Centaur Sculpture WIP

Hi all..!!
welcome to my "Centaur Sculpture" page....!!
Today I am posting the rough concept sketch of the.. character which I am going to sculpt.. it is a centaur..!! here are the few characteristics of centaurs according to the "centaur information page" which will help us mingle with the Greek Mythological Creature that we are going to craft;

>Centaurs have the upper body of a human, and the lower body of a thoroughbred horse.
>Centaurs are highly resistant to poisoning and charm based magics, but suffer additional hardships from extreme cold.
>Centaurs are very strong and hearty, but are less dexterous than most bipeds. >Centaurs have the ability to horse kick their opponents.
now let us get bak to main topic.. the concpet sketch and pose
here we go..(please note the below sketch is not anatomically 100% correct as this is just the basic/rough concept sketch.. we will go in minute details as we move ahead nito sculpting..)



cheers!!!

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Hi all hope everything is going good at your end!!!
I once again apologize for the long delay…..:) anyway let us continue..
I will start with horse part first… and later on move to human part….
Let us start with the armature for it…
For this we will actually require a reasonable gauge aluminum wire along with some thin gauge binding wire.. it was difficult for me to find aluminum wire o’er here so I compromised on (high/thin) gauge soft GI wire.. along with the normal iron binding wire which we usually use in RCC for binding.. u can get these wires from any ordinary hardware shop… one more thing you will need pliers for twisting, shaping cutting etc…
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Detailed drawing(horse part) for armature…
For this we will need to draw 1:1 scale detailed drawing of the figure that we intend to sculpt.. ie front view, side view and top view..
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I thought that the wire that I bought was pretty thin so in order to strengthen it I twisted it in two folds using combination of two pliers… if wire is strong enough we can use the single strand as well
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Armature logic: it should more or less replace the skeleton of your sculpture.. u have to use ur own imagination and logic for this…. there is no hard and fast rule for making main armature except that it should be reasonably inside the figure and strong enough to support ur sculpture during making process.. so I make wire armature as per my drawing..(leaving much extra length from limbs so that it can be balanced on these wire extensions later) comparing things time and again.. we have to try using minimum joints…
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Restricting joint movement: for this I applied plumbers putty on joints, sealed em with it… In India this putty is sold under the brand name M-seal or feviseal it is a 2 part putty which hardens after mixing and application.. use this on the joints of armature in order to prevent any movement in joints…
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Ideally at this stage the armature is ready for clay application but I am not using standard air drying clay.. so I apprehend things like cracks etc.. if the thickness of clay is too much and one more thing the sculpture will be too heavy to move or handle…. for this reason I will be using the light weight Styrofoam sheet cuttings as a filling… Styrofoam is shock absorbent synthetic polymer(normally used in insulation or packing of electronic items etc).. u can buy this from any stationery shop.. this comes in different grades of thickness…u have to choose thickness according to ur sculpture size…

For this draw the side view of horse figure on a different paper and cut down the body(as shown in figure below) to mark it on Styrofoam in order that we may later cut that styrofoam as per dimensions.. you can take few photocopies of this drawing so that you may not have to make it again and again as it will be required many more times.. in my case I have drawn all of em myself becuase I enjoy doing it….
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Cut another parallel shape from Styrofoam sheet so that the thickness of main body is two folded..
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Similar procedure with hind limbs… mark the limbs as L for left and R for right
Figures are self explanatory I suppose…
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This dude(shown below) is a 30 min sculpture that I have carved from soap slab.. I use it as a paper weight..:D
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Proceed with the same procedure for fore limbs as well..
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Once you get the proper alignment as per drawing… mark the lines on all 4(2 body, 2 limbs) layers of Styrofoam (as shown) so that we don’t need to align it again and again..
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Fixing the Styrofoam into armature wire: fix the Styrofoam body pieces into wire as shown in pics below (as per your drawing)
For limb fixing make a place for wire in the foam limbs and fix the marked limbs at the appropriate place…. U may need adhesive tape to fix limbs at proper place..( refer to pics below)

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Fix this foam tightly with laminating adhesive/transparent tape, you may need to do trimming at various places as you compare you figure with main drawing…. (Front, side and top view) As said earlier whole of this armature thing should fit well inside your main drawing…

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Wrapping aluminum foil and wire around the armature: Before doing this I got an idea and wanted to have some tangible utility of this sculpture so I decided to make a table lamp out of it.. for this I have crossed a pair of electrical wires thru its right rare limb going directly via its body to the right arm of human part.. so that it appears that centaur is holding the light bulb.. since we are starting with horse part so as of now electric wire will come out of horses neck..
Going back to aluminum foil wrapping and wire winding: this is done in order that the clay we are using fixes to the rough metallic surface that we are going to create for armature....
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Now our complete armature for horse part is ready… ready to be mounted on wooden board… balance the armature and fix it to the board(as shown)
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Cutting a figure (side view drawing): for periodic comparison of our sculpture and main drawing.. we will cut the side view figure of main drawing out of thick card paper so that it is easy to handle and compare during the process of clay application…
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Tools used in sculpting:
Here are the tools that I have got over here… although I won’t be using all of them…. just wanted to show you.. I will also need some water container for that I cut down the bottle and use it as disposable water container…

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This is the one(shown below) that I purchased from local art shop..
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Clay: I am using water based air drying clay.. the closest thing to this that was available here is wall putty.... although it needs more hard work and results are not too impressive.. however considering the limited choice that I have over here.. this is what I will go for.. I will need size-10 brush, water and mixing pot.. here is how I go about it…
Put the putty in pot
Add water gradually as if you have to make bakers dough..(this step should be done very carefully if you add too much water the mixture leans and is nightmare to handle… mix it till it resembles and as the consistency of the bakers flour dough..

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Application of clay:
Use the main reference picture and apply the putty(clay) on the armature according to figure shape/drawing you can use sculpting tools(which can even be a carved or can even be as simple as a normal ice cream stick) to emphasize on anatomy.. however we don’t expect the figure the be too exact at this time as we go on putting clay more or less roughly and later on give shape to it with shaping tools…(please note that the maximum wet working time for this type of clay is 2-3 hrs)
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Same procedure for other side too:
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After this we may need to use sand paper to achieve smoothness on surface and anatomy exaggeration… however this is done after 24 hours of drying at normal temperature we can use normal or water proof(on damp piece)(coarse to fine) sand papers as shown in fig… Sand papers are rated as per numbers.. higher the number… finer the sand paper…
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This is where I am presently…. this is not the final finish that we will be getting.. First I will add human part to it and then finish the piece together…
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As always comments queries welcome…

I apologize for the quality of pics... as I am using my cellfone camera for this purpose..
Thanks for looking….


I am out to my home on holidays… I will return to this place after a week or so… and continue working on this sculpture after that…
Cheers
Abbas