Since the middle of last year, I’ve been on a kick to up my sculpting game, after getting a couple sculpting and conversion commissions. In the past months, I’ve been sculpting a lot more, and trying different style, tools and materials got my hyped.
Human/humanoid anatomy not being my forte, I decided to stick with cartoon models, like when I started sculpting years ago with the titular zonion. I first did a platypus, started a koala, but my biggest recent project was a stuffed unicorn, in the spirit of my daughter birthday.
Scale
For that model, I tried a couple new things. First, I upped the scale a lot. It’s at least double the size of the platypus and koala, clocking at 32mm from the bottom to the top of its horn. That made for some easier details to sculpt, but also more surface to smooth.
Material
The second one is a new material for me. Instead of using a self curing putty (like Green Stuff or Aves Apoxie Sculpt), I used a polymer clay that needs to be cured by baking it. The particular one I used is Beesputty, a mix specially made for model sculpting. The biggest benefit is in fact that it doesn’t self cure, so you don’t have to rush your sculpting and can always come back to it. That is a great boon with kids nearby, as I wasted a lot of putty that was mixed right before having to deal with a “situation” upstairs. The other main benefit was that it’s easier to smooth out than green stuff. For cartoon models with a lot of rounded non textured surfaces, that’s a big plus.
Help
Some resources have been of a great help. I joined multiple sculpting Facebook groups and watched a lot of Youtube videos. There are sculpting resources out there: use them! Big shout out to Tom Mason and his Mini Sculpting Super Show, my main source of sculpting tutorial and tips.
Work in progress
Here are some pictures I took while working on it. Either on the model itself, or trying different techniques for the stitches and eyes on side pieces.
End result
The final shots. Also one next to a successful home cast of it. Need to tweak the mold a bit, but it went better than the platypus, so it seems the experience is adding up.
