Yikes, That Was A Long Hiatus. Hopefully The Fact That I Forced Myself Back On Track Excuses Today's

Yikes, that was a long hiatus. Hopefully the fact that I forced myself back on track excuses today's poor showing. This little flamingo wasn't exactly inspired (or stable...hence the precarious angle), but he is color-appropriate. Maybe that counts for something?

Super Sculpey, ~30 min. 

Just FYI, she does have a head.

I've been up late sculpting every night, so forgive the lazy photo. I'm halfway through a couple of monsters, some other heads, and assorted other puppets, but they're not cool, "wow, the process is so interesting" works-in-progress...more like "wow, someone should teach Cari how to sculpt." So I'll refine a little more before I post those.

And now...a nap.

Can I just tell you how good it feels to finally have something in color? I swear, the last few weeks have just been shades of gray: gray clay, white latex, beige Sculpey, and so on and so forth. SO WHAT if she only has one eye and it's lazy. WHO CARES if I haven't finished painting anything but her skin and some eyelashes. There's some green in her eye! Highlights in her hair! It makes a big difference.

Because Mina (the main character)'s eyes will be painted on to her glasses, this lucky prototype is going to play one of Mina's classmates. I named her Marion, after my grandmother.*

Tomorrow: With any luck, finally pouring the latex into the finished Monster #1 and Boy Body molds. I'll also start the molds for Monster #2 and the Girl Body, which would finally wrap up all the mold-making. Oh man I hope so. A girl can dream.

*I thought about naming her after my great-grandmother, who actually did only have one eye, but seeing as her little depth-perception problem is a temporary state I thought I'd go with something a little less flippant.

This little droid is a Christmas present for my friend Rhonda, AKA Rhonda2D2. Ever since Star Wars: Uncut, Artoo has made me think of her, so I hope she gets a kick out of it.

It's funny how the different colors mold differently. The white clay was much softer and more pliable--to the point where it was impossible to get my fingerprints out of it--than, say, the black, which crumbled in my hands no matter how much I kneaded it first.

This is the first sculpture I've baked since the puppet heads from the film shoot, so I was a little worried it would crack, but it came out beautifully. Working in color is much more time consuming, but the finished product looks so much nicer, wouldn't you say?

Sculpey III (white, black, and denim), ~3 hours

Catastrophe! I came in this morning to pry apart the little boy mold, and it crumbled in my hands. Well, half of it crumbled. So I rebuilt that half, and while I was waiting for it to dry, I started on the Monster #1 mold. That's this little guy!

He's going to be covered in fur, remember, so he'll actually look really different than this. But this is what he'd look like if he was naked, shaved, and blanched. So helpful.

In other news, the second attempt at the boy mold was successful, so I built a wire armature for the puppet and tomorrow I'll pour and bake the latex on top of it. I'd show you a picture, but I'm frankly so sick of looking at the dude that I couldn't bear it. So just use your imaginations.

Merci started bringing in set pieces and monster fur today, and I'm starting to see the whole thing coming together in my head. It's really exciting. :)

And now the back! I tell you what, this first mold is kicking my butt. Which is coincidentally what we can see in this picture: the generic boy body from the rear. This is the second half of the mold (in progress in this photo, but finished as of tonight), and tomorrow I'm going back to see if the last week's worth of effort actually left me with a usable mold. If so, I finally get to pour the latex! If I'm really lucky, I'll even have a fully finished, painted, jointed, and dressed little boy to show for myself by the end of the day.

If not, there will probably a lot of tears. Maybe I'll even make it an audio post.