Casting a Batman Mask

So this week I started something very scary.  If you haven't guessed by now I'm casting my own latex batman mask.  It's a mix of several versions.  It most closely resembles the Batman: Dead End mask I suppose.  As we know latex is usually cast in a plaster mold.  I'm not a fan of plaster molds.  They tend to lock up and do other awful things.  I also don't really have the proper setup to be working on this, but here I go.  First I covered the mouth and eyes to remove undercuts.

Next I put up a clay wall at my parting line

Reinforced.... it fell down 3 times while I was putting plaster one.... not great.

Plaster and burlap.  Removed the wall.  Surprisingly clean for the most part, but there will be a lot of cleanup later.  The cheap water clay I used for the wall was very tacky. It also turned out to be a very wobbly parting line.

tah daaahh....

Next week I hope I will have something more interesting for you.

Dreams and Little Terrors

 

I've had quite a few little ideas running around my brain lately, so I thought I'd jot them down.  These are some sketches of little wooden figures that resemble those weird wooden mannequins (yep, I had to spell check that one)  Just a thought.

Sketch

sucker.

I actually had a dream about this drawing.  I didn't quite get it down though.  I was at an art show of my own work and I saw it from across the room.

Feet in the Clouds

This was a fun week.  I made some stencil T-shirts and finished sculpting the feet on my guy.  It was Christina's birthday, so I decided to make T-shirts for our little family.  But first, some feet:

Basic Shape

Articulating the knuckles

Upside-down toenail sculpting

Not quite done, but good enough

Attached hands and feet

Stencil cut out of acetate

Taped to a screen

Prepped shirts with cardboard underneath

Always protection

Lay the fabric ink

Gently load the screen

Do a hard pull the other direction (not shown because both hands were occupied)

Bob Ross.

And that's how you do a fast screen printed shirt.

How to Sculpt Tiny Hands (and Batman)

So I can sculpt torsos all day long, but hands and feet take forever.  So I thought I'd dedicate a post to hand sculpting.  There's also a sneak peak at my halloween costume and some rad drawings  below.  

I start by making a very basic wire armature for my hand that was proportionate to my figure.

Then I figure out the positioning of the fingers and start adding clay and roughing out wrinkles and bones.

75% of the way there, starting to add veins.

Full Detailing

Give me five

I'm sculpting the mask, not that I deserve, but the mask I needed

Maya and I go on dates at Fajitas and Ritas because they have paper table cloths.  She drew our family. Here is the picture she drew of mommy.

Self-portrait (possibly as a dinosaur)

And me... Giant head.  Tiny body.  Not bad for a 2.5yr old.

Getting a new phone next month.  Hopefully the picture quality will increase.

Next week I'll post about feet!