bgcdazzler's first ever mini WIP (a confusion of cockups and learnings)

[bgcdazzler]

Leopold the Bastard he is, then!

here's his fluff:

'Arise, oh Leopold the Bastard, and stake thy place at the dinner table of mighty dwarfdom; so that we may feast on the flesh of thine most heroic deeds. And please stop trying to chew my ear off, you little bugger - no! Gerroff! Ow! Help!'
- spoken by the great dwarf scribe Gundur, may he rest in peace.

 

[ArchArad]

Great suggestion SaintToad. :good: :good: I think we have a winner! (although Gundur may disagree....)

 

[bgcdazzler]

Say what you like about Gundur- he can't hear you.

okay, so I didn't intend to start a new thing so quickly, but I put the telly on (something I very rarely do) and played around while The Man in the High Castle was on in the background.... And I seem to have made a skull.

A blob first:

carved out the basic shape:

then cut into the mouth:

and a bit more refining and shaping:

i have half a plan for this (which is half more than usual). I need to pay more attention to the teeth, but it's hard to do without smushing up the rest of the shape. I may have to pull off the lower jaw and add it after.

Anyway: more shenanigans ahead no doubt. And I promise to put some paint on something soon!

 

[ArchArad]

You are a busy, busy person my friend.

 

[bgcdazzler]

If you want something done give it to someone who's busy, that's what they say!

finished the skull, ready to bake.

spent a good long while on this - maybe three hours in all - just to make sure the shape and proportions are right. Even though you won't really see it, I want to make sure the next one is anatomically correct.

 

[bgcdazzler]

The three stooges...

here's the three main sculpts to give a sense of scale.

phew! Seeing them in a line, I realise I've come quite a way in the last two months.

 

[ArchArad]

Yes you have! *applause* You should be proud of yourself.

Edit: Is your new sculpt going to have his/her mouth open? I'm just wondering what the open skull portends...

 

[Teronus]

Dazz, you crazy dude, this is awesome! One day you will be fed up with experimenting and will want to do a big serious project I tell you, keep pushing bro.

 

[bgcdazzler]

Gosh, Tero - I'm not sure I know what 'serious' will look like.

Though I must admit I had a crazy dream about an ork in flying goggles riding a dragon: with the ork the same scale as the dwarf, so the dragon was about three feet long...

Thanks Arch :takes a bow: the open mouth portends anger, or agony, or a battle cry. Not sure which it will be yet.

 

[bgcdazzler]

Another base update - I'm jumping around a bit between projects - sorry about that - but I have this feeling I could finish this one soon, so I'm spending more time on it.

Added greenery, and painted the missing bits on Pig and the rocks:

mushrooms and other gubbins next!

 

[Teronus]

That's a nice base, I wish I had this base thing flowing but nah I always struggle and pull my hair (it drives me nut!), thanks for all the inspiration. I really need to get some gear and practice bases more often.

 

[bgcdazzler]

Thanks Tero - I know what you mean, it seems to take forever just to get one small bit done. These mushrooms being a good example... Ah well, at least they're on now:

 

[ArchArad]

Nice placement of mushrooms by the tree and I like the bleached skull. Coming along really nicely Dazz.

 

[KruleBear]

Love the skull and he base is looking great.

 

[SaintToad]

A base without mushrooms is just a place to stick your mini. Nice job. Did you sculpt the skull? It looks very nice there.
I think you might want to even out the lower section of small rocks a bit more. The grass tufts create the impression that things have lain this way for some time, but the rocks themselves look recently fallen (not implausible, given what's above). The skull helps, so maybe even just a fallen branch, a bit of moss, or something?
Also: Step-By-Step on the creation of the tree. Give the people what they want.
Keep up the good work and the inhuman pace!

 

[bgcdazzler]

Thanks guys (and gal): I wasn't sure about the skull so glad that works.

Saint, there are some clues in the earlier pages of my thread:

1. The skull I made as part of a practice batch of skulls with spare greenstuff, all stuck to a little plate. I kept them handy just in case...

2. The tree SBS is in there somewhere too. I basically wrapped some Fimo around the steel handle of my scalpel, drew some lines and holes in it, then baked and peeled it off after. Stuck to the base and added roots in greenstuff. Quite easy!

3. Krulebear guessed right my plans for the bottom section really, really early on (kudos for that). Needless to say I've never done it before and there are a thousand ways it could go horribly wrong...

 

[SaintToad]

I did see those posts. I guess I hadn't seen the empty sockets where the branches had broken off before, so I thought you had maybe advanced your technique a bit. Also, I think you got very nice texture on the bark. Too often it is really messy, but yours is nice and gnarly without looking like a porcupine.

 

[bgcdazzler]

I'm glad you like it: I was lucky I guess as I did it as an experiment after being annoyed with the overly large first tree I did. Now it's on I think it works better - and a big thanks to all who suggested just using this one.

Here's a couple of close ups so you can see the texture I drew in it. Perhaps the key is doing it quickly - it took ten minutes, tops - so I didn't accidentally overwork the texture.

treeporn!

 

[Maenas]

Loving this treeporn xD ... seriously it's a nice base for your King Maulg project. I also like the mushrooms!! mush-mush-mushrooms everywhere ^^
I need to freshen my hand with bases... long time without doing any and I miss it a lot.

 

[Digganob]

Le sigh, your just like WGS, fast as hell and awesome. Wish I could keep up with you two, cause damn you guys got skills. That skull is damn good work, and I know because trying to sculpt a skull is a lot harder than people think. That is what makes monsters so easy to do, you don't have a clear definition of what it has to be, where as skulls and human shapes have an embedded picture in everyone of what they should look like, which makes it a lot more noticeable when its off. Great work buddy.