I Want That Arm

(Which, by the way, is a track title on the short-but-excellent D9 score by Clinton Shorter)

I finally got around to giving CJ his arms back. I used 45 degree connectors for his elbows this time instead of 90 degree ones – I thought it matched the reference photos more closely as well as gave me more working room around the torso without having to completely remove the arms.

The black tape marks indicate CJ’s wrists.

These will be CJ’s fingers…

Building out the “wrists” so that the fingers stick out at the right angle…

Attaching the fingers…

Bulking the hand out with foil and electrical tape.

I think it’s finally time to get the clay back out!

CURSES! CJ! FOILED AGAIN!

(Oh come on – how often is it you get to say that and actually MEAN it! ;) )

And I was cursing a little bit. Whether you want to blame the holidays in general (or the nasty cold I got over said holidays) or perhaps the fact I was starting to realize I probably wasn’t going to get the sculpt for CJ done before I left for Europe (and thus dashing hopes of having some nice pics of CJ in my portfolio for when I went to the International Make-Up Artists’ Tradeshow in London at the end of my 3 week trip) I was having trouble getting myself motivated to get back into my workshop.

Around the normal post-holiday adjustments, as well as preparing for my trip, I kept to my commitment to put in at least an hour on CJ each day but despite my “slow and steady” peptalk to myself a while back, I was still getting those hare-like urges to give myself a tense deadline and rush, rush, rush.

I had to remind myself of how much sheer FUN I had been having – that despite all the challenges I WAS truly enjoying myself. In particular, I got so giddy on the day that the sculpt finally started to come together that I practically skipped from the workshop when I finally had to leave for the day.

So I consoled myself with the fact that once I got back to the sculpting stage I would in all likelihood start enjoying myself more again. Right now my progress was less obvious - I had a pile of pipes, not a Prawn – when I got to the point where I could more easily see the little Prawnling slowly emerging my natural fan-girl enthusiasm would start to return and things would snowball from there.

But back to my progress (such as it was). Yes, back to the foiling stage. I endeavoured to fill out the sculpt a little more than I did the first time (although now I also knew I had enough clay to get by). I still didn’t want to get too close to the surface – I carved into the first sculpt quite a bit at one point and I didn’t want the foil so close to the surface that I denied myself that option.

I built up the various areas with foil sausages held in place with electrical tape…

Then I would wrap everything in a layer of foil and compress it.

Then I’d take a peek at one of the armature-overlaid-with-reference-pic photos I’d printed out, then continue filling out areas as needed (as you can see mainly the back of the neck and the upper chest).

Step 3) Faced With A Face Full Of Foil

Bulking out the armature with aluminum foil…

This was supposed to help save on clay and weight by filling out the center of the sculpt (and the rough texture of the foil was supposed to give the clay something to cling to – except I got overzealous with the electrical tape…. That’s ok though, because the clay I ended up using was quite sticky when warmed. I didn’t have any trouble with it falling off the sculpt)

You can see I also wrapped wire around the limbs – again to give the clay something extra to grab onto.

I didn’t want to add TOO much foil though, since, if I needed to, I wanted the ability to carve deep into the sculpt. I tried to leave myself at least an inch (more like two) all the way around.

In the end though I VASTLY underestimated the amount of clay I needed to order. In fact I had to order clay twice because I ran out before I’d even finished roughing out the sculpt the first time.

* * *

This is a short post before an extra long one but since I've got a little time I just have to show you this little bit of D9 fun I found.

I was visiting a friend just in time for her annual, spectacular Halloween party. We were packing up the various bags of treats and decorations to take over to the event hall when she hands me what looks like a green, metallic novelty pen.

"Here," she said. "I thought you might like to have this."

Seeing antennae and guessing as to why she deemed it an appropriate gift for me, I chortle "Oooh! A Prawn pen!"

Then I turned it over for a closer look...


Hey - It really WAS a Prawn Pen! An Angry!Wikus Pen no less! XD

This is why I have awesome friends - they know me MUCH too well!

(Hmm something tells me I'll be commiserating with Angry!Wikus here before this project is out...)