Current figure WIP: Nariko from Heavenly Sword

Finally after a long testing and experimenting, I think I've found myself a nifty modeling wax formula. YAY!

To test drive this formula, I sculpted a figure of Nariko from Heavenly Sword for The Clubhouse 53rd Sculpting Jam. It's a slight departure from making the usual anime figure, but this was fun...so much fun!
That and mostly I'm still giddy from excitement because I've finally found a wax recipe (and ingredients) that works!! :))

I am poor at documenting my progress. So forgive me for the lack of progression steps in the photo.

The first step I did before making the figure is to gather references. A Lot of references. You can't have enough references :D I found Creative Uncut to be, indeed, a treasure trove for video game reference. I've gathered up pictures of Nariko from various concept art, in game footage, and fan art to give me the information that I need. Even then I still lack the details on her belt strap thingy :(

I printed out the pictures and made a wall of reference in my sculpting station. With this step done, I can get to the actual sculpting process.

I start with the usual aluminum wire armature as the core of the body and legs. Then it's just a matter of slapping a way the warm wax all over the armature, fleshing out the major muscle groups and tweaking the pose. The picture shows the fruit of about 2 hours of wax pushing labor.

A note about the armature. I construct my armature a little differently. I start by doing the core body and legs, up to the top of the ribcage where the clavicles are. I modeled over it with material, pose it and them made a separate armature for the head and the arms. This method is influenced mostly from Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Figure drawing book. In it he describes that the first thing you that you must implement is the trunk of the body, followed by the legs, arms, and finally the head. I don't necessarily follow this on every project, but it's a good rule of thumb for me.


Next we jump way way WAY forward with the sculpt. During this period I accidentally nudge over the sculpt over the table causing it to break. The major damage was on the legs therefore I decide to just cut them off and made this into a 3/4 statue. By this time I've added modeled the majority of the costume and fix her pose. I did the head after fixing up the rest of the body, and wouldn't you know it the head was to frikkin big. It throws off the proportion for the rest of the body. The funny thing is I didn't realize it at first because I've used calipers to measure the proportion and it checks out... at least on the vertical proportion. The problem was the head was too wide. So I scrapped the head and made a new, much smaller head and start there.

The smaller head size fits wonderfully with the body. JOY! The picture on the right shows the new head sculpt.

If you're wondering about the different shades of material in this picture, allow me to explain. These are the waxes that I was talking about earlier. I made 3 shades to help me differentiate them. The whitish wax is the softest, I used it as a practice wax to see how something look before I commit myself with harder waxes. The yellow-brown colored wax is my work-horse wax. It firmer and does the bulk of the modeling. The dark colored wax is my hard (yet flexible) wax. It's mainly used for details and parts that is just plain pain-in-the-ass. Billowing capes and flowing hair comes to mind. In the future, I'm going to color them in a neutral grey shades. A slight blue/green tinge perhaps, so it's easier on the eyes.

This final image is the current stage of this sculpt. I've added more details on the costume, resculpt the hair using the firm grade wax, and alter her pose a little bit. The next stage will be more tweaking, refining, and smoothing of the surface. I'm also going to make mold off it, since you cant have a 'permanent' wax sculpt, and I wanted to paint her up.

And thats the end of this part of the WIP report. I can assure you that this an ongoing project (Cloe is ongoing too!), so there will be more of it in the near future. I've already have several project lined up to be written and posted, so stay tuned!

As a reminder, I need your help in improving Midztoyz! So do vote at the poll that I've set up (if you cant find it, it's below the shout box, on the right). If you have other suggestion, feel free to give me a shout or drop me a mail!

Good luck on your sculpts everyone!

Help me improve MidzToyz!

Hi gang!

Sorry for the lack of updates (again) in the past few weeks. I've been caught up with my wax-making experiment, and are now busy preparing samples to be shipped to tester and stocking the shelves.

Anyway, as you might read from the title, I need your help to improve this blog. For this purpose I've added a poll to help me achieve the goal. The poll is about what content you would like to see more in the blog. Do you like to see more tutorials/guides? more WIP shots of the project that I'm working on (the ones where I can show WIP shots that is), or something else. This will help me plan regular updates a little easier. I'm also going to add some reviews about toys and books that has something to do with sculpting and toy making once in a while. There's also a new look for in the works.

