Thread: WIP - Lost his teeth but still smiling!

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Only a short time spent today, mostly 'raising' the nose from the face.

Hi Phil
Glad to be of assistance with the old bandsaw. Plus it was nice to actually meet someone from this forum in the "real" as opposed to just interweb correspondence.
What material do you think Armen Balyan makes his digital sculptures from?
Perhaps they are made with one of those 3D printers that makes things out of plastic (like handguns that the powers that be are freaking out about).
Armens sculpture looks pretty cool. The only criticism I would make is that the eyes look underdone. Some sculptors carve little half spheres out to give an effect like there are pupils in there. Really skilled sculptors can even carve out an iris in a similar way. Seems to be more convincing to me than character-less flat eyes if you know what I mean.
Anyway, I will be watching this wip with interest. In the round heads/busts are very challenging things to make. There are all sorts of rules regarding proportions, for example...the eyes should be exactly half way from the chin to the top of the head. The eyes should have an eye width between them, and on and on the rules go.
That is of course if one wants to follow rules.
I guess that is not really your concern with this piece.
How are you finding the blackwood as a carving timber?
Cheers
AB

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Bit more work on the nose and mouth/cheek today and made a start on the eyes. Following the method described in Jeff Phares' Carving the human face. So eye mounds first.

Then the upper eye lids

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Hi AB, I reckon Armen would be using 1's and 0's for the digital sculptures wouldn't he?

As far as 'the rules' go, I am trying to use the rules I am aware of to confirm the proportions in the picture but I am really trying to achieve an accurate model.

I agree about the eyes and will try something other than the 'classical' rolled back eyeball look.

The blackwood seems pretty good so far, somewhat softer than the silver wattle I have been using.

Philip.

I like the figure that you want to create this from. Will be watching this one.

Originally Posted by artful bodger

What material do you think Armen Balyan makes his digital sculptures from?
Perhaps they are made with one of those 3D printers that makes things out of plastic (like handguns that the powers that be are freaking out about).

Hi AB, ummm....... It's highly unlikely that sculpture has never been "made" ! you're looking at a digitally produced image.
The most used program to do such work by far is called "Sculptris" & you can download it here FREE ! - http://pixologic.com/sculptris/
It is well known for being very intuitive & by far the easiest ( yet advanced) 3D sculpting program out. Try it, see what you think !

More work on the eyes today.

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Heading off to Deloraine for the craft fair tomorrow so no work for a few days.

Philip.

Today's progress.

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I'm sure this is not the 'correct' approach but I find I need to keep moving from feature to feature to avoid getting bogged down. This is certainly the case with the switch from the cheek/jaw to the ear. I started to feel I was struggling so moved to the ear. Is there any value in avoiding this?
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I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing , It's definitely a good thing to keep all the various parts of the carving at about the same level of progress/development.
If you feel lost or unsure & find yourself digging around hesitantly with no clear idea of the shape you're aiming for, STOP IMMEDIATELY ! either go to another part to return to the problem area with a fresh mind .

OR examine reference very carefully then try drawing the problem feature

OR get more reference including skeleton & musculature pics, as well as in this case black& white portrait photos of old men of the net for example .

These solutions may seem like a distraction from the work in hand but you've got to understand a shape before you can carve it - the only other alternative is to mess up, lose the carving & all the work that's gone in before.

Got the ear pretty much sorted out.

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Added some wrinkles, I am undecided as to just how much of this I should try to replicate.

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Bringing the other side up to the same point and move the cap along also.

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Looking great, a real character face.

Looking really good !

This is just so appealing.

Slowly, slowly, slowly!

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