Legs & Crocs!

My next step was sculpting the legs and crocs. First I started with the legs.

I knew I was going to sculpt a very simple design for the legs, being thick towards the top and thin at the bottom, and generally smooth.

Also as I'm casting the leg separate to the crocs, I can recast the same leg, therefore only one leg needs to be sculpted.

The top of the legs is angled upwards on one side, but rotating the leg in the opposite direction will create the left leg, as there's no markings on the sculpt to determine which leg is which! 

Finished leg sculpt

Once the leg had been finished, I checked to see that it still fit into the K+S of the croc and how it looked. Once I was happy I then made a start on the crocs!

I thought I would try to sculpt the feet simultaneously to ensure when I make an alteration on one foot, I would then do the same on the other, to try and ensure they look very similar.

       

  

The bands of the crocs were easily made using a sculpting tool. I began by rolling out a a thin pice of sculpey, I then took the gripped/textured side of my sculpting tool and rolled it on the sculpey to create an imprint.  Once I had the textured, I wrapped it around the croc.  

Finished crocs..... or so I thought!

Once I had the two side by side, I could clearly see they were not the same. 

My initial plan was to have identical crocs with, one left, one right. But the two crocs ended up looking quite different to one another, with one looking more flat.

But when considering the amount that was needed to get right:

- The overall size of the croc

-The thickness in sole

- The thickness in the textured band

- The holes

-The curvature of the croc

I then realised that would be a major task to get right in a space of a couple of days!

I then had a decision to make, to try and reshape the shoe and get it similar or, rip the thing up!

...........

I ripped the thing up!

   

Considering the amount of skill, time and detail that was needed to sculpt an identical left and right shoe, I did not have the time at this point to retry it. Therefore I decided to tear the clay off one armature, and re-sculpt a croc which would be generic i.e neither left or right footed. This meant I would be able to use the one croc as both feet, when moulded and casted.

Here's how the finished croc looked!

Now let's go do the head and body!