DS3 - ANM 375: WEEK 9

Tough two weeks for me, but I'm working diligently to catch up. The biggest issue that caught me last week was finding that my armature was just not going to cut it for this sculpture. It simply was turning out to be too weak and flimsy to support the figure as I added clay. I also did not like that the feet were the anchor point and locked down -- if I needed to adjust the feet to dial in the pose I would be out of luck with this original armature.

So I scrapped it and started over from scratch. This new one has a removable back bracing element that allow for a lot of clay modeling activity support without screwing down the feet to the base. Ultimately I will secure them but only when the pose is really nailed down.

I retained the removable head element; this was a feature of the armature I wanted to try to implement for R&D purposes. Mainly everything is simply thicker, stronger and better secured this time around:

Building on this new armature, I've gotten a good rough-in of the character going now:

Still a ton to do to fix proportions, but given my crazy week, good progress.

Sculpey Baking

Tons of great information already posted. It seems some of the biggest issues people have are around over- and under-baking.

I found some great information at: http://www.polymerclayer.com/baking-polymer-clay.html

Super sculpey baking times are generally close to 15 minutes per 1/4 inch of material thickness, measuring from the thickest area.

For areas that are dramatically thinner, suggestions are to cover them lightly with foil to prevent burning.

Oven temperature is important, and apparently without an oven thermometer you won't know if your oven spikes or is running way off the temperature you dial in. To even out fluctuations, a tile or piece of stone can be used under your piece -- this element holds heat to help maintain even temperature even with door openings.

Keeping the piece away from the heating elements in the oven also is advised, and a bed of 'polyfil' material will buffer the piece from any contact surface.

From this information I created a 'baking box' made of two aluminum baking pans I got at the dollar store. I lined the bottom with a piece of spare marble tile leftover from the bathroom remodel, and on top of that a layer of paper and polyfil. I covered the first pan with an inverted second and clipped together with a few binder clips.

Bernard's a pretty thick guy in places, so I estimated 40 minutes to an hour of bake time would be necessary, with several hours of cooling to fully set up. Polymer clay apparently needs to cool completely to set up and harden.

INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK

this angle/pose is looking good. Legs are looking sharp, nice twist to her torso!

Make sure her head is centered/balanced over her feet.