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Fantastic work!

Hi all,

sorry for the long silence.

I had to interrupt my work on the EREBUS & ALALA diorama for one of my very rare client commissions. Unfortunately the commission went pair shape and now I have to fight for may reimbursement.
I know why I hate commissions and why I usually don't accept any...


Anyhow, during the break the "Shiflett Brothers' Sculpting Forum" (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1114208771968434/) announced their new "Monster Rider Challenge" on Facebook.
Well, you know I love monsters and riders

So to vent frustration and to gather Mojo to continue the EREBUS & ALALA dio, I decided to join the fun.
In the WIP post (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1114208771968434/2067876766601625/) you can see a lot of great ideas already!

The initial idea I had was "why not turn things around and make the human the monster?" and my sketch and first armature reflected this.


A basic human shape kind of running on all fours.


Maybe using the right arm to pound something, or to brace on something


I wanted to have something dynamic


Well, dynamic it looked


But after a nights sleep I realized that the upper torso was twisted way to much to picture a believable rider situation.
So I twisted the torso back and therefore twisted the right arm further back and up.


This looked better, but somehow not so convincing to me.


Letting it sit for two days and playing some ideas out, I decided "not a real human".
I had a kind of Frankensteinish idea...
Some more thinking about a nightmare composed of various creatures.
So "it" received some different legs


still not convincing - especially since I originally had a chicken leg and a bull leg planned - imagine that walking


About to give up I left it alone for another two nights and then came up with this approach


bulls legs and a scorpion tail.


The upper torso remained for the time being


Not as dynamic as the initial concept, but still OK I think.


So I settled for that approach and burned the basic shape.
I kept the Frankenstein idea and now I have human-ish thighs and bulls lower legs


I also added stitching holes and deep wounds


To emphasize the cobbled together nightmare, I exaggerated the upper arm, and it will get birds feet


Hmm, could work out...


Next I decided to add some dragon-skin on the back


As you can see I'm "flying by the seat of my pants" again and am free-styling the pieces


Last night I did the scorpions tail


The underside has dragon skin and the upper side armor plates


The situation I have now settled for is "it" stamping forward using his left arm to push itself off a pillar and the rider urging it forward.


I have to admit that I'm still pulling blanks when I think about the head of the beast....
The lower legs will be birds/dragon feet.
Well, this is as far as I got.

Cheers

Klaus

Remember that scorpion stingers are recurved, so they thrust forwards instead of down. I mean, fantasy, so not a huge issue, but if you're doing mish-mash of real-ish animals.

When you do the head, maybe add in some crab-style mouthparts.

Anvildude wrote:
Remember that scorpion stingers are recurved, so they thrust forwards instead of down. I mean, fantasy, so not a huge issue, but if you're doing mish-mash of real-ish animals.

When you do the head, maybe add in some crab-style mouthparts.

CRAP!
You're right :(
Hopefully I can fix the stinger...thanks for pointing it out.
As for the head I'm torn between a human head - maybe wearing a beasts skull (bird or bear or such) - or a Dragon-style head.
We'll see

Anyhow, last night I worked on the front paw and decided to do for Dragon-style, since I had the Impression a bird-style would be to ...spindely...


Once pleased with the shape I added the Dragon Skin pattern


Yeah, I think this will fit well


What do you guys think?
Cheers
Klaus

Good work.

How are you doing the scale texture? Looks painstaking to do each individually, do you have a "quick" method?

For head, I was going to suggest a bull's head, or maybe insectoid; something that doesn't show emotion, as many of the scariest monsters don't show emotion (blank staring eyes, neural, emotionless masks, etc...), but I had another idea:

2 heads. as it's stitched together there obviously has to be donors for those parts. Maybe the human wasn't willing. So you can have the human head in pity and pain, and then a dominant monster head...

or...if you want to keep the "human is the real monster" theme, somehow corrupt the average, non-scary, human head/face. Blank of emotion, no eyes, etc. or additional monstrous parts like split-open mouth with extra sharp teeth...

