It's all about da base right Neil? Hope many will try figure sculpting now from this sbs.
Cheers,
Richard
Cheers,
Richard
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Not something I'm ever going to try I'm sure but fascinating to watch :thumb2:Comment
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Think the boots look right Neil,why are you still unsure ?
Nice shape to the lower leg, why do you not add clothing at this stage, is it because of the thickness of the material used ?Comment
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Thanks John.
The boots are really quite lumpy, I was still getting to grips with the techniques required for this material.
As for not adding the clothing, it's a question of getting all the proportions right to avoid a 'cumulative error', where you get one bit slightly wrong, then the next bit slightly wrong and before you know it the whole thing gets too big, or his legs are out of proportion to his head or his trunk is too long. In fact I actually made just such a mistake, as will be seen in due course.
I was in two minds whether to mention it, but I will now, so thanks for asking - take 10 house points that man!Comment
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It's like when you copy a picture as a kid. You start on one element and it looks just right, then you do the next bit and that looks ok and the next bit... But the whole thing together just looks wonky somehow and you can't figure out why.
Or was that just me?Comment
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Hi Neil
Very interesting and well explained. Appreciate the time that this detailed SBS takes to put together.
JimComment
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As promised, let’s put some trousers on him.
Or breeches, to be more precise. Once you start looking for these things you find that there seems to have been very little rigid uniformity, even in the same unit. Some men have normal uniform trousers and some have breeches - in various designs. I assume anyone whose job was to do with horses needed breeches or jodhpurs (or are they the same, I don’t think so). I imagine if you were a private and changed unit for whatever reason you would retain your original uniform .The one portrait photo I have of my Grandad in uniform has him wearing breeches, so possibly he was a driver or something at some stage.
My brother thinks they just swapped the best uniforms amongst their mates for the sake of the photos, which is a possibility in Grandad’s case but doesn’t answer the original conundrum.
Although I have just noticed what I think are long-service chevrons on his right forearm, which may indicate that this was taken after the war anyway.
Anyway, back to sculpting….
To represent the normal sit of clothing we don’t need to add an actual layer of clay-it would be too thick. Looking at the image I have identified the major creases and just added small sausages of clay which I will blend into the surface of his leg with the trusty conical clay shaper.
This has already given us the fullness of the breeches. I’ve added a little blob for the knee and some more for the creases behind it
You can see how his leg has bulked out, even with such a small amount of clay.
Next we need to add clay to the back
Riding breeches are designed with a lot of room in the bum for when you are sitting on your horse, with the consequence that they droop quite considerably when you’re not, so I have looked at reference pics and made sure to replicate that
So, on to the left leg.
I added a sausage down the side as before and a small amount to the inside leg.
It’s basically just the same only opposite, but with creases appropriate to the position of the leg. Obviously we only have the front view of this guy, it’s always good to find pictures of similar poses from different angles. These days we also have the benefit of re-enactors so there is lots of really good quality reference material available of how most historic uniforms actually look on people.
Next up, the putteesComment
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Now for the puttees.
We have already more or less defined the shapes of the lower legs so we just refine them a bit, and then with the back of a scalpel blade or similar we describe a spiral winding down the leg. I tried to keep the edges as thin as possible as puttees are not that thick. It was tricky getting in between the legs and maintaining a consistent line. You mustn’t get the impression that this sculpting lark goes right first time, every time. There is a constant tweaking and spoiling and re-doing, so don’t give up if it doesn’t come out right straight away, that’s perfectly normal.
One thing you don’t think about until you do something like this is which way do they wind? And are they the same on both legs or mirrored?
I may not be right but I went for mirrored.
Now it’s time to cook him and save this part of the job from future damage. This is when I realised that the plastic base would melt, so I got rid of that.
I was trying to find a heatproof way of supporting him in the oven ( I don't really want explain the smell of burning wood or plastic to SWMBO), and I came up with a tripod of crocodile clips
He’s supposed to get cooked at 140 degrees for 45 minutes, but I did the boots at that and I think it’s too much. He will have at least 2 or 3 more sessions in the oven so I reduced it to 110 degrees and 30 mins.
Looking at the pics now I think the puttees probably should be narrower than I have done them, but they’ve been cooked so I’m leaving them for now.
Thanks for looking
Next up is the jacket front.
cheers
NeilComment
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Hi Neil
Excellent. A really good tip on using worms for creases so as to not bulk out the beeches.
JimComment
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Neil,
You make it look so easy. Lovely work mate.Comment
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Thanks Jim and Paul.
Just realised I'm off to Devon for a few days with SWMBO so next update will be Friday at the earliest
cheers
NeilComment
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Have a great time hope the weather improves for you.Comment
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