2 posts tagged “cernit”
Here's my latest project. She's a donation for the Michigan Museum for their Halloween theme. I popped her in the mail to her new home today (with just a smidge of reluctance.) When this project came up last fall, I was thoroughly engrossed in the HBO vampire series - True Blood - so I decided to sculpt a vampire.
I had no idea how to sculpt one though, and I wanted her to look scary. Also I had absolutely no idea how to sculpt fangs. I decided to sculpt her with a closed mouth so I could get the features in the right place. I then cut a line between her lips and using various tools, I opened her mouth as gently as possible. I don't know if this is a good sculpting method, but I found as I opened her mouth that her features -cheeks, nose, chin, etc) seemed to move into a believable position.
Once her mouth was open I inserted a pre-shaped set of teeth into her mouth. If I ever decide to do a vampire again, I might try baking the teeth first; it might have worked better. However I just inserted the teeth and baked the whole head at once. For her eyes, I used glass pins painted with green glass paints. I shaped her hands into claws as if she's reaching out to grab a victim.
I dressed her in a Victorian style because a modern look required more skill sculpting anatomy on my part. Also her feet/shoes didn't turn out as I wanted. And yes, I didn't dress her in a filmy black hey-I'm-a-vampire type outfit. I thought she'd be scarier if you could imagine she was normal one minute and could transform in the next.
Happy New Year! I haven't updated in a long time, and as usual, I've not stuck to any of my project resolutions as mentioned in my last entry. Right now I'm trying to teach myself how to sculpt my own dolls. I've attached my first fully completed sculpt sans costuming. While she has some obvious problems, I'm not totally disappointed with her. Considering my previous attempts tend to look like aliens with massive foreheads (or Yoda as my last attempt at a fairy did), I was actually pleased that she looks relatively human and that I was able to give her a smile.
She is sculpted with Cernit clay and painted with acrylic paints.
I'm currently working on more figures since I want to improve so I don't know when she will be dressed. She's going to need a puffy sleeve to hide her lopsided shoulders though. Constructive criticism or helpful suggestions with sculpting are appreciated. Thanks,
