In Part 1 of This Model, I spoke about how the idea for this came about and the last thing I did in that post, for this model was the head.
The Idea
So, I had a dream that I was picking my nose, and I pulled this weird creature out of it. It was pretty freaky, but the thing was dead when it came out. For the rest of the dream, I just stared at the thing, inspecting it and then I woke up.
It was weird, with a white shell, like a cross between a snail and a hermit crab, and these thin red tendons coming down creating its arms, legs, and head. The head of the creature looked like the trash compactor monster out of Star Wars.
Naming It
I am not sure about what to call this thing, so I figured I would leave it up to the community, so if you think of one, throw it out.
So, the arms and legs of this creature were a pretty stand-out feature, the extremely thin tendon-looking nerves coming out. I remember thinking in my dream that all of these weird tendrils would be able to move independently to create the arms and legs to help the thing walk around.
I decided to wrap the wireframe with some clay, making it thin as possible as I did so, and with this, I would have a base to lay all the thin strips of clay around.
The Initial idea was to have something like this, but I did want it to be a lot thinner. To be honest, at this point, I wasn't happy with how it looked and don't think I had done the creature I saw justice. But, I decided not to doubt myself and instead carry on, and evaluate it after I'm finished.
Mainly, I like to carry on until I finish a project regardless of how I feel about something during it. There is always a terrible tendency to dislike or doubt something before completing it, and I find the best thing to do in those situations is ignore that voice in your head and keep going, otherwise, you run the risk of putting something down and never going back to it.
I finished off both of the arms, and my mind changed slightly on what I thought about it. I think the arms are okay, and even though they don't look exactly like I imagined it; I don't think they're that bad. But, from here, it's hard to see the big picture without any of the detail of the body of the creature, so that's what I focused on next.
I looped some clay around the neck and arms of the creature and teased it in with the rest of the clay. I did the front of the neck first and put the back strip over that, to give it a layered look, then I scratched the edging of it, to make it look a bit warn and broken; just detailing essentially.
The shell was looking a bit plain, so I wanted to add some bulges to it and make sure they weren't symmetrical. By this stage, I'm thinking that it doesn't really look like it did in my dream, but, I do still like it.
I added in one, but it was too round, but after carving it, I created a harder edge, which I think looks better.
After doing some of the back, I flipped it around and started to finish off the from of the shell, mainly where the legs of the creature protrude. By this stage, I had a better idea of how it was going to look.
I didn't take any pictures of this process, because I just got into working on it and get a bit lost. To be honest, that happens a lot, and I think with my next one I'll set a camera up to capture the whole process.
I added more bumps to the shell and made the bottom of the shell wider. It's kind of like the shield of a triceratops in a way.
Here it is from the other side.
In the pictures below, I cleared off the table and took a few better images of the model.
I'm happy with it, and was going to fire up the oven and harden the clay, but I decided against that, because I would like to change the head of the creature. I have an idea for it, which I got after a bit of inspecting which I think will look much better than it currently looks.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and with the small change I make to the head, I think it will be a fell of a lot better.
Once that change is incorporated I'm going to harden it and get ready to paint the model.
I looped some clay around the neck and arms of the creature and teased it in with the rest of the clay. I did the front of the neck first and put the back strip over that, to give it a layered look, then I scratched the edging of it, to make it look a bit warn and broken; just detailing essentially.
The shell was looking a bit plain, so I wanted to add some bulges to it and make sure they weren't symmetrical. By this stage, I'm thinking that it doesn't really look like it did in my dream, but, I do still like it.
I added in one, but it was too round, but after carving it, I created a harder edge, which I think looks better.
After doing some of the back, I flipped it around and started to finish off the from of the shell, mainly where the legs of the creature protrude. By this stage, I had a better idea of how it was going to look.
I didn't take any pictures of this process, because I just got into working on it and get a bit lost. To be honest, that happens a lot, and I think with my next one I'll set a camera up to capture the whole process.
I added more bumps to the shell and made the bottom of the shell wider. It's kind of like the shield of a triceratops in a way.
Here it is from the other side.
In the pictures below, I cleared off the table and took a few better images of the model.
I'm happy with it, and was going to fire up the oven and harden the clay, but I decided against that, because I would like to change the head of the creature. I have an idea for it, which I got after a bit of inspecting which I think will look much better than it currently looks.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and with the small change I make to the head, I think it will be a fell of a lot better.
Once that change is incorporated I'm going to harden it and get ready to paint the model.