Turians

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So a few months back now I started sculpting a Turian from artwork by the very talented animator/illustrator (and Mass Effect obsessed) Sophie Powell. It started as sculpting practice, and maybe something I could give Sophie for her birthday, but after finishing it and showing it to a few people I thought it might be fun to mould it and paint up a few different versions.

So far I’ve only painted the ones above, but I have a few more that I’ll be working on when I’m not so busy, and of course Sophie has one to paint as well, which will be appearing on her Deviantart page at some point.

Here’s a quick rundown of the process, with more pictures of the finished models at the end.

The two images I chose to sculpt from.

After choosing the images, I made a rough armature using aluminium wire and rigid Plastazote, which I covered in a thin layer of Super Sculpey and baked for a few minutes. This is to create a solid form to sculpt over when the Plastazote shrinks slightly in the oven, so any cracks can be fixed before the details are sculpted on.

When working with Sculpey I tend to sculpt in sections and then bake the model for 15 minutes before sculpting the next section.

Once the model was finished it became clear that I would need to mould it in several parts, which meant removing the head and mandibles. Both of these smaller pieces could be moulded in single part moulds but the body needed a two-part mould, so after working out where the seam lines should go I layed it out in in a bed of plasticine. and added cocktail sticks for risers.

After this first lot of silicone moulding was completed the mandible mould was ready to use. The head mould only required a scalpel cut made along the back of the head to release it from the mould.

To prepare the body for the second half of silicone to be poured I covered it in a layer of vaseline, added more cocktail stick risers and a cut-off section of syringe for the injection point.

I don’t have any pictures of the casting process, but both the head and body moulds were covered in duct tape to keep them sealed, they were then injected with fast cast resin and had duct tape reservoirs at the top to hold additional resin from the risers. (taped up moulds in the background of the image below)

After de-moulding, all of the resin parts needed sanding to remove the seam lines and filling with milliput in any areas that might have had bubbles. This process took quite a ling time, and was especially difficult for the seam line around the arms.

The next stage was to paint a layer of latex over the arms and eyes to mask them off, and spray each of the parts with primer before airbrushing with several layers of cellulose paint.

The fine details I painted on using acrylic, and in some cases sculpted additional parts onto the models with milliput or cut into them to create scars and battle damage.

Finished Models

Turian Council Member

Saren Arterius

Garrus Vakarian

Battle Damaged Garrus

Name Unknown (can’t remember, but if you know, you win a prize!*)

*the prize is a lie

I’ll be painting up a few more in the coming months, so keep an eye out.

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked them.

Update:

Photos of Sophie’s finished Turian

Portfolio & The Pirates!

So, the portfolio is all updated now. I don’t have too much of my work on The Pirates! in there, and won’t until the film comes out next year. But, there are plenty of other new bits and pieces, so check those out on the portfolio page.

Here are the official trailers for The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, or as it’ll be known in the US The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

These went up a few months ago, but as i’m finishing up my contract on the film soon, it seemed right to post them now. Hope you like them and go see the film when it comes out in March next year. Hell, see it twice!

UK Trailer

US Trailer

Updates

Making a few changes on the blog this week, so bare with me if some of the links don’t work. The CV section has already been updated so check it out, next up, portfolio.

Wedding Cake Topper

So a few months back I went to a wedding (yes, another one). Two of my wonderful friends were getting married and had decided on a 1950′s theme. So I called on the drawing skills of Animator and Illustrator Sophie Powell to help design a cake topper!!

She came up with some fantastic initial poses and designs but this was the one we went with.

So, now to make the damn thing.

I started out with a core of plastazote and ali-wire, trying to keep the weight to a minimum.

I then covered it in a thin layer of Super Sculpey to create a solid shell around the plastazote to work on, as plastazote shrinks in the oven at 130 degrees Celsius.

I’ve found using Super Sculpey works well for this sort of project because you can sculpt a single layer or section, getting it exactly how you want it, and bake it before moving onto the next.

Next I added a base for stability using wire mesh and Sculpey. The section of K&S at the back there was for slotting on a cake spike, which wasn’t needed in the end.

Ok, so after fleshing out the bodies I used regular Sculpey to add clothing and hair.

And finally I painted on shadows, make up, expressions and a marble effect on the base using acrylic paint.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, its a long process but totally worth it if you have the time. Here’s a pic of the finished piece on the cake, and of the happy couple in their lovely outfits!

Congrats Nick and Trina!

More sculpting blog posts to follow soon, and click here to check out Sophie Powell’s Deviantart page.

P.s the cake was good too

Birthday sculpt

A quick one here. This is a little sculpt I did of my very talented friend Dani Abram’s online comic for her birthday. You can see Dani’s work at http://www.bintykins.blogspot.com/

A couple of pics from before I painted on their expressions.

 

Aaaaand, a couple from after.

These little guys are made from Super Sculpey with regular sculpey used on top for clothing.

I think she liked them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New stuff! Bunting

A couple of months back I helped make some bunting for a lovely couple I work with who were getting married. It was a massive group effort with 2 people sewing it all together to put up at the wedding. Here are my 2 triangles.

 

And some from the wedding reception.

Congratulations Gareth and Cathy!

Upfest 2011

This weekend I decided to take a break from sculpting (pics of sculpting to follow soon) and attend Upfest in Bristol.

Here are some of awesome pieces of art from the festival, including work by my very talented friend Dani Abram aka Bintykins. Also check out her blog here.

 

Upfest this year had events up and down north street in Bedminster, with artists painting on boards, walls, vans, canvases, security shutters and fibreglass gorrillas.

This fairy and dog was on the side of 6 floor tobacco factory, and painted by artists on cherry pickers. Working on that kind of scale is just mind baffling to some one who makes hands the size of a 10p coin.

Some really cool and inspiring stuff, these are just some of may favorites from the festival to see more and find out about upfest visit http://www.upfest.co.uk/

Oh, and there was a raven! 

Little Wooden Model

Hello!

Currently I’m working on a few bits of sculpture, but just to keep you interested in the mean time, here is a little model I made for a display at work.

One of the senior model makers at Aardman set a challenge to make a sculpture out of a mixing stick, two cocktail sticks and one other item.

(I’ve added a pound coin is for scale)

Initially I made my model a little too big for the display case so I had to scale it down and remove the curtains.

 I replaced the curtains with a sky background and trimmed the whole thing down to slot neatly into the display case.

That’s all for this post, done now . . . bye.

Playing Ghost Trailer

Excuses for lack of posting aside, the Playing Ghost trailer has gone live! Find it here and you can find more of Director Bianca Ansems work here at www.likeabluebird.blogspot.com. Or you can visit www.playingghost.com for more info about the film and full credits. (site still under construction)

More posts to follow soon hopefully!

But in the mean time, check out Dani Abram’s blog, including her weekly Sunday comic strips. Very Cute.

Playing Ghost (and Aardman)

Hello,

As some of you may know, I recently started a job over at Aardman on their new feature film! I’m too excited for words on that front, but it means that my already infrequent updates will become almost non-existant for quite a while.

In the mean time here’s some work I did back in June on a fantastic project called Playing Ghost, currently in production at the National Film and Television School. For more information about the project and its Director Bianca Ansems visit http://likeabluebird.blogspot.com/

Above is a picture of one the finished puppets, called Amy, and of some of the many hands made for this project at different stages of the process.

On this project I mainly worked on sculpting and casting all the characters hands, as you can see from all the moulds shown above. And below, my first attempt at fibre-glass skulls for the puppets.

I loved working on this project, with all the guys at the NFTS and everyone else. Keep an eye out for the film, and check out Bianca’s work, its worth a look.