once I had enough clay on I began to work out the general positioning of the figure on the armature. By smoothing out the basic shape I had now created I could step back and decide on how the spine and the belly worked in relation to one another. This was also the time where I began to plot the centre point of the spine and by drawing straight onto the clay I began to determine height and proportions of the figure and where everything was relative to each body part. I began to build up the spine to create the curve in the lower back that was an important aspect of the design.
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Here I continued to build the curve of the spine by adding clay to the highpoints. Since I am building up the clay using measurements of the bone structure, it will give me the correct dimensions then to add muscle on top. I use the bones that protrude from the muscle as my measuring points. Once I am happy with the side profile of the back, I can then build up the belly and chest. At this stage It is important to keep in mind the width, height and depth of the figure, almost to think of it as a cube at first. once the highpoints are located, the fleshier areas can then be added to make up the voids. I begin to locate the leg points such as the hip, knee and ankle, being careful again at this stage to keep them thinner than what they will end up being. I use a life size replica of the human skeleton as reference to make Shure that the ribcage shape and the hips are where they need to be and that the body is symmetrical. I also plot in where the head will be, by measuring from the chin to the suprasternal notch. the head will be a key reference point to plot height.
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Now at a stage where I could attempt to add basic detail in, I began by experimenting with the bum. because of the nature of the piece I wanted to use areas of the body that are a concern for me personally, so I focused on the bum, breasts, stomach and upper thighs. This initial experimentation was to let me gauge what I wanted the specific aspects to look like generally. I began to play with ideas that I thought could make for an interesting piece. The difficulty in this project was that I was not working from a model, which meant that the only reference material I used was the drawings I had made, and human anatomy.
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Once I had added some simple detail I could then take a step back from the piece and begin to see the inaccuracies in the sculpting. I realized that the shoulders width was too small and that the left breast was not sitting correctly on the ribcage, meaning that the ribcage would have to be altered. This meant removing the clay and working into the ribcage. When I had added the correct amount of clay to the shoulders, the entire figure then became out of proportion, and showed me that the hip and waist and ribcage were much too small. I Began adding clay using a line to define the centre point.
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I began sculpting the feet, and I needed reference so I decided to use my own feet. I needed to get reference of how the feet curve around a hard edge. this shape turned out to be extremely difficult to sculpt, and because of the time constraints and the accuracy I decided to cast the front of the feet.
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I concentrated on the right hand. This was a difficult sculpt because it was designed to look like it was grasping painfully at the side of the leg. to get clay ( a soft material) to look like it is grasping anything is difficult, I used my own hand as a guide and looked at it in position on my own leg repeatedly.
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The sculpt had reached a point where I was happy with elements of it and others not so much. There were areas which still needed to be built up as they were too thin. so I used a handmade loop tool that was wrapped in a thin wire that would create the scratched quality you see in the photos, this was a good way of sculpting the clay and being able to keep a consistency all across the sculpture. I used the loop tool probably more than any other at this stage in the project, it was a key tool that I couldn't have done without. The tool also let me take clay away and by sculpting in the direction of the muscles I could achieve a more realistic interpretation of the muscles.
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Whilst I was defining the muscle groups of the legs using my loop tool, I realized that the perportions of the leg were off. I couldn't figure out why I was having such a difficult time fitting in all the muscles until I realized that the measurement of the knee was off by 20cm. I simply re-measured, cut the knee down and positioned it lower. I could now fit all the muscles and the sculpt ended up looking all the more better for it.
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Although initially I was happy enough with the arm and hand I had created, I began to think of how I could make it more realistic with the time constraints I was under. I needed reference for this complex part of the sculpt, so I used a fellow student and myself to help me understand it better. Even after working on it for a few days I just couldn't get my hand to the level I wanted it, so I decided to do the same as I did for my feet and cast them from life.
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I began adding detail to the stomach. I wanted the stomach to be a counterpoint of the sculpt, and even though some of the details were fictional, and technically impossible for a human to have I wanted to add an aspect of grotesque to the belly. As my stomach is a major factor of what I don't like about my body I wanted the belly to look almost non human and to seem like someone who has lost a lot of weight in a very short time.
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I was now at a stage where I could begin the process of fine tuning the details I liked and adding small details to the sculpt. I also at this stage started to smooth out the surface of the clay ready for casting, as I was soo near done with the sculpting element of the project I sill decided to make both hands out of monster clay.
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As I had decided to cast the hands from a real person rather than sculpt them, I decided that I needed to know exactly how the left hand (covering the face) would be positioned. Which is why I took several photos of my hand in the desired position from all angles. I could then use these and show them to my model to make sure that she had her hand in the right position. I used a fellow students hands.
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