He's Got a Knife: Detail Construction

The last post dealt with the core construction of the monster. Now to take the previous blob of vaguely monster-shaped clay an turn it into something that you wouldn't want to see coming at you with a tiny knife.

1. The Bod.

With the the Sculpey Base, I covered the entire thing with a thin, thin (1/8 inch) layer or Super Sculpey. This was the first time I'd used Super Sculpey. My opinion? It...is...awesome. Seriously, I really like this stuff. It models well and bakes up super hard. Even with the just the thin layer, the thing was solid. I flick it with my finger and it stings a bit. It's maybe a little firmer than Original Sculpey but it feels smoother. The color is completely different, too. This is more of a skin tone color like an old G.I. Joe than Original Sculpey's stark white. I will definitely be using Super Sculpey more in the future.

I'm not sure I needed to cover the entire thing. I did it thinking it would provide a uniform Super Sculpey base as I add details later. This step also smoothed out a lot of the lump I left in the Original Sculpey. The only downside is that it caused the sculpture to be a little bulkier than it probably needed to be but it turned out well.

Anyway, after baking the initial Super Sculpey, I still had a pretty blob-ish chunk of clay with few features.



2. The Face.

Here's where I started added features to the monster. This took place through several modeling and baking cycles as I gradually built up the specifics. Over a couple evenings I added toes and claws, head shape with mouth and eye sockets, fingers and claws, finger webs, and, finally, the scales and gills.

Another thing I like about Super Sculpey is that is seems to adhere well to itself. I was able to model fingers and kind of smoosh and smooth the unbaked clay to the previously baked model easily. After baking, the transition is reasonably solid and unnoticeable.

There was a pretty tense moment while baking the monster. The baking sheet warped in the oven and the monster tipped over, breaking off a couple fingers and toes. It glued back together well but the lesson is that Super Sculpey is pretty soft while in the oven.