Of course, I can’t forget to show how I did my other Imaginatomy project.
It was kind of neat that I was able to go and do another project that was associated with Zikkihuru. Hopefully in the next couple of months I’ll be able to go do a few more pieces with it. I think I know what I’ll be doing, so we’ll see how it goes between any work I might have.
Of course, I had to start somewhere. So the first step was to go and build the wire skeleton. I decided I wanted it to be slightly more dynamic, so I started working with one of the feet off the ground. To balance this, I curved down two of the rear toes so that it’d stick into the foam base I was going to build this on.
Then came the clay. It was a lot easier working on this one than it was the hyena, mostly because the bones were broader, comparatively. The main issue I kept having was that the head was pretty heavy, even with the majority of it made out of tinfoil. Keeping it attached and not crooked in some way was troublesome. Once it was baked it was less of an issue — though I was afraid that it’d crack right around where it stuck onto the neck.
I set to work on the base next, which was, of course, a total mess. Since I had experience with it from last time, I sort of knew what I could get away with and how to more efficiently use the materials. Because of this, it was pretty easy to sculpt out a little creek bed sort of shape and make it look more natural.
I painted it, then added some real dirt to blend it in better. I left the part where the fake water would be a slight more blue tone to compensate for the yellow cast the fake water had. I used some white glue and duct tape to create a barrier which would keep the fake water from running off and making a huge mess, and it seemed to work okay. I really liked the result as well.
I bought a garland of fake plants and trimmed them down to be more of the right scale for the piece. Combined with some moss and some random cheap herbs from the grocery store to be leaf litter, it blended in really well and made a much better presentation than the one I did last time. I kept the background fairly simple, and after a few rough prints, finally got one that worked. I got that attached, painted the front of the model, and added the very compact information card and the whole thing was ready to go.
I learned a lot from the hyena project last time I took the class, and it’s really obvious how I was able to apply that to this one. Sculpting is definitely fun and I’ll hopefully have time to do it, if only for myself, in the future. I’m sure that if I hadn’t graduated this term that I’d be TAing the class again and making a third — but hey, I can always do it on my own. Just got to say thank you to Rey Bustos for teaching such an awesome class, and letting me TA for him these past four semesters. Definitely going to miss it.