Starting the limbs

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lets start adding the limbs.

Again, my approach to something like this is to try to build it like a reverse dissection. The wire is the bone and the clay is built up like sinue and muscle. Even though this is a fictional character, I want it to feel real and absolutely possible. I find that when I add clay like I'm placing muscle and fat, trying to show where one muscle passes under another, or where a muscle and bone connect, the trick seems to have a positive effect. Even if it's not technically accurate, even if a lot of it will eventually be coverd with skin and texture, having that wierd surgical frame of mind pays off. Form and function is key. (And it's gotta look like the reference)

Once I've roughed one side I can move to the other. Use the calipers to keep opposing limbs and features relatively on track.

Think about how muscle mass and flesh change shape, shift and stretch and tighten as you lay down the clay. Surround yourself with reference that can help you. Keep good reference in view. It's a little embarrassing, but you sometimes have to go and buy a bodybuilder magazine to see extreme examples of muscles and bodies in different poses and conditions. Try books on dance or sports. There are a few decent artist reference books out there, but depending on your project, a good book on boxing might be the right choice. Regardless, having proper ref in front of you is incredibly necessary. ON this project, I use a combination of human and animal reference.

As for the pose here. I am torn between doing something very challenging and dynamic on the one hand, and on the other hand being very faithful to the original image. I'm mostly leaning towards the latter here. For what this will be used for, keeping descriptive, yet fun to look at is what I'm after.

Ok, finally an update! "Woot!" as Manley would say.
Lets start with the webbing between the arms. Here I've cut out some fine wire mesh. You can use anything, alluminum or stainless steel is good. Cut it with tin snips and just push it into the sculpey...about half an inch here. At least deep enough to stay put.

Then I press the clay in there..keeping it thin for now.

here I'm laying in "stretchies" or tension folds. You guessed it...use real fabric for ref. Or your grandmas butterwings.

stretchies roughed in just using fingers.

going over the surface with my knotched loop tool. Notice I'm still using large tools. It ain't time for the little ones yet. Just trying to find the natural looking folds that give the area a sense of pulling and tension.

The other side is much more relaxed. It's tricky to decide how to show this. You just have to experiment. Look at different materials and see what seems right, think about what the creatures skin and flesh are made of. Is the skin tough or silky and thin? Here I feel that there should be a number of permanent folds that just buckle, since this character spends a lot of time in the stretched position, running and leaping about. I think the skin should be thick and tough. (btw, this isn't done!)

[CGERCN-PAGE]

So for the dorsal spikes, i need a thicker, more rigid mesh to support the clay. Again, I'm using the drawing to figure out how this is cut.

here's side view after planting the rest of the spike meshes and throwing clay over them. Starting to look like the original picture, huh?

Hand armature almost done. Still need to wrap in thin wire for grip.

blocking it in without tools, just rolling balls of clay and pressing it in there. Trying to keep in mind the anatomy at all times, functionality sells the shapes y'know. Gee whiz, now that I look at it, the arms looking a little feeble and thin! I'll fix that tomorrow.

The nose needs good support. Measure with calipers. Notice that here and on the fingers I added propoxy tips. This is an optional way to make sharp tips of.. things. When the model is baked, you can sand the tip very sharp and they'll be durable this way. Worth a try.

Roughing in some wrinkles with the large-ish loop tool.

Use reference. This is just the rough the begining, but I won't finish without looking at the real thing.

Starting the detail process now. This is a multi stage process. I like to jump around, so you'll notice that there are many parts not yet ready for fine detail. Again, I work big to small through all stages of work, going over the sculpt in waves.

Here I've sorta cheated, combining the first stage and second. I should have taken a picture earlier in the day...
STAGE 1: Muscle details. Very important to get the "canvas" ready for the finer details. This involves tightening the muscle shapes. Making sure muscles read like they are interacting with eachother realistically. The overs and unders. Reference is a must. Even with a fictional creature like this, people can spot that something just ain't right if you don't understand how the real thing works in the natural world.

STAGE2/3: See the larger wrinkles and folds? This is stage 2 work. Every stage of work depends on the previous stage being right. So before I add the finer lines and textures, the ones they lay upon need to be worked out.

[CGERCN-PAGE]

Notice also that the surface detail is very tooled looking and rough. Eventually once I get the entire character detailed to this point, I will go over the surface with turpenoid and a soft, relatively small brush. But that will be in future updates.

He I'm showing that only half the model is textured. Normally I'd do both sides, but since I'm trying to replicate or get the feeling of the original drawing, i want to work out that side first. I will then mirror it over to the other side, which is a challenge by itself. More on that later.

A word on patience. I can't teach it, but you gotta have it. This is something that masters like Foster understand very well. You have to be able to sit and work methodically and focused for long periods of time. This is one thing that gets overlooked with a number of people just getting started. You reeeally want to see the finished product, I know. But there are few shortcuts to learning the craft and going through the necessare steps to complete something that will knock peoples socks off. All of the kickass people on this site have put their time in and done their homework, even extra credit. That's the only way you can get to the point of making cool things look effortless. Normally if I was working on this full time, I could crank it out in a couple of days. But speed only comes with experience. Take your time and pay the dues, it will pay off later.

Ok....the juicy part starts. DETAIL! Or I guess it continues. Looking two pics back, you can see the raw detail pass in closeup. Below I'm going over that surface with a soft brush and some turpernoid. I keep brushing it until it looks how I want it to. Starting with too many lines and pits and knocking it back until it feels right.

A comparison to show how much I'm smacking down the rough lines at this stage. Yikes...those neck wrinkles look like crap!

Lets break down the next phase of detailing, shall we? Yes. Let's start with the arm. Here I am lightly dragging a homemade tool across the arm adding additional fine detail. Every texture has a number of levels of detail that make it what it is. It's up to you to decypher the trick and see how far you need to go to create the illusion you're after. Here i just want thick and leathery with some age to it

Notice that I have a lot of lines there, but there is a sort of order to it, even though I'm trying to make it look natural and random. It needs some logic behind it to sell it. My reference is pictures of rhinos and elephants, even leather clothing has cool and interesting patterns to it, after all, it is skin.

I've brushed it very gently with the same brush and turp, now I'm using a simple piece of sponge to take away the super smooth, shiny look the brushing has. In some cases, like inside a mouth, you might want to leave it smooth. Doing this also helps the surface hold the paint, give it more age and cut down on reflection, making it a matte surface. Many sponges and foams will work, this one is very soft so I don't screw up the detail I just made.

So here is the result on the arm. Standing back a bit it looks ok. Looks like I need to give the elbow a different texture, it's starting to look a little monotonous (sp?). These pictures are helpful for me to see what works and what doesn't. Normally I use a mirror to get a different view of what I'm doing, but the pics work similarly.