Monday, April 13, 2009

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

2 comments:

  1. Awesome ideas for parts for the aero pack. Fan from your computer? ha... Anyway, just wanted to say that although I don't post every time I'm always checking the site every night or two so keep it up. I'm sure others are too. You remind me in a way of the guy over at www.cockeyed.com . He makes a lot of cool costumes and just stuff out of everything.
    Keep keepin' on.

    Christopher

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  2. Hey, Christopher!

    Thanks for the encouragement. I can never tell who's lookin' at the site, unless they comment.

    Look forward to seeing you at the wedding soon...Cat just booked the flight today!
    -Uncle Warren

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