Before I started to sculpt my Prosthetic pieces I wanted to make a rough example of what I wanted to create, as I wasn’t entirely sure on a final piece to sculpt. As this was only for experimental use only, I sculpted a few ideas onto a flat board. Again as these were for experimental use only I didn’t bother with much detail or accurate sculpts. It was sculpted more as a concept for idea of placement and size.
As this was only a testing sculpt, I quickly followed my stencils that I had create so I could achieve the best size and shape and to make sure the sculpts would fit the models body better. I like the idea of using stencils as a guide, I think this is how I will do my final sculpts too. By placing a flat piece of clay onto a board then place the stencil on top in which I then can go around the shape and cut out the pattern. From this shape I can add texture and sculpt it into a more realistic looking animal.
Above was the initial Lion I had chosen to sculpt! I wasn’t too keen on the way the Lion looked after sculpted therefor I did further research into lions and came up with another design.
Elephants (African)
African elephants are the largest land animals on Earth. They are slightly larger than their Asian cousins and can be identified by their larger ears that look somewhat like the continent of Africa. (Asian elephants have smaller, rounded ears.)
Elephant ears radiate heat to help keep these large animals cool, but sometimes the African heat is too much. Elephants are fond of water and enjoy showering by sucking water into their trunks and spraying it all over themselves. Afterwards, they often spray their skin with a protective coating of dust.
An elephant’s trunk is actually a long nose used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing things—especially a potential meal. The trunk alone contains about 100,000 different muscles. African elephants have two fingerlike features on the end of their trunk that they can use to grab small items. (Asian elephants have one.)
Both male and female African elephants have tusks they use to dig for food and water and strip bark from trees. Males use the tusks to battle one another, but the ivory has also attracted violence of a far more dangerous sort.
National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. 2015. National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com. [Accessed 07 January 2015].
Lions
Lions are the only cats that live in groups, which are called prides. Prides are family units that may include up to three males, a dozen or so females, and their young. All of a pride’s lionesses are related, and female cubs typically stay with the group as they age. Young males eventually leave and establish their own prides by taking over a group headed by another male.
Only male lions boast manes, the impressive fringe of long hair that encircles their heads. Males defend the pride’s territory, which may include some 100 square miles (259 square kilometers) of grasslands, scrub, or open woodlands. These intimidating animals mark the area with urine, roar menacingly to warn intruders, and chase off animals that encroach on their turf.
National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. 2015. National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com. [Accessed 07 January 2015].
Giraffes
Giraffes are the world’s tallest mammals, thanks to their towering legs and long necks. A giraffe’s legs alone are taller than many humans—about 6 feet (1.8 meters). These long legs allow giraffes to run as fast as 35 miles (56 kilometers) an hour over short distances and cruise comfortably at 10 miles (16 kilometers) an hour over longer distances.Giraffes use their height to good advantage and browse on leaves and buds in treetops that few other animals can reach (acacias are a favorite). Even the giraffe’s tongue is long! The 21-inch (53-centimeter) tongue helps them pluck tasty morsels from branches. Giraffes eat most of the time and, like cows, regurgitate food and chew it as cud. A giraffe eats hundreds of pounds of leaves each week and must travel miles to find enough food.
National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. 2015. National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com. [Accessed 07 January 2015].
Rhino (Black)
Both black and white rhinoceroses are actually gray. They are different not in color but in lip shape. The black rhino has a pointed upper lip, while its white relative has a squared lip. The difference in lip shape is related to the animals’ diets. Black rhinos are browsers that get most of their sustenance from eating trees and bushes. They use their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. White rhinos graze on grasses, walking with their enormous heads and squared lips lowered to the ground.
Black rhinos boast two horns, the foremost more prominent than the other. Rhino horns grow as much as three inches (eight centimeters) a year, and have been known to grow up to five feet (one and a half meters) long. Females use their horns to protect their young, while males use them to battle attackers.
National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. 2015. National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com. [Accessed 07 January 2015].
Antelope (Sable)
Also one of the largest antelope species found in Africa. Both sexes have imposing razor-sharp horns and magnificent black and white markings on the head. Males however are usually darker, whereas females and youngsters have a paler chestnut colour. The sable antelope has a compact and robust build, characterised by a thick neck and tough skin. It has a well-developed and often upright mane on its neck as well as a short mane on the throat. Their general colouration is rich chestnut to black. Both sexes have ringed horns which arch backward. In females, these can reach 61–102 cm (24–40 in), while in males they are 81–165 cm (32–65 in) long. The average lifespan of the sable antelope is 16 years in wild and 19 years in captivity.
National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. 2015. National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com. [Accessed 07 January 2015].
Monkeys (Vervet)
The vervet is a small, black-faced monkey, common to East Africa.There are several subspecies of vervet monkeys, but, generally, the body is a greenish-olive or silvery-gray. The face, ears, hands, feet, and tip of the tail are black, but a conspicuous white band on the forehead blends in with the short whiskers. The males are slightly larger than the females and easily recognized by a turquoise-blue scrotum and red penis. The vervet is classified as a medium- to large-sized monkey. Its tail is usually held up, with the tip curving downward, and its arms and legs are approximately equal lengths.
National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. 2015. National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com. [Accessed 07 January 2015].
