My sculpting gets a shot in the arm ...

A big double post today to encapsulate the last 3 sessions. Sadly I'm only getting an hour's sculpting time with CJ every second day or so - haven't quite figured out how to juggle making my sister's wedding dress, working on CJ, preparing for an independent film shoot I'm working on in April, and juggling a regular day job (amongst other things). I'm improving - but again in tiny intervals :P

Very close to having the first pass at the sculpt done though. CJ's definitely looking like a Prawnling now! :)

Here I'm just bulking out the armpit areas to match the reference material more closely...

I squeezed in a mini 20 minute session earlier in the week. However when I got back in the workshop for the next session I wasn't happy with how bulky I'd made CJ's forearm (not to be confused with his 4th arm, which hasn't been added yet ;) )
So I took a wire rake tool and scraped back some of the excess clay (1st pic) before smoothing and further reducing the surface with a loop tool (2nd and 3rd pics). The rake tool helps reduce larger bumps and unevenness in the surface whereas a light, even application of the loop tool helps smooth things out.

Building up the forms in CJ's shoulder and bicep. You can see in the left-most pic where I used the loop tool to help narrow the shape of the arm near the elbow, and then later (the last pic) where I used the loop to help make the size transition more smooth and even.

Building up the distinctive spikes at the tips of CJ's shoulder exoskeleton.

And CJ with his newly roughed in left arm...

And blocking in the right arm, using pretty much the exact same process...

And that means...