The poll will be up until the end of the month. It'll give me a comfortable time space to adjust and make preparation for giving this blog a makeover. So don't forget to vote, people! Your vote is very important to me and the continuation of this blog. If you have other suggestion, just give me shout :lol:

Vote.. Vote.. Vote!

***update***

Got the poll working.
Note to self: Blogger use YY/MM/DD as a valid time format.

Hatsune Miku GIF Animation - お前ら全員みっくみくにしてやるよ

One cool looking fan-animation.
I like Hatsune Miku even more now :)

Making an Anime Figurine: Female Leprechaun part 3. Sculpting the face

We're back again folks!

As promised, in this installment we're going to sculpt a face. An anime face. Again, I didn't take many in-progress shot. But hopefully this few pictures can better explain how I approach sculpting an anime face.

Here we go!

At first I only have a ball shaped like a reverse tear drop to define the head. Then I add the nose and sculpt it into a pointy button shape. Most anime noses are like this. I then add a ball and blend it to make the forehead.

With the forehead added and dried, I then start defining the shape of the face. I draw guide lines where the major facial feature will be placed (eyes, mouth, etc.). I didn't drew in the ears since they're going to be covered by hair anyway. I also drawn in the shape of the chin and jaw to get that 'anime' look. Using a hobby knife, I then carve the contour of the face. I cant really explain, go grab an anime figure and study the face. You'll get what I'm talking about.

Okay, here is the part where I jump way ahead. To sculpt the eyes here is my approach. Draw the outline of the eye. Carve the inside of the eye. Define the eyelids and the area around it (eye socket and supra orbital foramen). Refine the eye as you see fit. I've also done mouth and lips. I made a slit where the mouth is and using a blunt tool I define the lips. The key to success here is good reference and practice, practice, and a whole lot more practice.

The last set of photos are how I made the hair. Not much to say. Just bulk the shape of the hair, dry it, and carve it.

This is the where Cloe is at the moment. Still need more detailing and sanding (oh a lot more of sanding). I still need to sculpt her hat and the pot of gold. But maybe I'll just skip the later and do something else. Next up is the detailing and finishing stages. What that translate is more sanding and priming action! Yay -_-u

Thats the end of part 3. Make sure to check back soon for part 4.
As always if you have any question about this or any other stuff in this blog, don't be a stranger and drop me a mail :)

Thanks for visiting!

Making an Anime Figurine: Female Leprechaun part 2

We're back again folks!

My PC got infected by a virus so there's some delay in updating the blog. Sorry for that. I've also keep forgetting to snap a couple of pictures while I'm in the zone. It looks like this figure isn't going to be finished in just 48 hours. I will try to finish it before the month's end though.

Let's get part 2 started!

Picking up from the last post, the armature has dried and it's time to put in some flesh and muscle. At this stage I just put on sausage and ball shapes to define the major muscle groups. This is also the stage to get the (final) pose and balance right. The left most picture was the end result after some drying, carving and sanding. Keep all your shavings and scraps from the carving! I'll tell you why later.

After the pose has been establish, now begin the detailing stage. For this stage it's almost impossible for me not to cut apart a figure. Seeing that in the concept Cloe wear a jacket and pants, it's natural to split the figure into two parts. Torso and legs. From here on I detail the parts separately. I did the torso first by making the bustier and jacket. For the legs, it's a matter of sculpting shoes...that's it. Somewhere in between detailing the torso, I made a peg and a hole to join the two parts together.

The detailing stage took a lot of time, most of it spent on waiting for the parts to dry. Dry the part every time you're happy with your sculpt, and don't do too much at one time. It lower the risk of accidentally ruining your sculpts.

Even after sanding, you're bound to find blemishes on the surface of the figure. This is where the scraps and shavings come into play. I put the shaving in a dish and add in water. The idea is to make a pulpy paste to fill the blemishes. This paste can also be used as glue for broken parts. Just make sure to dry the parts completely afterwards.

Thats the end of part 2. Make sure to check back soon for part 3 where we going to tackle the face and head...Oooh.

Thanks for visiting!

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