In total I decided I wanted to create 7 different animals, that would be seen in the wilderness of Africa. I decided on sculpting Elephants (A mother and baby), Giraffes (Mother and baby), Rhino, Antelope and monkeys (Mother and baby). Ideally I’m wanting these animals to go around the body like I did with my practice body paint, but instead of having them flat on the body like silhouettes I’m wanting them to appear 3D around the waist line of my model.
Before sculpting the animals, I did some basic research into the shape and form of each animal I wanted to sculpt. From this research I went on to draw the shapes out on a piece of paper in which I transformed into stencils.
When I started sculpting the animals as flat pieces, I wanted to work from reference to get the animals looking as realistic as possible. I had decided that I wanted some of the animals to be sculpted separate and others to be sculpted together as mother and babies.
When doing this I wanted the piece to fit directly onto my models body, these flat pieces should fit directly on the knicker line of my models body. I used reference of my models figure along with animal photos so that I could sculpt as accurately as possibly.
When I first started my pieces, I decided to lay on the clay all over the flat board, and get a basic shape that i can sculpt into, I laid it all over the board and placed the stencil I had previously created on top and stared to cut out the shape of the animals.
I then went on to cut any unwanted excess clay from around the ‘animal’ and started to sculpt and soften the edges in which it began to take shape. When sculpting I kept looking at reference photos, in order to to keep the sculpt as realistic as possible.
As I had created stencils the shaping of these animals didn’t take me to long to make as I would obviously have an initial shape to start off with, the only thing I need to do was to correct the shape, add texture and detail into the animals body. At first I wasn’t going to bother much with the detail as the they are meant to look as silhouettes on the body, but after a few discussion I thought it would look better with a little detail as this would make them look more realistic and show a lot more skill within my work.
In comparison to my research images something didn’t look right within my sculpts which left me not a 100% happy with the overall look, I took photos from all angles to compare them to my reference images, so I could figure out what the problem was and to see if I could fix the sculpt to look more accurate.
After I done this, I immediately saw what the problem was. When comparing practical work (my sculpts) to picture references, I believe this is the best way to see imperfections. I realised that the texture of the animals wasn’t completely right. It needed a more wrecked texture (sharp lines, to create a wrinkle effect) to the elephant. I started to re texture the sculpts and more appropriate shape and curves within the clay. This was immediately better and more realistic. I also thought it would look more realistic if i sculpted into the clay the lines of the animals legs and blend into to make it a softer leg line, this gave a better effect to the sculpt in my opinion.
Once i had done this, i still needed to add and change things when looking at it from a different perspective. As these pieces are going round my models body (the waist line) I didn’t want the pieces to be too big or thick on the body. I only wanted to create the 3D effect of the animals appearing out the body a little. As the elephants I basically followed the same process in sculpting all the animals for the prosthetics. By following the same process all the sculpts began looking how I wanted them as I has a basic shape to follow from the stencils. I used my fingers a lot in this process, along with sculpting tools (as you can see within the image above), sponge and a cotton bud to smooth some areas down. By working with tools I can shape the sculpts a lot more effectively.
Once I was finished with all the sculpts, I was really happy with the overall outcome. But I have to leave them for a day and go back to sculpt after a break as I found I was just texturing over the texture I had already put into the pieces. But now I think they all look really effective.
As these were very basic sculpts they didn’t take much time to do, but I did find it very tricky to sculpt the little areas with the animals, but i did really enjoying working on these little pieces.
I have include images of all the animals in the middle of being sculpted, as evidence of how they were all sculpted following the same process.
As for the Antelope, I realised i had accidentally cut off the horns when i had drawn on the stencil, so after cutting the shape out i then went on to create and shape my own antlers at first I has sculpted them to look slanted backwards but decided i wasn’t very happy with the way they look, so i went on to look at my reference images again in where I saw an imagine similar to how I’ve sculpted the antlers on the third image below. I was extremely happy with how this sculpt looked eventually.
Monkey time – I found the monkeys the easiest to sculpt and fun. Making the rough brush strokes to create fur like texture i really enjoyed and i believe they look very effective. Following the same process as every other sculpt with the stencils, followed the more sculpting, removing and adding along with adding texture.
After sculpting, it was time to create a wall around all the sculpts. At first I wasn’t sure if i was going to make silicone flat pieces or latex pieces with plaster mould. So i came to the conclusion on building a wall around the sculpts anyway would work either process i would decide to use.
As i have previously done in other projects, I began by adding a clay wall around the sculpts leaving enough room around the main sculpt so i wouldn’t impose on the sculpt.
Before i started i thought i might run into a few problems with the walls, as i did sculpt all these animals into one big board and a few were a little close to each other. But i managed to overcome this issue and managed to fit everything in (having some of the walls touching each other but wasn’t a huge problem)
Making the clay wall – Step by step
- Apply vaseline around the board (this will help grip the clay)
- Begin by applying thin layers of clay a few centimetres around the sculpt
- Making sure the height is higher than the highest point of the piece so the sculpture is fully covered when applying with material
- Once the first wall of clay is complete start going around the wall with a knife to cut a straight edge to the clay wall
- Next begin on the second wall this should be a few centimetres apart from the first wall and follow the same process as step 3 and 4 until happy with the wall (this is optional, in which i decided against)
- Next stage is to seal and release the mould by applying vaseline again
Specialist practice 