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What's On Your Workbench? (Spring 2024)
Chris Ellerby
Admin
in General
We love seeing current projects from our community members. Sharing your work on our forums not only gets your work seen by a large audience but also motivates and inspires other artists. We may even feature some of your projects on our social media!
You can either share images and videos below as comments on this discussion or post your own discussion with your work. So don't be shy, show us what you've got!
You can either share images and videos below as comments on this discussion or post your own discussion with your work. So don't be shy, show us what you've got!
What's On Your Workbench?
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Comments
Bard got a bow, quiver and arrows since the original build. For my upcoming set, I will also be adding a wig front. These will be forest photos so very much like his posters for location.
Will Turner is also complete but has been awaiting my weight loss. I do finally have 5 locations scouted for final pics.
Here is my finals for Adam Ant 2024 (will be wearing the stage outfit to the May concert):
Continued thanks to Stan Winston School and our great forum tips. You make this the greatest hobby ever. Included in these builds, above pics, are lighting, photography, makeup, effects makeup, hair enhancements and faux hair, props, and staging. And my heart felt thanks for allowing a hobbyist to obtain the same level of pro input and resources available to industry track students. There just isn't any other place like Stan Winston School.
I found the Pathways to be super useful in giving me classes in order of skill level. If you click on the Stan Winston logo at the top, then the pancakes (three bars) in the upper left, choose "Pathways" and scroll down to Sculpture basics.
I did design first, though, but here is a direct link:
https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/pathways/sculpture-basics-online-courses-for-beginning-sculptors-to-learn-basic-sculpting
Thanks! I've enrolled, so far, in both Sculpture pathways. As time goes on I'll be diving into the Painting, Mold&Casting, and Mechanics/Animatronics courses. I have a tiny bit of experience playing with foam clay (augmented a craft pumpkin) and I came across a YouTuber who does a lot of work with polymer clay. I've found that to be helpful for learning how basic shapes combine to make something not-so-basic. I flip between working on my space girl (cause she's gonna take some time) to doing some simple thing with the polymer. It gives me that instant gratification feeling cause they don't take a lot of time to do. That being said, I've still only completed 2 polymer sculpts; a simple owl and a replication of something I've seen (Google Pinocchio weather vane under Image search). I had an idea pop into my head a couple days ago that I want to try related to MST3K. If I have time this weekend (family stuff and school stuff are fairly prominent right now, I'm in a masters degree program) I'll see what comes of it.
anyhoo, its a ton of fun and some of my crazy ideas seem to work, others dont. And others are just one tweak or change in material away from working or so I feel.
I would suggest the molding and casting courses for sure. Look in the pathways on the main school page or just do a search in the class page for same. The first thing to stand out in your broken mold picture is no binder. The use of hemp fiber or similar string type substance in the mold does the same thing as rebar in concrete allowing the mold to withstand normal stresses and contraction from drying and or moisture uptake. Each of the molds using hard materials has something used as a binder where the soft pore does not usually include the same. However, if the mold, even flexible, is intended for a high rate of reproduction, I would still add some type of binder but I would ask the teachers here before doing so because it might inhibit curing. But hemp fiber or sissal for plaster and concrete is a known winner. Maybe a strap around the upper mold to give it an external strength too?
I think I just wrapped my brain around what I am seeing in these pictures....
What I thought was the upper is being flipped upside down? If that is true, the rounded surface is sitting on the table? It needs to be completely supported from beneath by either a full fill of plaster to give it a flat surface touching the table or it needs to be sitting in a box of sand that provides the same support. Like put a bunch of something, sand, towels, something that will form to that, inside a box, to keep it from wanting to have all the pressure on a center point expanding outward with no support. I am going to try to sketch something. I don't see in the process where the rounded surface came from, maybe ran out of plaster and just covered the mold with an even layer but it does need to be flat instead or supported from beneath by a bed of sand or similar.
If the final cast is a material that expands, you will need strapping around the mold during casting so the pressure is released through vents rather than it deforming your mold. If so, vents would need to be present in the design. And now after my rant, the instructors can give us the real scoop.
Either way, great sculpt. This looks cool.
And yeah I ve got loads of stuff lying around. Many Many tubs full of found plastic bits n parts, rolls of fabric and foam, off cuts and greeblies and a hardware store across the road. Plus many patterns and decades of sketches and ideas and pre collected project bins. The base for the helmet is the Evil Ted basic Helmet pattern and then just layered foam cord (cut in half) and glued on foam off cuts. And SFX latex test castings that were going to waste otherwise. those corrugated tubes.
keep us posted about yer Adam Ant. Im curious to the results