Busy, Busy, Busy

For the past month or so, I've been completely absorbed by a custom request through a buyer on Etsy. Among a few other things (a few Scarecrow masks, a few Ra Headpieces, a Dragon Priest mask, and a really neat request on one of my Majora's Mask), this is all I've really been working on.

Unfortunately I didn't take a whole lot of progress pictures during; I was kept busy enough to not remember. Whatever I did manage to snap, I'll post here and you, dear reader, can pretty much surmise the rest.

Here are a few of the preliminary sculpt, everything pretty much blocked out and before it's smoothed out:

Here are a few after it's refined and smoother and about to be molded:

PICTURE DOCUMENTATION MISSING: MOLDING

...And here is the finished mask!

This'll be available for orders on Etsy pretty soon. I'll be damned if I'll spend a month sculpting something, only to not be able to sell it, again!

EDIT: Now on my Etsy shop!

Raiders Idol Update

Needs to mold it now...

Well, Shit.

Might as well post this here: I done fucked up. Again.

My Magneto helmet was a bit of a bust due to my dumb ass. Rather than  relive it all  recount at length how it all happened, I'll surmise:

I molded in silicone what I thought was a good sculpt:

Made the mother mold out of plaster and burlap:

...and it came out pathetically puny.

Yes, it is about the size of a can of spray paint. Only a really tiny child could wear this. Now, how did this happen, one might wonder? I know exactly where I fucked up. It all started here:

Not enough clay to build up enough space to, not only, separate it from hugging the head analogue but compensate for the amount of shrinkage that occurs when casting in plastic and molding with silicone (which is about 4%).

Total. Fuck. Up. Me.

Until I can make some dough, this thing's going on the back burner. I need to scrounge some money to buy enough solvent to soak the silicone in to enlarge it by two sizes. Unfortunately, there isn't any data to show how long I should soak and what percentage will it grow during this process, at least, not with the kind of silicone I'm using. So it's back to swinging in the dark, again.

So, in the meantime, I'll be working on something else that I hope will sell so I can get some extra cheese to blow. While I've got two commissions in the pipeline (money has yet to clear), I'll be working this this thing: the Fertility Idol from Raiders.

Even if nobody buys one, at least I'll be happy in that I finally have one of these things.

DoFP Mags' Dome Update

Made some great progress on this thing, it's to the point where I'm happy and, despite changing a great deal, most of the details are there and proportionate to my helmet (however inexact they may be).

Texturing the thing was most fun; unfortunately, very short-lived. I got it to where I was happy with it within a fraction of the time reworking the initial sculpt. Ho-hum. Hard bristle brushes of varying sizes, sculpting tools, aluminium foil, sanding paper, and rubbing alcohol.

Now's all to do is get some molding supplies and cast one in plastic, finished with paints.

Back at it, again...

I can't seem to get the fucking shape and look of this godamn thing down. I had to take a break working on it to make another mask order but after finishing that and seeing this again; I just had to reshape it.

Godammit.

Days of Future Past - UPDATE 6/17/14

Saw it twice in theaters: once for fun, the second for research.

I want Magneto's helmet. I'm not crazy about the texture of the thing but I did like the movie enough to warrant making it (also, I needed a break from doing nothing but masks, lately).

As far as the steps went, it pretty much was a step by step recreation of the Majora's Mask process: insulation foam, glue, sanding, sculpting.

Started it Sunday and am pretty close to finishing the sculpt, now. I just need to sharpen a few things and then add the textures. Afterwards, I'll need to see about wrangling enough dough for some extra supplies to cast the helmet.

PICS!

EDIT: 6/12/2014

Here's what it looks like now after a few more tweaks, this morning/afternoon. For those that can't see them, I dropped the brow down as well as thickened them, refined and reshaped the emblem, reshaped the points on the corner of the eyes, refined the top of the dome, and slightly dropped the cheek flanges down a bit.

UPDATE 06 /17/14:

After watching the film a third time, I saw that I needed to rework quite a lot. I modified the foam head/base thing to make it more shapely, reworked the entire back of the helmet, the sides, the bottom, the brow; pretty much everything. Unfortunately, due to the shape of the base underneath, I don't think I'll be able to recreate the goofy egg-head shape of the movie's prop without making the rest look really oblong.

Oh, well.