#magic sculp

[jaszczurolud]

Necrozaur

[jaszczurolud]

Necrophantom

[thelittlemermade-blog]

How to do the ears: I started by cutting out the crash dummy ears with a Dremel (don’t get discouraged, this takes a few tries!) as they were not detailed enough. WEAR A DUST MASK AND GOGGLES WHILE YOU DO THIS. It is very dusty and sometimes the round plates of the Dremel can break and fly apart.

Next, fill the ears with flexible foam or spray foam, I used pro epoxy to fasten it in.

Once the foam is set in, I used a firmer, less porous blue foam to carve an “armature” for the ear. I then built up the magic sculp on top of that. While the support structure does need to be in place, don’t be afraid to carve into it. The ear is delicate and intricate so it may take you much longer than the other features (it took me about 6 hours to do one ear). Make sure that the ears are aligned and look similar, especially from the front and back.

Once the ears harden, it’s a good idea to use small pick tools wetted with water to push small pieces of magic sculp into tight places and smooth them down. This part takes a long time as well but is well worth the trouble!

[thelittlemermade-blog]

Sculpting Emperor Qin Shi Huang of Ancient China, 259-210 BC for AMNH.

I decided to make a tutorial for sculpting a human head with Magic Sculp, especially since this particular head was the most difficult sculpture I have done because I had almost no reference material available (who knows what an Ancient Chinese Emperor looks like? Apparently almost nobody!).  I will keep posting progress periodically as I complete the sculpture, you can just search for my posts tagged "Emperor Qin."

References: I found a few flat drawings that were only helpful because they showed me which facial features were common for the Emperor.  I also found one pixar-looking reproduction which was helpful for plane work and proportion.  Other than that, I used photos of Chinese features and my own ears for reference.

I started with a crash head dummy, which I then cut the eyes and ears out of using the ceramic bit on the Dremel.  I mounted human glass eyes from a taxidermy company into the eyesockets before building up the musculature with magic sculp (note: be sure to smooth the magic sculp with water, this makes sanding easier).  

The first picture shows all of the tools I am using on this model (there are probably even more than this, but I will add them later on).  Don't forget a dust mask, goggles and gloves!  It is important to be safe so you can make more stuff :)

See the captions on each photo for more details.