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How would you mold this two charatcer sculpture?

HudsonRunABypassHudsonRunABypass ✭
in Sculpture
Hi Folks,

I'm new to both sculpting and mold making, having started six months ago and have so far made a couple of casts using both a two part, one piece block mold, and a brush on mold, so I have a general overview of the types.

I'm not yet finished with this piece, it's a BJJ leglock. The posing will be roughly the same. I'm hoping to be able to make resin or plaster casts when it's done, and thought now would be a good time to start looking into the best methods, perhaps do some tests.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Very much open to any suggestions or critiques too.

Cheers!

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    Chris EllerbyChris Ellerby Admin
    Cool sculpture!

    With characters, it's sometimes advantageous to remove some limbs and mold/cast those on their own.  Try and see where you could break this down into multiple molds by dividing up the characters.  If it's possible to un-entangle them or add cuts so sections can be removed and cast on their own that will help. Just make sure that based on how things are divided up that they would be able to join back together once cast as rigid parts.

    It may be possible to remove the back character, leaving his captured leg as part of the front character, and hide the joining seam in an area that is not visible.

    Ideally, you want as few individual pieces as possible so you don't have a lot of molds to make and seams to patch. 

    This looks like a pretty tricky mold to break down, but it's possible!  Look at it from every angle and see where cuts could be made, etc.

    Best of luck!

    /Chris
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    HudsonRunABypassHudsonRunABypass ✭
    Chris, thanks so much for your response. I was hoping you'd say "just pour silicone on it, it'll be fine", but now I'm looking forward to trying to solve this problem. I have to realise that I'm ust starting, and will likely learn from the mistakes, so I need to allow for those mistakes and potentially lose a sculpture in the process. 

    Both of the guys are wearing shorts, so that seems like an area where I could potentiall hide a seam. Perhaps OI could make the cuts then add a little more clay to the shorts so that it overlaps and hides the seams more.

    Do people generally adjust their composition in order to amke a sculpture more friendly to mold? 


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    Chris EllerbyChris Ellerby Admin
    You can adjust your composition to make molding and casting easier, and I tend to think about how I'm going to mold and cast a project as I'm making it to see if small decisions can make my life easier during the next steps. 

    That said, I also try my best to avoid sacrificing artistic vision just to make casting easier.  Even if you create difficult to mold pieces, as long as you are the one making the mold those challenges will help you get better at mold making and breaking down sculptures, which will let you make better projects in the future with more confidence.  

    Go with the composition that best tells the story you want to tell and best represents your characters. 

    /Chris
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