After Awhat Is It, Three-year Hiatus? I Finally Sculpted Something Again. Hooray!

After a…what is it, three-year hiatus? I finally sculpted something again. Hooray!

This is something I wanted to make for my husband David back when he was still just my boyfriend, but I got busy (2011), and then we didn’t really like the house we were living in (2012), so I didn’t get around to it until now (2013). We just got married and bought our first house, so this seemed like the right opportunity.

Anyway, it took about two days, several photos, and a Google Maps aerial view to get the house sculpted, and then came the scary baking part where the whole thing could go up in flames (literally). But the house survived, and then all I had to do was stick it in the snowglobe…somehow.

Ever wondered what’s inside a snowglobe? I don’t know about yours, but mine is full of plastic snow, three bottles of distilled water, a shot of vodka, and an adult enema kit.

Listen, we were out of rubbing alcohol (to prevent bacteria), and they don’t sell pure glycerine (to break the surface tension of the water) at my local drugstore. They do, however, sell glycerin-based adult enemas. And I had an open bottle of vodka in the house. So.

Ho ho ho?

Here's a quick sketch of a head I did while watching Wendy's DVD. It's not perfect, but it was already so much easier to sculpt with someone helping me in the background. If you recall, the last time I tried to sculpt a head was an epic failure, even though I had an open textbook in front of me with a lot of helpful illustrations. It's just not the same as watching someone move, hearing their voice, and getting a sense of the process in real time.

So here's a rough draft of what may become my male figure sculpture. Hooray! I'm kind of digging on his bat ears.

It's...a bookworm!

Yes, yes, I know. I took a month and a half off and then sculpted a worm. Toddlers can sculpt worms. I get it. But I got +5 xp for it, so...cool?

For those of you who just went "huh?", my friends run a game company, and I'm playtesting their new ARG. Pretty neat, right? Anyway, one of my character's classes is "bookwyrm" and I get experience points for designing an avatar, so...you already stopped reading, didn't you? Ok, fair enough.

Anyway, worm! It's better than nothing.

Super Sculpey

More fun with Wendy Froud! I basically just refined the face I started last week, and after I smooth it out with acetone, it'll be ready for baking and painting. We're about to start sculpting hands now, which I'm a little nervous about. I predict that I will sculpt one excellent hand, not be able to duplicate it, and decide to give my figure a hook for a hand. Or maybe a tentacle!

The more eagle-eyed among you may notice that this is not a sculpture.

A few weeks ago, I received a small grant from Berkeley Repertory Theatre to teach my lazy self how to figure sculpt, which means no more worms and boxes for this girl! Human figures all the way! I tried signing up for a class where I could learn from a live model, but there weren't any being offered locally during the time I needed them. So I did the next best thing: ordered three fantastic DVDs from the world-renowned Gnomon Workshop. I even had enough grant money left over for two wire armatures, eight pounds of Super Sculpey, and eight pounds of Sculpey Firm. Woo-hoo! Step one: Creating a Fantasy Figure by Wendy Froud (who sculpted characters for Labyrinth and Dark Crystal). At the moment, I'm just watching and learning. But I'm going to post my progress as I follow along with her, so this little wire guy should have some meat on his bones in a day or two...I hope. Stay tuned!

Man do I hate hands.

At least it's one of those things that's hard for everyone, right? Don't all artists hate hands? They're brutal.

I'm still working through the Wendy Froud DVD, and she's definitely improving my work a ton. But every once in a while she speeds through something insanely difficult like it's a cakewalk and it kills me. Like, she's all, "So then you just make some fingers, and ta-da! You're done." Not all of us worked on Labyrinth, Wendy. How do I make fingers? Because I'm pretty sure you don't just shove five little worms on the end of a ball like I did.

The other challenge is working with such a relatively small amount of Sculpey, because it warms in my hands until it's too soft to be sculpt-able. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.