It returns! (image intensive)
Hello All!
A little bird told me that it's been some time since my last update. Though I had often contemplated an update, I didn't know if people would prefer an update that said "not much to report" or not. Most of my activity has been of the "behind the scenes" sort, which could be anywhere from planning new work and new projects, or just boring clerical chores.
Though it's not Lovecraftian in nature, I did paint this CD cover art for the band Squanky Kong:
It looks like I may be designing another Lovecraftian Tattoo! This one will be pretty big, I am looking forward to it.
I'm sure some of you may be wondering what is up with the Cthulhu statue. A while back I started to map out the various sections of the mold and started be discouraged. What I imagined might be a five part mold was starting to look like eight or more, which makes things exponentially more complex (five is already quite unusual, two is probably the most common). Is this beyond my means to cast? Could anyone cast it? Trying and failing would be a sad end to this journey, so I think part of me wanted to stall... I don't want to disappoint anyone! But, enough stalling, I need to at least give it a try. And, it might be interesting for people to get a sense of the process.
First up, I am submerging the statue in clay and just exposing the area that will be the first section of the mold. The red lines on the statue are where I was originally intending to map out the sections before I cut down the number to simplify things. It might help to imagine that the sections are kind of like orange slices in the way that they connect around one central axis:
A side view that shows how I am centering the statue in what will be a box. The form is propped up with bits of foamcore and more clay. It needs to be fairly sturdy:
I place a box around the whole thing and seal off the edges to create a complete seal. I then took a sharpie marker and made several divots around the perimeter, often called 'keys'. These will later help align the sections when it's assembled for casting:
I mixed up some silicone rubber (it's parts are mixed 1:1, which makes life easier). I have painted the silicone directly onto the sculpture, this helps get better coverage and eliminates air bubbles:
Then, I poured a bunch more silicone over the whole thing:
After is has cured (a couple of hours), I pulled off the side walls of the containment box:
I then separated the cured rubber from the clay and master.
Here's a detail shot of the mold, you can see the skin texture in negative. It appears to have reproduced quite well! I need to be careful with the resin pour, though, as I can imagine air bubbles hiding in all those nooks:
Last, we see the master put back into the first silicone section. Next step will be to section off another slice:
I'm still quite skeptic to be honest, I see a number of ways in which this won't work, but I am trying to override this with optimism. Tentacles crossed!
In other news, the giant Cthulhu painting is all done. The "client" (for lack of a better and friendlier term), Bill, has been quite patient with me... to the point of being very encouraging to let me enjoy the process as much as I can. It's now waiting to be photographed, the nature of the shiny paint on the canvas texture is creating a lot of glare, which is why I am receiving help from a friend that's far more knowledgeable and experienced with a camera. Why do I want such a quality photo? My hope is to release it as a small poster.
Here's the last in-progress photos, though it's come a long way since then:
See you next aeon,
~Paul
A little bird told me that it's been some time since my last update. Though I had often contemplated an update, I didn't know if people would prefer an update that said "not much to report" or not. Most of my activity has been of the "behind the scenes" sort, which could be anywhere from planning new work and new projects, or just boring clerical chores.
Though it's not Lovecraftian in nature, I did paint this CD cover art for the band Squanky Kong:
It looks like I may be designing another Lovecraftian Tattoo! This one will be pretty big, I am looking forward to it.
I'm sure some of you may be wondering what is up with the Cthulhu statue. A while back I started to map out the various sections of the mold and started be discouraged. What I imagined might be a five part mold was starting to look like eight or more, which makes things exponentially more complex (five is already quite unusual, two is probably the most common). Is this beyond my means to cast? Could anyone cast it? Trying and failing would be a sad end to this journey, so I think part of me wanted to stall... I don't want to disappoint anyone! But, enough stalling, I need to at least give it a try. And, it might be interesting for people to get a sense of the process.
First up, I am submerging the statue in clay and just exposing the area that will be the first section of the mold. The red lines on the statue are where I was originally intending to map out the sections before I cut down the number to simplify things. It might help to imagine that the sections are kind of like orange slices in the way that they connect around one central axis:
A side view that shows how I am centering the statue in what will be a box. The form is propped up with bits of foamcore and more clay. It needs to be fairly sturdy:
I place a box around the whole thing and seal off the edges to create a complete seal. I then took a sharpie marker and made several divots around the perimeter, often called 'keys'. These will later help align the sections when it's assembled for casting:
I mixed up some silicone rubber (it's parts are mixed 1:1, which makes life easier). I have painted the silicone directly onto the sculpture, this helps get better coverage and eliminates air bubbles:
Then, I poured a bunch more silicone over the whole thing:
After is has cured (a couple of hours), I pulled off the side walls of the containment box:
I then separated the cured rubber from the clay and master.
Here's a detail shot of the mold, you can see the skin texture in negative. It appears to have reproduced quite well! I need to be careful with the resin pour, though, as I can imagine air bubbles hiding in all those nooks:
Last, we see the master put back into the first silicone section. Next step will be to section off another slice:
I'm still quite skeptic to be honest, I see a number of ways in which this won't work, but I am trying to override this with optimism. Tentacles crossed!