I'm just throwing out ideas now, with no consideration to sculpting, so I'll stop there.

Some things to think about.

Two heads are better than one Follow DrH's "human is the real monster" looking intently forward, but have the non human head turned to look at the human head, as if to say "WTF are you doing?" / exasperated for not being in control and knowing exactly where the problem lies...

Oh - and sculpt is looking really impressive!

Thank you guys!
Cool ideas you have there - Keep 'em coming please!


Last night when I came back to the model I realized it is a rather large front paw
But in the overall appearance it will balance out.


Dr H and others asked what I use for the dragon skin pattern.
I have a set of hexagon rods into which I drilled small indentations with the hand drill. When I press these into the sculpey it creates a nice reptile skin pattern.


Looking at the overall appearance again, I decided to beef up the right thigh some more and give it a bit more mass


As Anvildude pointed out, the stinger of a scorpion is not pointed down, but rather forward. So I reshaped the stinger.


Last night I sculpted the left hand, propped up against a pillar


I modeled the appearance to look like sick, wild flesh


And since I had nothing better to do with the evening (LIE!) I experimented with some extra scales


Each is formed individually - but I think this was worth it.


With this most of the creatures body is done


Still have to do the abdomen and neck, and of course the head


I'm still tempted to try an aggressive looking human head...

Hmm....definately not Santa

Cheers

Klaus

I think those are feathers, not scales. Fluffy, puffy feathers!

You need some ragged fur, and some sleek fur, and some smooth skin, and rough skin, and scales and jelly-flesh and fish scales and...

This is very Island of Dr. Moreau, and I love it!

--Brian

PS: VERY sorry to hear about the commission going pear-shaped. Would you consider giving us a look at what was finished, maybe someone here would consider buying it?

Yeah, that's a pretty simple technique for scales. Ta.

and well, yeah that's a pretty scary face for a monster...jk

Good work.

Thank you guys!

in the last post I stopped at the decision point for the monster's head.
The initial idea for the Wolp'er-Tingah* was something close to human.

*Wolp'er-Tingah - some of my German readers may chuckle, as there is a taxidermist tradition of mixing animals to create a Wolpertinger - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolpertinger


As mentioned in the previous post I was thinking about a human head for the beast.
So I quickly sketched some ideas.
First something wage and ghostly


Then a bit more human


but even this human version didn't really convince me.


So I quickly sketched a dragon-style head and left it at that for the night.


The next day I looked at the options again and decided to take the dragon route.
So I added some basic eyes and a gums for the upper jaw


Then I started to block out the nose and lips


some of the cheek lines


Eyelids


More facial details


Eyebrows and wrinkles


Nostrils


Starts to look properly angry


With dragon skin


The next evening I started with the lower jaw


Basic jaw line


At this state I did a pose check


Relatively big, I probably have to beef up some sections of the body...


But continuing with the dragon-style I started to flesh out the neck


With the neck-muscles


Still toothless


but already cool looking


At that time I did another all-around check and left it for the night.






The next evening I continued with the dragon skin for the lower jaw and neck


And I sculpted the tongue


Ready for some dental work


So I created a bunch of teeth from GreenStuff


The next evening I inserted the teeth and sculpted the teeth ridge


Now that's a proper smile



With the left over GreenStuff I sculpted the mounting points for the reins as well as some horns


Since I always wanted to repeat a fiery-skin effect as I did with the Tar'Akoona dragon



I added a patch of this skin to the right side - at the same time beefing up the mass back there


And the thigh on the left also got some extra mass


With this the basic build for the Wolp'er-Tingah is completed


I'm quite pleased so far


Last night I finally began the rider


Though my cat wasn't quite pleased with the stinger...


...I was able to fix it - with some battle damage

sorry, for some reason the post got truncated.
So here's the rest

...the re-attached stinger - with battle damage


This is the first raw shape of the rider


Hmm...


