Emulating Aardman - modelling clay sculpture

I get a call every now and then, with a request to do something a little different, outside my normal ephemeral work. It usually starts with ' Do you know anyone who could make a (bla) from a certain material' If I don't know of anyone off the top of my head who specialises in this type of material I will say that I can do it and then run off to Youtube and download the knowledge like Neo from the Matrix.

Static Claymation

This call was a request from an ad agency which I had worked with in the past and they wanted some characters made from plasticine (playdough or modelling clay). It sounded like a fun project and I decided to take it on.

It had been a long time since I did anything like this and working this small was something that I have always wanted to get back into. I had messed around with these materials in the early days as a child and in my teens when I did some claymation. In many ways, they were probably the cause of me getting into sculpting in the first place.

So there I was, getting back to basics and as a grown man with hands and fingers like shovels, I dug in. The first challenge I had was that I noticed my eyes had aged quite a bit and I could not focus on small details. This was terrible news for me because my world is so visual and my eyes are quite important. I had to high-tail it down to the 1 Euro shop and buy some reading glasses. Then I could see again, well, as good as a sculptor with one working eye can. One of my eyes has been permanently blurred since birth but that is another story which I'll get into sometime.

Model making

The ad agency wanted five little models made. The first was a little figure of Usain Bolt a famous runner. I started with an armature made from wire which I attached to a piece of wood.

Over this, I started adding the clay. I was unsure of the style they wanted and so met an impasse and decided to start all the pieces and do what I thought was on the right track and then show them to the agency for a critique.

The second piece I started was a ladybird. For this, I made a core of styrofoam so as to save on modelling clay and get the form up and running faster.

It was so hard to get the surface smooth, every tool left its impression and my fingers left fingerprints. It was going to be tough to hide them.

Having made the basic shell and head I then cut away holes and filled them with black plasticine to make the spots. I figured this would be the best way to keep sharp edges and stop the colours from bleeding into each other.

I think he/ her turned out grand. Pipe cleaners were covered in more clay to make the legs.

I finished 3 pieces and wanted to wait and show them to the agency before I continued. I was unsure of the style they wanted and I don't think they knew either.

Another model was Slimer from Ghost Busters. He was fun to make as I always loved him from seeing the movies and animated series when I was a child.

Trying to keep them away from my son was difficult. I just knew he wanted to play with them and squish them up. Working from home was difficult and with the little monkey always up to mischief it was more challenging still.

A change of style

After having a meeting with the creative directors from the agency they decided that they wanted me to make them in the style of Aardman studios. They are the guys who made Wallice and Gromit as well as other great claymations I had loved as a kid. I agreed as it was something that would tie all of them together and would make them look more playful and refined.

I reworked Usain Bolt and was much happier with him. Of course, working on this scale was still quite difficult but having watched closely the Aardman characters on the videos I could see the fingerprints and tool marks pressed into the modelling clay. I had to just let it go and in many ways, I think it added to the charm.

So here are the finished pieces. I reworked Slimer and made a whale's tail and cloud. I believe each one represented an ad campaign the agency had worked on. The cloud and tail were made using the styrofoam core technique and with the cloud, I mixed up the clay a bit to give it some dark shadows to help with the form.

My work here was done but I offered my assistance to be there for the photoshoot so I could be a wrangler and make any changes necessary on the day.

It was fun working with the photographer to set the scene. I suspended the cloud with some fishing wire from a light stand, shortened the ladybirds' legs and simplified the Whaletail after seeing what they looked like on camera.

The two other models were used for other shots that I wasn't around for and never got to see.

It was nice to finally see the photo on the cover of the magazine. This is a magazine which is mainly for the industry so was not really in any shops but it was nice to try something new and know that my work would be seen by those who could maybe get me some other work down the road.

alt

Ps

Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.