SCULPTURE - "Flying Monkey Squadron" pt.3

Now that the "aero-pack" was done, I needed to decide on the scale of the pilot. I did a very rough sculpt, to work out the basic pose.


I decided to work on the final sculpture in stages. Below is the head of the monkey baking away in a small toaster oven. After that piece had cooled down, I added the goggles and made the hands. I decided to sculpt the hands as separate pieces from the arms, so I could assemble the figure later, and glue the parts together like a model kit. This approach also keeps me from accidently messing up details in the sculpt as I add to the full figure, while the clay is soft and "uncooked".


After I had completed the face, I decided to modify the eye shape, and make them a bit wider.


Below is the nearly completed figure (minus the scarf). Before I glued everything to the aero-pack, I wanted to make sure all the bits fit together nicely.

You'll notice that some of the sculpture is black...that's from getting it too close to the heating elements in the toaster. (While it looks painful, the monkey felt nothing!)


Here are all of the pieces ready for the final painting stages.


First, I paint a base-coat of brown. Then I build up layers of tans, browns, black, with some accents of metallic bronze. After all of the colors are applied, I painted thin washes of brown and black to give an antique look.


Here is the finished paint job. I coated the eyes with some high gloss varnish, for added shine. The odd little "v" shapes are the shoulder straps and belt. The little "m" with wings logo is the "buckle".

That's it for now...next post, I'll show you some images of the final sculpture.
-W