Ah, with the reigns it looks better


Well, that's as far as I got.
What do you think?
Feedback, suggestions, critics?
Cheers
Klaus

I guess my only issue is the stinger can't really strike with a rider.

Good work, Klaus.

I feel like the abdomen and/or chest area could do with some bulking up; it now looks a bit weedy compared to the thickness of the limbs and the size of the head.

Keep at it.

Thank you guys!
It's been some time (AGAIN!)

But finally an update!

I was blocked by some health issues and then catching back up with real-life work.
But now I finally have some time at hand.
unfortunately the deadline for the contest (April 8th) is now approaching fast.
I'm sure I won't be able to enter it painted... :(

Since my last update I did a first test with the hand and staff.


I wasn't convinced by the hand, so I took it back off
But I started with the rider's turban.


Some of you older ones my know Chris Achilleos' "Harem Guard"


Which is an illustration I always loved. So I will try to build my rider in her spirit.
Here you can see the initial version of her staff - which I killed quite quickly


The start of her tunic


The Wolp'er-Tingah got some details, like the stitches,


some tubes,


more tubes,


and more stitches.


Then I started with her boots and the "skirt"


I also worked on the base for the temple


Not very well visible...a bit better in b/w and high contrast


I also sculpted a column (unfortunately I can't remove the supporting roll without breaking the column...)


While her skirt broke off (it was a mix of SuperSculpey and Greenstuff) I finished the boots, made a new staff and began to sculpt her hand.


I know this isn't the best of updates (Image wise), but I'm glad I was able to post anything and I hope to have some more images soon.

Cheers

klaus

while i am old fashioned enough to love cheesecake , i think the boobies could use some gravity...

Just great to see you bud. Hope you are feeling better bud.

Whole thing is looking brilliant.

Viktor von Domm wrote:while i am old fashioned enough to love cheesecake , i think the boobies could use some gravity...

Haha!
Hey Vik I'm simply sticking to Achilleos' original concept

Camkierhi wrote:Just great to see you bud. Hope you are feeling better bud.

Whole thing is looking brilliant.

Thank you!

Well I was able to finish the piece just in time for the contest, but wasn't able to post updates so far.
So here we go.

Since the last update I added more GreenStuff Details, like some raggedy fur


And chain links, from where the Monster was chained


As you can see the mighty Monster was chained at many spots


it even had some shackles


Of Course the rider needed some armor too


Starting the left Hand and a necklace


Straps for the knife


She started to come together


and the Position more plausible


armor for the other side and some jewlery under the Turban


Some armor for the left


Since normal reigns wouldn't have worked and I lacked the time for chaines, I decided to sculpt some "Magic" raigns


magical reigns and accessories


A knife for her thigh


and a scratchbuild book or tome


A good magican or priest needs a book or two


So here she is with her staff and the books



And that is it

Unleashing the Beast
As the barbaric horsemen from the north drew closer to the sacred temple of Kar’su-Mah with every passing day the faithful
priestess Dali’ah concluded that dire situations asked for drastic measures.
With a trembling heart she descended the steps to the inner sanctum of the temple. Her hands were shaking violently as
she opened her Tome of the Faithful and started the forbidden ritual to unleash the horror of the Wopl’er-Tingah!
The mighty beast of nightmares created by the mighty Kar’su-Mah himself had been chained and bound for centuries in
the deepest hall of the temple. Never to be released, never to roam the deserts of the setting sun, as it would bring unspeakable
horrors to the world if it ever got free.
But tonight Dali’ah would ride the Wolp’er-Tingah out of the temple and meet the enemy on the battlefield. The beast would
crush the ravaging invaders with its unrivaled fury and cleanse the desert sands of this festering wound.
The Wolp’er-Tingah is unleashed!

And a little YouTube Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aRPkak94qI&t=6s
I hope you like it
Cheers
Klaus

That's all really coming together!