In other news, the giant Cthulhu painting is all done. The "client" (for lack of a better and friendlier term), Bill, has been quite patient with me... to the point of being very encouraging to let me enjoy the process as much as I can. It's now waiting to be photographed, the nature of the shiny paint on the canvas texture is creating a lot of glare, which is why I am receiving help from a friend that's far more knowledgeable and experienced with a camera. Why do I want such a quality photo? My hope is to release it as a small poster.
Here's the last in-progress photos, though it's come a long way since then:
See you next aeon,
~Paul
Kudos to the little bird for getting you to share an update on your projects.
I'm sorry to say I don't have any casting advice to offer. All my casting expierences are for high school plays I was in(stupid couch
A poster like that would be a cool thing to offer up to the masses. Good luck with that too.
Squanky Kong has a nice ring to it, and the cover looks very sharp. i told a girl here at work that I haven't bought a CD in some time (for financial reasons). She's said she's never bought a cd. Times they are a changin.
Now if you excuse me I have a three day weekend to start.
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Thanks for the words of encouragement, Duffy! I'm going to give it the old college try, whatever that means.
Never purchased a CD?? Wow, I hadn't seen that one coming!
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Indeed, neither did I. I believe she is only 22 years old, so it's hardly a gulf in age difference; more like a rain swollen creek.
As long as your college try is better then my college try everything should turn out well enough.
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Pretty interesting to see how you do the casting process- I've only ever seen tutorials on simple two part moulds before.
That painting came out superbly! The dripping water really helps give the impression of the sheer scale of that monster. The lighting on his face helps to bring out his human-looking facial features too, give him a sense of character. Overall a great job.
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That's good to hear... and what I had hoped to hear, that this will at least be somewhat informative regardless if I pull it off or not. After I heard about one and two part molds, I once saw someone do a three parter. Well, that opened my eyes to the other possibilities. I'd assume as long as the parts don't get too small and too unstable, the sky is the limit as far as sections go.
I'm looking forward to being able to share good photos of the finished painting, there's a lot of nice subtlety that's lost in the glare.
~Paul
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Well, a whack upside the head for being a slacker and skimping on the updates. However, this one was worth waiting for. The concept of a five part mold boggles my mind. I am clear on casting concepts, but I have no experience. However it's something I'd like to try if I ever sculpt something worth reproducing. To that end it would be very much appreciated if you could give us an idea of your thought process on where the borders between the mold sections lie. And since I'm in an inquisitive mood... how does the clay interact with the sculpey and all that gribbly detail. It looks like it comes away clean with no effort, but then that would be hard to judge from simple before and after pictures, wouldn't it?
I love the Squidface painting! The red underlit waves are a delightful touch. And the rain soaked sky is excellent (again with the sky thing, I should seek therapy). I look forward to finished pics. This thing looks awesome even with less-than-perfect pics.
Thanks for the update!
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Rich!
disclaimer: I am by far an authority on the process, I am pretty much flying by the seat of my pants here, but I do have a rough idea of the concept.
A- Here's a cross section of a mold, the resin will be poured into the top hole.
B- The resin has been poured, and we see that some air was trapped.
C- "Vents" have been created (either cut into the rubber, or actually added to the sculpture before the rubber pour)
D- Now the resin is able to flow though the whole mold, and we hopefully avoid air pockets.
If you can identify a part in the sculpture where air could get trapped, no matter how you position it, you would benefit from adding vent(s) there, and so you'll need a split in the mold on that axis. This is why a lot of one piece gaming models are relatively flat, then all the vents can be had with just a two-part mold. But, it leaves for boring poses. Adding parts is more laborious and time consuming ($$), so they often try to work it all into one piece.
The best places (vents aside) for the splits are where there is little detail, or where the sprues and flash can be easily removed without having to re-sculpt any of the detail. This way, the mold lines are pretty much hidden. Cthulhu is pretty much all texture, which makes it more challenging.
Does that make any sense?
As for the clay, I am using the daftly named "Klean Klay" (sic), which supposedly will not contaminate the silicone. I haven't experienced contamination, so I am not sure what that would involve. The clay is rather oily, much like plasticene, and it can be a little tricky to remove. I remove as much as I can with my hands and tools, then I use rubbing alcohol and a brush to remove the rest. It's a little tedious.
This guy does a pretty good tutorial, though the technical parts might be a little outdated (meaning there are better materials now available):
http://www.danperezstudios.com/workshoppages/molding_casting.htm
While I'm here, one good thing to know is that silicone loves to stick to more silicone. So, when poring fresh silicone on an area that meets up with a previous section, the older section needs to be prepped to avoid adhesion. This is called mold release, often a spray or brush-on stuff (I use brush on). I've made the mistake of forgetting this before, and it means you get to do a lot of work all over.
Tonight I will try to get a good photo of the Cthulhu painting, I look forward to being able to share a good image of it.
~Paul
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