bit of extra wire in the feet so that I could bend down the ends to insert into a base.

After drilling a couple of suitable holes into my 'work bench' (just a plank of MDF) I inserted the armature into the holes and made some fine posture adjustments with my hands. It's sturdy and - as far as I can tell - to the correct scale.

I'm not sure if I should give him a more dynamic pose, because I feel that it might compromise the dimensions of the sculpt and I want it to communicate his basic dimensions and shape at a glance.

This was all done in roughly an hour.

More updates to come. Progress shots below, I think I'll take more of future characters so you can see more of my process, but it's hard to stop working when you're 'in the zone'.

[Above]: The edited armature map with measurements.

[Above]: The workbench with armature.

[Above]: The armature itself.

 

My Workspace

Just a quick post.

I thought it would be a good idea to document how my work space looks at the moment. I haven't started sculpting yet, but I've bought everything that I need and it's all set out neatly. I think I'm trying to make it as enticing as possible, but the fact that I'm still undecided on which characters I should do is causing me to procrastinate :S

I've also bought a 'creative top hat' that I'm wearing whenever I do some work, I think it's a great way of placing my mind firmly within the boundaries of "I'm wearing my work hat, therefore I must work".

It sounds like something a kindergarten teacher might use on unruly children, but so far it's working, which really makes me question my mental maturity.