Lovely detail work. Well done.

Thank you guys!
Unfortunately I didn't score -the competition was very strong and my piece was designed with its painted status in mind, so I submitted a second rate piece anyway.
Nevertheless, it will be painted - just not now

In the meantime I finally got around to work on Banshee's Anonymous 2.0 bust - which I originally purchased for his competition - here you can see the 16 best entries (Facebook):
16 Best

At the time of that contest i did lack the motivation, but now I have my mojo back and decided to finally give it a try.
This is the the original bust


I call my project STARGAZER, and I have a kind of steampunkish eternal astronaut in mind.

So I used a lot of GreenStuff to sculpt his suit



I then added more pieces


Including a visor and some cyborg-accesories


For the scene I planned to position him in front of a steampunk (spaceship) window with a view of a space scene


I'm not sure if this will really work out as I have envisioned


So I primed it with the planned light situation


Steampunk colors for the background


Here i established the base colors, and used green as a base for the skin tones


Looked kinda cool too


The skin color on the green base



The face almost done


Including a first version of the space reflection on his visor


With the background scene


Some light effects


Then I reworked the background space image


And this is as far as i got

Good to have you back, Klaus!

Wonderful work, very definitely a 'Space, 1899' feel to it. I'm a big fan of the Girl Genius comic, and I think you've captured the steampunk elements very nicely. I like your process for determining how the light will lie on the subject and amongst all the other things I've been sampling lately, will give that a try in the near future.

In noticing how you've been working on the eyes, I wonder, is the Stargazer blind in one eye?

I think you've brought all your elements together splendidly!

Nice vibe coming from him.

I like the star field backdrop you have going there. Was worried you were just going to let the primer coat stay (I should know you better by now).

Colors are also a really nice choice on the suit.

Meer_Cat wrote:Good to have you back, Klaus!

Wonderful work, very definitely a 'Space, 1899' feel to it. I'm a big fan of the Girl Genius comic, and I think you've captured the steampunk elements very nicely. I like your process for determining how the light will lie on the subject and amongst all the other things I've been sampling lately, will give that a try in the near future.

In noticing how you've been working on the eyes, I wonder, is the Stargazer blind in one eye?

I think you've brought all your elements together splendidly!

Thank you Meer_Cat!
Yes, the idea is to have him blind on one eye - with a scar going across the eybrow down to the cheek
Thank you!

Theophony wrote:Nice vibe coming from him.

I like the star field backdrop you have going there. Was worried you were just going to let the primer coat stay (I should know you better by now).

Colors are also a really nice choice on the suit.

Thank you Theophony!
Yeah the starfield backdrop was a lot of fun - though a whole evening of work

Well actually it is rather going slow right now, so it's just a mini-update today.

I decided to make the backdrop metal darker than the metal on the suit, giving a bit of contrast between backdrop and figure. So it will be more bronze or dark copper


then I refined some stuff, like the blue-ish light on the base, light and shadow on the backdrop


So this is as far as I got.
Cheers
Klaus

Last night I attempted to add a bit of patina in the form of Greenspan, using AK pigments

It left a very strong and visible smear all over - most likely my fault, but quite different from pigments I’m used to.

After the initial frustration I recovered and reworked the metal and wood


Then I did some more weathering, this time using my own paint mix for the Greenspan


As that was also a tad to strong, I toned it down some


With this I’m close to calling it done


Some cleanup and a tiny bit of OSL for the light in the plinth.
What do you think? Anything else?
Cheers
Klaus

Amazing work . He looks just like my fifth grade teacher mr. Morning.

WOW, thats absolutely incredible, nice!!

Verdigris (basically, rusting/oxydizing copper/brass/bronze) is HARD. You've done great work with it!

--Brian

Nice progress, Klaus. Looking good.

Fantastic works!

Excuse me, myabe somebody already has asked this question, but what is that white material, and why you mix it and green stuff?