Sunday 1 November 2009

Da Life Ting #8: Sculpting a Silver Dragon

This weekend I eventually got to try something that I have been wanting to do for a very long time....having a go at sculpting my own figures. Almost a year ago to this very day I had the pleasure of sitting next to Mr. Sean Green, sculptor extraordinaire at Game'08 in Manchester. I saw at first hand his fantastic models and he gave me a few great tips on modelling. Anyway, this week I bought some SuperSculpey and decided to give it a go.

Without giving it too much thought I decided to do a Silver dragons head and dived straight in, I scrunched up some silver foil into a rough dragons head and neck shape and started applying the sculpey clay on top. I got to the stage seen in the first two pictures and left it there for the night.

The next morning I was faced with the problem of the crests on the dragons head, neck and cheeks. I decided to use a card base, which i would then cover in sculpey. I had no idea if this would work or would even survive being baked in the oven.

But, eager to crack on, I threw caution to the wind and went ahead with the modelling.

I bulked up his rather skinny neck, worked on the horns, started applying ridges to the neck piece, inserted small ballbearings as eyes.

Next, I added on the cheek crests that I had sculpted seperately and went about applying all the fun detail, like eyelids and pock marks and the scales ( I rather rushed the scales, but was enjoying myself so much I just wanted to get him baked and painted up!) So below is how I decided he was finished, I thought it was pretty cool for a first go and can't wait to try another one (maybe a Red Dragon next time.)

There are plenty of things I would take more time over next time, the scales, the thickness of the neck spikes for example. With trepidation I put him in the oven and hoped for the best, and lo and behold he came out fine. Nothing broke off or burned, so well happy.

I will post again to show how he came out after being painted, and I will see if I can mount him on a little stand for presentation.

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