Andy Pearson's sculpt of something I drew

[wardster]

Back in February of 2017 a friend of mine from England, and myself, ended up accidentally doing a bit of a collaboration on what turned out to be a sculpting project. I had emailed him a scan of a small sketch I had drawn, that I was (at that time) intending to paint on a mailbox or something, as sort of a "mascot version of myself". (I saw it like Ed Roth supposedly saw his Rat Fink character as a cartoon-ized version of himself.) I had started with a more-or-less "Roswell Alien" look, but thought that would never do if it was supposed to represent me, so I definitely wanted to fatten him up some. I gave him a "fat and happy" look.



As it turns out, that friend of mine from England, Andy Pearson, liked the drawing and said he had some time between sculpting projects and the like. He asked me if it would be okay if he took a crack at sculpting that up. "Sure, the more the merrier" or some such, I had told him. On the 14th (just nine days after I had completed the sketch) Andy sent me photos of the version of it that he had not only sculpted, but had also painted. He called it, "The Thing From Ward's Sketchpad," which cracked me up.







I started a version of my drawing, too, as a sculpt ... but that was two years ago. One day, I'll get mine finished, but until then, Andy's version stands as the only 3D version of that drawing. (Oh yeah: you may notice he painted "ET (heart) RF" on the shirt.)

[wardster]

I should probably add that there's some other stuff that Andy Pearson did, over in this second thread I started up, on these boards, about things he had done.

car-toons.proboards.com/thread/1560/andy-pearsons-darth-mole-diorama

I originally intended just to show one project, in each of these threads I started ... but when I remembered how many things he (Andy Pearson) did that might interest folks, here on these boards, and also remembered how many "toon" projects another guy from England (Andy Cope) habitually creates, I got a bit carried away showing that other stuff off. But, "no harm," I imagine.

As for my own (stalled, for now, due to other projects taking precedence) attempt at sculpting what I drew:



For scale purposes, in this photo immediately above, I included a (mostly primered) plastic "Rat Fink" kit reissue by Revell, to my alien's left; and to his right, a painting that I am doing for a buddy of mine (which, like virtually all my projects, mostly just sits around, not being totally finished! Arghh!) and that I am technically almost done with, on a tall adult beverage can. (Mostly just needs some flies, on back of the can, some minor touch-ups and eye work, and a final clear coat.)

That painting (by the way) is not supposed to directly represent "Rat Fink" his own bad self; the idea there was always more along the lines of "What if RF had a relative whom no one who knew RF really wanted to talk about?" That's the official story: closer to the truth, when I blocked in the initial paint layer (all in one-shot lettering enamels) I wanted to do it from memory, to see how close I'd get. (And, ahem, not so much. Hence the revised story, above.) Anyway, in the spirit of the first-mentioned story, above, I gave my unnamed ("Rat Dude"?) a total of thirteen different facial, ear, and tongue piercings. (Two in the lower lip; four in each of his ears; and three studs in his long, dragging, monster-style tongue. Most of the piercings are in variegated Gold Leaf, which I learned how to do from pinstriping books and Spritz by Fritz DVDs.) Which beverage can, if I ever finally finish it and give to my (patient!) local buddy, he should righteously dig; since he's a huge fan of anything even close to Rat Fink.

Same deal with the sculpt I began, in terms of timing / work done on it. Real Life decided to kick my butt, continuously, for a long time; so that sculpt (that I'll keep) just sat there, after it got it to the point shown. ("One day, but not today," I tell myself. Which the revised, current version of would be, "Maybe sometime after the Ed Roth / Weird-Ohs contest winds down"?)

