ENWorld Sculpting Project #1 The Wizard's Lab (complete)

[Patrick Keith]

Well, I missed the whole "post some sketches" thing because I got tied up with a commission. I couldn't come up with any ideas either so I described the theme to my wife and she suggested doing a spellbook.

So - here's my spellbook. Sorry I didn't get any "in progress" shots of this one.

And I'm doing this for another contest:
Pirate Girl 1
Pirate Girl 2
Pirate Girl 3

 

[Alf]

Have you ever seen the book "Drawing and Painting Fantasy Figures" by Finlay Cowan. I just bought it and he has a female evil Genie coming out of a spellbook much like in your sculpt. Your "Genie" seems much more benign though. Beautiful work.

Me I'm in a slump. I feel quite reluctant right now to return to an old sculpt even if I like it. I'll just see if I can come up with something completely different. I still like the "illusion of flying" thing. Perhaps something simpler like a wizard playing with a ball of fire with the ball floating between his hands (In reality of course being fastened to a pin attached to his (or her) chest?

 

[D'karr]

Well, I missed the whole "post some sketches" thing because I got tied up with a commission. I couldn't come up with any ideas either so I described the theme to my wife and she suggested doing a spellbook.

So - here's my spellbook. Sorry I didn't get any "in progress" shots of this one.

And I'm doing this for another contest:
Pirate Girl 1
Pirate Girl 2
Pirate Girl 3

LOL, why do I even bother??? Back to stickmen it is....

Fantastic job Patrick.

 

[Patrick Keith]

Have you ever seen the book "Drawing and Painting Fantasy Figures" by Finlay Cowan?

Check on page 71. My Spider Queen sculpture is featured there.

Thanks for all the feedback! I'm still learning this stuff too!

 

[nyrfherdr]

D'karr,
Don't be discouraged. You are off to a great start. Keep at it. Your forms are fine.
All it takes is practice.
One of the things I was planning to do in my 'how to' thread is show a bunch of my sculpts pointing out the flaws I see now that they are done. Of course, I'm painfully aware of all of the flaws, but pointing them out helps people spot problem areas in their own work.

We all started right where you are, with some green stuff and an idea.

Patrick: Nice work on the spellbook and the pirate girl. Very impressive.
Alf: I have that book too. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I'm still on the road, but will take some photos this weekend of my WIP.
Game ON!
Nyrfherdr

 

[D'karr]

D'karr,
Don't be discouraged. You are off to a great start. Keep at it. Your forms are fine.
All it takes is practice.
One of the things I was planning to do in my 'how to' thread is show a bunch of my sculpts pointing out the flaws I see now that they are done. Of course, I'm painfully aware of all of the flaws, but pointing them out helps people spot problem areas in their own work.

We all started right where you are, with some green stuff and an idea.

Patrick: Nice work on the spellbook and the pirate girl. Very impressive.
Alf: I have that book too. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I'm still on the road, but will take some photos this weekend of my WIP.
Game ON!
Nyrfherdr

Oh, I'm not discouraged. That was posted in jest.

This is my first sculpting work from "scratch." Most of my sculpting work has been in conversion, modifications and gap filling. Seeing something like Patrick posted just shows how far I have to go.

I've found this challenge a good excuse to do something I'd probably never have tried otherwise. The deadline is long enough that it gives novices like myself a chance to work through the "hard" parts. I've found that sculpting is much harder than it seems. Working with "green stuff" is also different than something like clay or stone, for example. The additive nature of the medium is "weird." You don't sculpt a cape, as an example. You sculpt a small thin strip. You let it harden and then add more. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The process is just "unnatural" for a novice.

However, it's been lots of fun.

 

[Patrick Keith]

I'm painfully aware of all of the flaws, but pointing them out helps people spot problem areas in their own work.

Man - and there's a ton of them on the Spellbook thing. The hands are thick and pudgy, there are visible creases where the different stages didn't blend well together, the dress is blobbed up at the back and creases are not as unifom and sharp as they should be and the hair is rather nondescript.

Actually D'karr, the Warforged progress is looking really good! The separation on the toes and joints are well proportioned. I find that if you let the putty sit after you stick it to the armature until it stiffens a bit it gives a sharper edge when to work it back and forth along all the planes. Greenstuff IS wierd to work with and I would never use it to sculpt anything if it weren't for the vulcanizing process.

Everybody's stuff is coming along really well! Looking forward to more updates.

 

[Alf]

Check on page 71. My Spider Queen sculpture is featured there.

Thanks for all the feedback! I'm still learning this stuff too!

Heh. I knew I had seen it on SOMEONES homepage. Didn't remember it was yours

 

[pogre]

1st - Patrick K. - great job.

2nd - I suck. I just carved a couple of hours of work off of my model AGAIN because I suck. I'm a lil' frustrated tonight...

Can you tell?

 

[D'karr]

1st - Patrick K. - great job.

2nd - I suck. I just carved a couple of hours of work off of my model AGAIN because I suck. I'm a lil' frustrated tonight...

Can you tell?

I know what you mean Pogre. I've felt the same way, many times throughout this project. Now I take the Zen approach to sculpting...

I made a little more progress last night. I sculpted some more "utensils" for the wizard's table. After I went to bed, I actually dreamt about how to sculpt an open book. Very weird.

I had to start on another warforged wizard because the pose on the first one was not what I was looking for and as I tried to move the armature around I noticed that it would be less work if I just started from scratch again. So now, I have one Warforged that will be used as a wizard and if I get a chance I'll try to sculpt the second one as a bodyguard of sorts.

The table accesories are coming around nicely. The table itself has me perplexed at the moment. I'm trying to duplicate the look of a wooden table made of wood slats. Well, I was able to create a flat surface but when I try to create the slats the green stuff is too "rubbery".

Do I have to change my ratio of yellow to blue to get a softer more malleable mixture? What should the ratio be? Currently I'm using 1:1 yellow to blue. It starts out very sticky at the beginning but cures very quickly into a rubbery consistency.