Sculpting Max's Dog!

On to sculpting the dog. 

You may have noticed Max has his shoes back on, this is because I was working on the dog sculpt and feet simultaneously.

To know the size of the dog in comparison to Max I printed off a few different sizes of the dog and compared them to Max. 

I went for the 2nd one on the list as I wanted to keep the dog quite small compared to Max.

I then started making a basic armature for the dog.

For the core of the body I used balsa wood and sanded it to shape.

Wire was then pushed in and then glued in to the balsa core. 

The dog does not need to move therefore this armature works perfectly.

PTFE tape was then wrapped around the wire. This was to enable the plasticine to grip on to the legs 

Before applying the plasticine I punched holes in to the balsa with a dart tip. This was to give the plasticine little pockets to grip on to to ensure the plasticine was securely on to the armature.

The reason why I'm using Plasticine is that I wont be animating or handling the dog much therefore there was no need to cast the dog. I decided to use plasticine as well as it's easy to sculpt with and also theres no need to paint the dog afterwards as I can use coloured plasticine. 

Talc was added and mixed in to the plasticine to give it a firmer texture and to take the tackiness away from the plasticine  

I then started adding plasticine to the armature. The wired legs were then cut to length and if you can see the white part on the leg closest to camera is milliput. I added milliput to the leg to look like the bone, I chose milliput rather than white plasticine because if any brown plasticine  got on to the 'bone' I could clean it off easier.

To smooth out the plasticine I used cling film and my finger. Once relatively smooth I then used a baby wipe and lighter fluid to smooth it out more.

To secure the dog to the set I cut a rectangle of plasticine out of the dogs back and in that epoxied a steel plate of the same size. This would allow me to secure the dog with magnets to the set. 

Different colour plasticine was used to add spots to the dog, and miliput eyes where then added to the face. Milliput was used for eyes as I needed these solid and not to change shape. 

I Had Time to do Bare Feet!

So yeah, at this point I had been thinking for a while that I did not want to pursue the shoe idea, and I had some time spare before moving on to do the dog and zombie creature. 

So I decided I really wanted him with bare feet and began the process of making them. 

I think I had roughly 5 days or so to complete all this, in between making the dog and zombie. 

Where I went wrong last time was trying to sculpt realistic feet, I then talked to my lecturer who told me that I just had to simplify what I was doing. So with that, I created small indents between the toes instead of trying to create individual sculpted toes.

Due to the mad rush of having multiple things going on at once and needing to do things quick I forgot to take an image of the feet sculpts. But I have them from the clay process, so lets roll with that.

As you know, if you've read my other mold making blogs, that I clay up my sculpts in a water based clay and plasticine keys are then put on to ensure once molded, the mold links together without shifting.

For more in depth explanations on this please visit my specific mold making posts for Max, as this will be a brief overlook on how I did the entire foot process.

If you've noticed, this time I did not block the ball joints because this will make it easier to to suspend the armatures in the middle when casting.

Learning from previous mistakes! 

The sculpt is then boxed up with foam board and secured with hot glue.

Once the plaster had cured the water based clay was pulled off. Any small pieces close to the sculpt was brushed of with water.

The second half was now ready to pour. I applied a release agent to the mold, and also plasticine to cover up any dead space. It was boxed up and I now poured the plaster.

The 2 halves were now done and the casting process was the next step.

I began by painting in a layer like I always do. But this time I wanted to try the technique of mixing pigment in to the silicone. This is because I wanted the feet to have a muddied look to them, so I went with trying to mix swirls of brown in to the feet.

Once casted you can see that I didn't mix the swirl of colour close enough to the edge of the mold. So I only got a a faint tint of the brown. So the brown would need to be added on later.

But first, taking down the seam had to be done. To do that I used a stone tool on the dremel to sand the seam line down, to ensure the dremel did not rip the silicone, washing up liquid was used to coat the seam lines.

I then applied the brown pigment of silicone to the feet. This was just painted on to try and mimic mud on the feet. The feet were then suspended in a vice to dry.

When the feet were in the last couple of hours of curing, I then put talcum powder on to the feet. This is done to take the shiny gloss finish off of the silicone and give a matt finish.

The talc was applied to the other foot and left for another hour or so. The talc would then be wiped off with a baby wipe.

And the feet were finished!!

Im now happy that Max has bare feet, as this now goes with how I envisioned him in my 2D concept.