#racnmush

[yoonichi]

Woodlands - Final Pictures

I decided to take the sculpt outside, honestly I seen others doing this and I thought it looked really nice. Originally, I was going to make a scene from card, I was going to do two pieces, one urban and the other nature, I then was going to cut them out so I could layer them by having one sheet in the background, one midground and of course the characters in the foreground. I ended up deciding against this due to the size of the sculpture, it just wouldn’t work and I feel it wouldn’t look as good as I imagined.

These were the first sketches of the two backgrounds.

After the first sketches I moved onto doing the ‘final’ drawings. However, it was half way through this when I realised it wouldn’t work.

These were some of the final pictures taken. 

Overall, I think the sculpt turned out rather well. I think a different pose might have made it more interesting but, considering it’s my first time working with clay I’m pretty happy with it. I think this was a great experience and I really enjoyed experimenting with clay.

I feel like I avoided the whole environment design and making of it, which is pretty disappointing but, I really like how the pictures came out, I feel that having the sculpture in a real, natural environment really makes it stand out which is why I wanted to take the pictures outside. However, I feel I would have definitely have benefitted from making my own environment as well. 

[yoonichi]

Woodlands - Sculpt Pt.4 Mush

Mush was very easy and and a quick sculpt. Just as I did with Rac I started by using tin foil to create the basic shape. I started of with the cap of the mushroom.

At first I started with a bowl shape and move onto the stem of the mushroom. However, when I put them together it didn’t look right so, I got a bunch of foil and stuffed it into the bowl shape to create a sort of half sphere.

This looked a lot better and already started to look like a mushroom.

Once I was happy with the shape of both pieces I then glued them together with the epoxy resin. Then like before I then covered the foil in clay and added textures.

This was the final sculpt for Mush. I ended up adding a wire stand to hold up the sculpt.

[yoonichi]

Woodlands - Sculpt Pt.3 Rac Cont’d

Once again, I did quite a big jump from the previous post about the sculpt. I started to mess around with texture.

Once I finished the toes I started using one of the wire tools to put texture in the clay, I think this worked rather well. I decided to leave some areas without texture because I didn’t want the whole thing blending together. I left out obvious places like the soles of the feet, nose, inside of the ears and also in the space above the cheeks and below the brows. 

I think one of the most notable things with the sculpt so far is the lack of arms. I’ve actually been putting them off for a reason as throughout I’ve been thinking of how to incorporate the sculpt of Mush. However, while making Rac I realised the size of Mush would be extremely small in comparison if I wanted to have Rac holding him. I decided against the original pose of the sculpt as I wanted Mush to be seen as another character than a prop so, I will end up having Mush along side Rac.

I decided to keep the arms in the same position and started planning them out by rolling up tin foil again. Once I had them to the size I wanted I then covered them in clay.

I then attached the arms to the body and added the same texture. For the hands I just got two clumps of clay and shaped them, I did this instead of using foil mostly for the convenience. Once this was finished I saw this sculpt complete and moved onto Mush.

[yoonichi]

Woodlands - Sculpt Pt.2 Rac

I started off with Rac so I can then do Mush based off the size of Rac.

While making the armature I thought I was taking pictures every step but, when I looked back on my camera roll there wasn’t any saved, unfortunately.

I started the armature by just getting tin foil and bunching it together to form a basic shape to work from, I did start with the body and then moved onto the head.

For the feet and tail I copied what I did for the head and body but, then used wire to attach them to the body. I also added some resin epoxy in the holes to secure the wires in place. Once everything was in place I started to apply a layer of clay, encasing the armature and continued to do the same with the head.

I also used the same technique on the nose and later the ears as I did on the feet and tail.

A massive jump from the previous picture. I know. What I ended up doing is just bulking up the clay in certain areas to start to create the details in the face, I did this by adding somewhat of a brow line and more clay on the cheeks to get more of a feeling of a raccoon. Originally, when I did the ears they were just pointy triangles, it didn’t look right. to get past this I ended up searching up pictures of raccoons so I could sculpt them from reference and it definitely made a huge improvement.

Once I felt the head was a good shape I added it to the body by blending the clay together and adding pieces in places that didn’t look right. I then started to add some spikes of clay to simulate chunks of fur. I then moved onto the feet and started adding toes.

[yoonichi]

Woodlands - Sculpt Pt.1 Planning

I have a basic idea of how I want the sculpt to go, I see Rac sat down holding Mush. I think it’d be a nice sculpt and can show the connection between both of the characters.

The image in my head is based off the sketch I did with the original storyline in mind. I thought I would keep the position of Rac but, have his tail coming around the side of him and have him holding Mush.

I sketched up a basic turnaround of how I envision the sculpt.

[yoonichi]

Woodlands - Story

For the story I was thinking of an adventure type show where a mushroom and raccoon exchanges knowledge with one another and explore new places and experiences together.

The first episode would be about them individually and how they came to meet. It will show the differences between the two characters and their insecurities. Rac loves the way Mush looks and wish he could be colourful and pretty but, Mush wishes he looked like Rac because the others around him would be friends with him then.

The other episodes will follow their friendship and watch them teach each other different things and watch them go on adventures together. This sketch shows Mush teaching Rac what he can eat and how some berries can make him ill and how others are tasty.

Before they start going off on adventures they have the problem of Mush not being able to walk freely like Rac. In this episode Mush explains how roots underground act as a sort of highway and messenger system for fungus. They then explore other ways Mush can move around and they find out he can sprout up anywhere with a connection to the earth.

Other episodes can show them interacting with other creatures from the city and from the nature reserve. They learn things from the other creatures and characters and find similarities with others which shows them that they’re not alone with how they live life.

[yoonichi]

Woodlands - Practice

When I got the material and tools for the sculpt I decided to have a practice run, just messing with the clay and see what came out of it.

This was outcome.

I honestly really like this small sculpt and was pretty proud of it, it’s a little cat with noodle like tail and limbs. It was fun to make but, I still had no idea how my final sculpt would work out considering it’s a raccoon and a mushroom so, there’s a bit more detail than a noodle cat.

Either way I’m glad I had a go at playing with the clay and feel like it’s quite cute.

[yoonichi]

Woodlands - Rac ‘n’ Mush

My final choice was actually to combine two of my ideas together, I really liked the idea of the mushrooms but, I honestly thought the raccoon would push me to do something more challenging for the sculpt.

The idea was going to be to combine the two ideas together but instead of having the Amanita mushroom as a character the raccoon eats it and feels the effect of it’s toxicity. The only thing with this is that I didn’t want the raccoon to be seen a a sort of enemy to the mushrooms and I also wasn’t too keen on the idea of a raccoon having a trip as the story.

I then started to think of the raccoon and mushroom being friends, two very different characters coming from two very different backgrounds.