SCULPTURE: "Flying Monkey Squadron" FINISHED

Before sculpting the Mandrill, I sketched a "to size" drawing to figure out the scale of the monkey. Then I roughed up a loose sculpt to get the proportions of my armature right. Later, I removed the head section of the armature, when the scale of things changed during later stages.

I decided that the "racing pose" seemed a bit ordinary for this character, so I sketched something that looked like a stunt biker from an x-games event. It was a little too comical for what I wanted, so I made it feel like he was riding a "jet-ski" jumping a wave.

I finished the hands and baked them first...then started working on the body.

I felt like the arms were a bit too long, so I did a little corrective surgery with my saw and belt sander.

When I got to the head, I made the teeth separately so they would hold detail while I finished the rest of the face and headgear.

The final sculpt with the stages of the paint job. Time for some Super-Glue! (A little Monkey Trivia: technically speaking, a Mandrill is not a baboon, though it is related to them.)

That's it for this series. On to something new!
-W

SCULPTURE: "Flying Monkey Squadron" pt.9

Since I've explained the basic process for this series in other posts, I'll keep things a bit simpler this time. Below are lots of sketches...for some reason, many more were needed to figure out the final shape of the "Aero-Bike".

These are all of the bits of "found objects" and wood pieces I crafted for the machine.

Now I start assembling the parts...I had to patch the landing gear with epoxy putty. As before, I coat everything with glue to give a bit of texture and seal up gaps.

Here's the "Aero-Bike" all put together, then painted with a base coat of brown acrylic.

Now, the final paint job.

Here's my desk in the studio, as I'm making the base for the piece.

I began to add more and more detail to the "swirling clouds". I probably made the base a bit too elaborate this time around...oh well.

I finished off the metal support wire with epoxy to give it a bit more strength than Sculpy would afford. You'll see in the inset image that I added another little "swirl" to support the tailpiece...I was afraid that the added weight of the Mandrill monkey would pull the "Aero-Bike" apart from the base.

All painted, but not glued together yet.

Next time...how I made the Mandrill pilot.
-W

SCULPTURE - "Flying Monkey Squadron" pt.8

NEW! The third member of the "Flying Monkey Squadron" is finally finished...meet my "MANDRILL on an AERO-BIKE"!

It took me a lot longer to get this baby done than I anticipated. But a nice Memorial Day weekend gave me a big chunk of time to play. This will probably be the last in the series for quite a while...I'm ready to move on to other sculpture ideas.

As I have done before, I'll share the process of how I made this over several posts. But for now, Enjoy!