The arms won't permanently be in "I give up" mode. That's aluminum sculpting wire, just bent up, for now: out of the way of the two-part epoxy putties (mostly Magic Sculpt, but with some black Milliput, to darken up certain areas) seen there, already. The reason for the darker areas of putty is that I am trying to teach myself how to get the "skeleton" correct, first; and any (in this case, very slight) "Contrapposto" correct, before I start bulking various areas out; and layering on what needs adding, here or there. Speaking of that term ... here's some I think really helpful sculpting tips or hints, for those who didn't go to things like art classes in college, but who one day might want to play with figure conversions, or with making their own figures from scratch:

(Apologies in advance, for some statue-related "nudity".)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrapposto

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kritios_Boy

www.ancient-greece.org/images/museums/acropolis-mus/pages/110_1024b_jpg.htm

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laoco%C3%B6n_and_His_Sons

As far as what I am doing, above, with my version of that drawing: the Contrapposto isn't super obvious, due to the raised arms, the super-short legs, and the camera angle; but it's there. And I don't want to "lose it" as I do more. So the lower half of the legs is darker than the upper half is, on purpose, for instance: so I don't "lose" his knee areas. Ditto for the chest areas: I don't want to lose the ever-so-slightly-there tilting and counter-tilting of the hip "line" and the "shoulder" line, as I progress. I'm also trying to get the alien's "man boobs" to look like actual fat, from all viewing angles, with some minor muscle thrown in under it all; before I smooth that all out, later. Trying, again, to not lose what little counter-poise a figure like this will ever likely have. (Which, if I ever give him a cowboy Sheriff style of holsters, and a ray gun, might be an important part of his future pose.)

So my technique is to work in multiple layers, and multiple areas; letting each harden before I do any more. I say that because some people use things like "Super Sculpey" -- which is far more of a "pushing clay" sort of thing than I'm doing. I am just more comfortable with holding solid objects in one hand while carving (or whatever) with the other. With the Super Sculpey way of doing things, I can't resist the urge to hold it while I work on it (instead of mounting it solidly to a fixture or board of some sort) and I thus continually "put my fingers in the wet paint," so to speak -- so, for me, two-part epoxy putties (I prefer Magic Sculpt, but some people like Aves brand Apoxie Putty instead) work WAY better, for my ever-improving style of doing things.

Other than saying those things, I'll save any other tips or tricks or Mad Scientist's Experiments for when I finish the sculpt off; probably in some other thread: since this one was, originally, just gonna be for my initial drawing, and Andy Pearson's sculpt. I guess I'm sort of in the spirit of the Roth / Weird-Ohs contest, by showing this stuff ... even if the two projects I already have going, for the contest, will have to take precedence over me finishing off this goofy "Alien buddy of Rat Fink's" sculpture.

[wardster]

The words, above, may not explain a concept that is probably "new" to a lot of people, so, with pictures:

[wardster]

For those who might want more info on things like making "wire armatures" (the "skeleton" used by many but not necessarily all sculptors) here's some hopefully-helpful info.

First up: a new thread I started -- about a completely different figure: "Kooky Klancy," who was a "Weird-Ohs" characters as seen in the Collector's Cards (that someone other than Bill Campbell drew up, in the 1960s) -- with that build or sculpt thread "beginning at the beginning," with a wire armature:

car-toons.proboards.com/thread/1562/wardsters-kooky-klancy-scratch-figure

Next up:

Here's some more pictures, which I dug up recently, from my computer's dustier hallways, which show the early stages of my (attempted?) sculpt of that drawing I did (the one that's the subject of this thread).











The wooden thingie seen in the last few pics is something I made, but (so far) haven't used too much. As I mentioned, at least obliquely (I think?), somewhere above: other people are used to "pushing clay" but I haven't yet got the hang of that. It's just too ingrained in me, from too many years of doing it, that when I'm working on making something that my mind interprets as "a small model" or "a sub-assembly for a larger model," that I hold the actual part I'm working on, in my left hand; and I work on it, with tools held in my right hand. I think I'd have to tie my left arm down, or wear a huge mitten on that hand, or something, to keep from picking the sculpt-in-progress up ... but, one day, maybe I'll get more comfortable with the way that most other people, who sculpt, seem to do things. Meanwhile though ... these new pics above, of the "Thing That Came From Ward's Sketchpad" should help some folks to get an okay idea, especially if you don't already have sculpting books or articles laying around, as to how things are done by some folks.

If you want to do things in a different way, that's cool, too. Bruce Lee reportedly told his martial arts students, at one point, when they were trying to compare other teacher's teachings, to "Absorb what is useful". Same here, I suppose; but hopefully, some guys that want to know more, now know a bit more.