Fun With Sculpey

[PencilWhipped]

You can either click the thumbnails below, or simply view the Online Gallery here at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/PencilWhipped/CollaborationEntity

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'The Collaboration Entity'.



You're looking at Super Sculpey on foil. He was for fun and practice. Basically, he's a life sized character concept I worked on whenever I got tired of my other projects. For the tiny stuff, I used a pack of red sewing needle threaders that resembled guitar picks with little wire loops on the end. I'd just sit there and idly strum out the details every night before I finally crashed out to Three Stooges. As a kid, I was totally fascinated with anatomy and how the body worked. Mom was an RN, so of course she had plenty of medical textbooks around to fuel the fire and keep me occupied. Pretty soon, my reading stretched over into animal study; and I started learning about as many animals as I could. The stranger the animal I found was, the better! So, for most of my life now, I've had a fairly good handle on body mechanics and morphology; and as an artist, it affords me the luxury of being able to 'play around' when it comes to designing biological body plans. That means I like to change the 'rules' dynamically in my head as I go along. I like to mix it up and come out with my own little recipes off the top of my head. As a result, even my fantasy characters retain a really powerful sense of plausibility. Always stick to what you know, if nothing else. Usually, and I say usually, it's my goal as a character designer to sit there and ultimately try to make your brain say, "Hey! That could totally work!" whenever you look at my stuff. I'm always trying to find out what I can get away with. To me, doing that is almost always a good thing, and I say almost, because I really don't like to do the same thing all the time either.



Getting back to 'The Collaboration Entity' here, I had a lot of fun just taking things I liked about the available life on this world and basically quilting it all together into what you see. I actually nicknamed him 'Lobster Boy' early on, and that's because I threw in a lot of plant, fish, insect and crawfish anatomy to make his scalp. If you look at this guy's head, it's high school biology all over again. The whole time, I kept asking myself, "How much life can I drum into an inanimate polymer glob?" That's important, because I wanted more of a 'celebratory mish-mash of all known life' thing going on. I didn't aim to represent any one particular type of life form here either. This thing represents the sum total of millions of years of evolution...condensed. It's us, and in a very real sense, we are it. So there you have it: 'The Collaboration Entity'. By all means, gimme some honest feedback here. Penny for your thoughts and all that good stuff. Oh, and if you want to see more of this guy, all you have to do is click the links.

-James

[JBL-FX]

WOW! That's awesome. The detailing is great!

[freakinacage]

nice work! he's smiling as if slightly stoned!

[castof1000s]

You've got a lot of really nice organic textures going on here. I like the "stiching" together of various shapes and forms, it really flows quite well. Good job.
One question, is the pose a choice of looking up or how it ended up with the angle you sculpted at? I ask because some of my earlier busts had that angle to the head because I was higher than my sculpt.

[PlainOleStupidisAsStupidDoes]

Is......is that a brain in a jar on the left????

[PencilWhipped]

Hey guys! Thanks for the comments! To answer your questions:

I actually sat below my dimensional on footstools of various heights to ensure I was at the heights I needed to be. The neck angle was a conscious decision. The neck is a vital area, and defines the beauty and power of a creature, so naturally I wanted to pay special attention to its exposition.

Just by the sheer volume of peoples noses that naturally get sucked toward the surface of this thing, I'd say I reached my goals with this one in terms of creating a biological illusion that holds up under the closest scrutiny.

And, yes, that is a brain in a jar you're looking at! >:D

[zindrome]

that is INSANELY awesome
really really inspiring work
thanks for sharing

[PencilWhipped]

Hi Zindrome,

Thanks for the kudos. I'm really glad I came to this site, because I'm really starving to improve my work and help others in the process!

[Breath of Life]

By all means, gimme some honest feedback here. Penny for your thoughts and all that good stuff.

I love all your close up shots a lot. I mean a LOT. And I suppose your sesquipedalian explanation is meant to ameliorate my biggest critique, which is that the overall sculpt looks like a patchwork. I disagree with the poster who said it all flows together well. I agree that is does on a micro level, but taken as a whole it's just too much stuff. (IMO)

But excellent craftsmanship! I'd buy it if it were a statue just to study the details.

What are you using to smooth it down? Alcohol, Turpanoid?

[demoncage]

impressive detail work, keep it up.

[nanook]

hey, pencilwhipped

great sculpting here. very nice detail work and clearly a very vivid imagination based on biological knowledge.
every bit and piece on this mash-up of bio-surfaces is a great aid to those (like me) who have difficulties to come up with interesting textures all by themselves.
they're like a speed-crash course, a tour-de-force in detailing, if you will.

BUT (and that's a big but!) even if nature was the 'wacked-out acid-queen' from 'the who's tommy' -
she would never put together such an amassment of different types of skin, scales, fins, membranes, holes and bone all in (let alone all being visible on the outside of) one creature.
so, although you have me amazed by all the detail (which, again, is sculpted brilliantly), you'd never hear me say: Hey! That could totally work!
this is just too much to get away with.

no offence meant.

[pijay-brown]

great face and excellent textures
very detailled

congrats
would need a painting !

[Amelyth]

Looks awesome, do you have a site or somewhere else with more pieces on it? Id love to see more of your work.. :)

[Fovos]

very nice work man. can wait to see you final painted version.!

[Greyguy]

Very nice design and the detail sculpting is superb !
Greyguy

[davi]

lovely, the neck looks intense!

[Radnyel]

Great work dude! I wonder how you made the skin texture, well all the textures are just awesome! Keep posting your works! :)

[PencilWhipped]

You guys really had a lot of great things to say about that one! I was honestly a little shocked, considering the quality of work from some of these other awesome guys on here. I do have a question. Even though it's cured up, there are literally so many fine, fragile, minute details on this guy at every square surface, the merest touch could... well let's just say it makes me nervous just handling it by the base. I don't touch the head or the neck directly, period. Not even the chin. This stuff is sandable and chips really easily when it's deli-thin like this. The whole point is to be a forest of little details to get lost inside of, and I'm worried about the transportation logistics and/or the best way to generate re-useable casts for this one. Regular head-busts are one thing, but it doesn't do me much good to mar something so delicate in the handling processes from one place to the next. My other sculpts are pretty good about being tossed around in packing material and casting. This however...thoughts guys?

[Molly]

Gnarrrrrrrly! :)

[Maxerateur]

realy nice detailled stuff! very well done!

[Jsung]

he looks rly cute..=)

[dreamsorcerer]

Wow, the skin textures are very realistic.. that must have taken you ages! Well done my friend.