"Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus..." This is my final post for 2011! Hard to believe the year will be over in a few hours. Glad I was able to finish this phase of the sculpt just in the "St. Nick" of time! (I know...I'm groaning too.)Let's walk ya through the process...I'm sure it's starting to get a bit repetitious. As before, I made a wire armature to get the size and pose where I wanted it. I made Santa a bit larger in scale than the original rough-in.
I made the hammer out of a nail, and plumbers epoxy. Then I covered them with the sculpy, and baked it.
I was trying something new this time around. Many sculptors that I follow online use a heat gun for "locking in" certain areas of a sculpt, while keeping other areas soft, to continue sculpting. I have much to learn about technique...as you will see, I scorched a lot of the rest of the sculpture. I just didn't want to wait on using my little toaster, as the heat gun is a faster way to bake stuff. I used plumbers epoxy to connect the hammer to the arm...then just started building up details.
Santa's face was a little tricky, since the size of it was so small. I'm not super patient with the tiny details, so it isn't as refined as I'd like. After I had baked the face, I added some beard bits on top. It's all shiny, because I glazed it with solvent, to blend the surface some.
Once I attached the head, I just kept going with more detailing. As I've said before, I was going for a "barbarian" style Santa. After the final baking, the features were so scorched by the heat gun, that I couldn't see much of what I'd sculpted! So...I painted on a quick coat of acrylic, and it's good to go. (I will not be baking it any more, so the next stage for this guy will be the final paint job.) I'm currently re-reading "The Hobbit", so it may be why Santa looks a bit like a battling DWARF!
I'm on the home stretch now. Next will be addition of Yeti Fur, and an ice-covered base. After that...the final painted piece!
"See ya NEXT YEAR!" Happy 2012!
I love this, Warren! I'm amazed all all the different materials you use. I look forward to seeing the finished piece. Makes me want to buy some sculpy and try it myself.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Larry! I would highly recommend getting yourself some sculpy. It's really fun to mess around with. If you look back at my other sculpture posts (see the labels on the right of the blog), you can see how I built all of those too. Should take the "fear of the unknown" out of it for ya. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteWarren,
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I'm loving this! I've sculpted some bits here and for various conversions but I've never attempted anything more ambitious; you are inspiring! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom.
Have a happy and healthy 2012!
Best,
Yeti
Hey, Yeti...glad I'm still holding your attention! Hope you give it a go with some more sculpting...just break it down into smaller chunks. Before you know it, you, too, will have an "ambitious" sculpture on your hands. I wish you and yours a great 2012, too...Happy First Day of January!
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