Hi all,
after being inspired by Willem Plaisier's "Musketeers", and encouraged by Ken (aka Mil Mart), decided on a sculpting a full figure.

Haru no Sanpo suru - Lets walk in spring time

Is a friend of mine, wearing Yukata, walking her dog somewhere in a park in Japan....or will be!

Yukata is a form of Kimono, designed for more casual wear, still looks neat though. Kimono is more formal, like Black tie dinner suit, Yukata is more like a neat dinner suit..kinda...
She's the one in the black Yukata, with the flower design

Worked out the dimensions, scale is 1/10th, since these pics, have added more to the frame, arms and legs, left the joints clear, until the pose is right.
Bake for 15 minutes at 130 degrees, serve with refreshments

the dachshund is much the same; actually, the breed is a miniature dachshund, so quite tiny. Think I have got the basics right, just mucking about, seeing what is working so far!

doing this as a thread, so I can share how it evolves over time!

C&C welcome

Cheers

PS; I think there are enough grizzled vetereans laden with weapons out there already, and if I did some manly man, I suspect my family may 'wonder' about me....

Excellent progress mate, she's coming along very nicely.

Just a word of caution. Sculpting is addictive. Once you start it takes over your life.

Be prepared, if you need to, to start from scratch if you aren't satisfied with how it turns out. From my own experience as a novice sculptor I can tell you that your skills increase exponentially from your first to second attempt.

Thanks Tony....

I may end up sculpting this figure more then once then

But its so fun!!! And yes, improvement comes through experience!

cheers

Good luck! Janus.

Hello! Janus.
Your Japanese knowledge is wonderful.
Japanese was surprised, too.
These days' Japanese lady stopped putting on a yukata.
Japanese fashion seems to be changing.
There are a lot of ladies who wear it in a festival at night around me.
When sleeping, it's often put on.
That's looking forward to your challenge's succeeding in me at any rate.

Hi Jamie,

Great start, love the dog- looking good.
The best advice I was given is check ,check and check again the measurements, time spent getting it right at the beginning is well worth the effort. Good Luck

Cheers Ken

Mitsutaka-san,
domo arigato, watashi no Tomadachi ni Nihon; very kind words.

Ken, thanks. Yep, measure twice, cut once. Foundation of basic anatomy, with coaching and feedback from fellow Planeteers, sure to get the hang of this basic sculpting skill

I am using this website for anatomy, adjusted for scale

http://www.fineart.sk/index.php?s=8&cat=12

Picked up from here, posted by another member,Roy Hunt, great sculptor. Sadly missed.

Photos of the figure, blocked out a little more as I proceed.

Looking at the dog, while the raw shape is heading there, the neck/ head join is off. So a re sculpt soon...

My aim is to post once a week on this, life events permitting.

Thanks for the comments

cheers

PS; I need a better stand for this figure....one that can support the figure, then can accept oven time...any suggestions, or a split effort? A bench vice for sculpting, a simple clamp for baking?

Great start Jamie...........will follow this closely.............good luck!!

Ray

Ray,
thanks for your kind words, appreciated.

cheers

Ok,
after some weeks of business life challenges, made some time over the Easter break to return to bench.

Blocked out more of the body (after I made a second skeleton) and working on hips, buttocks and thighs....long way to go.

I did note, part way through, that a Yukata normally ends just above the ankles, so technically, all this work is for nothing, as I could have just blocked it in with aluminium foil, and laid down material on top of that.....

I may do that yet, and use this figure as a anatomical study.

Because fabric drapes over the body, and the body is rather dynamic even when doing subtle movements ie. moving an arm moves the arm, shoulder blade, collar bones, and sometimes, the ribs.....

So, yes, a degree of overkill...but I am having so much fun learning, there is some good out of this

Also tinkered with various ways the Obi (The wide belt) is tied at the back. Rahter, the shape of the bows, and how the fabric is shaped to acieve that fold...

Raided the closet to grab a bow tie, and in origami terms, it come about by taking a square (ish) shape, and on one end, making a valley fold in the centre, with two mountain folds either side, and 'pinching' the corners together.

A paper template gave me the process, and experimented with some 16 thou lead foil..... heading in the right direction, still nutting it out.
May just have to sculpt it in the end, and cast it, as it is symmetrical both sides....

Also started to sculpt some heads, the first two are way undersized for the figure, have adjusted on the third (and will get closer on the fourth, and fifth....)

Using Gary Dombrowskis (sp?) thread on sculpting 101 as a basis, and have a whole bunch of references too, within arms reach of the bench at all times....

Oh, have noticed the 'stance' of the figure is a bit wide, even for a female. The figure is also 'growing' as I add putty to the frame....

Still, it was good to spend time on the work bench......a few hours of sanity!
(well, the sort that doesnt come out of a beer bottle!)

Cheers

Hi Jamie, Great to see you back on sculpting your friend. You certainly seem to have everything covered , from the use of all the various threads to knowing yourself when something needs correcting.
I always tend to examine my work with a critical eye first thing in the morning, and if needs must, take drastic measures. ( perhaps it because I feel more positive and full of enthusiasm 1st thing, or it could be I've woke up like a bear with a sore head. )
Looking forward to seeing it progress.

Cheers Ken

Ken,
thanks for your kind words....
every artist (and I regard this as an art) is always self critical of their own work...

Glad to hear that I am heading in the right direction though

Plus, like you, I wander into the man cave in the morning, look over my work after a good nights sleep, then tend to smack my forehead as I get a 'blinding flash of the Obvious'

As for the positive bear thing.....maybe a an Enthusiastic bear that is positive that he has a sore head??

Cheers

Interesting thread, will wait for an update. Thanks.

Hi!, Jamie.
Nice progress.
Your sculpture is Well done.
I'm looking forward to future's development.
Good luck!

Mitsutaka

Jamie, you're taking it a step further than me. I've yet to try and sculpt a woman. The start looks promising and I'll follow this one closely.

groeten from, Willem

Thanks, Gentlemen
Stephan, Mitsutaka-san, Willem, appreciate the comments.

Willem, I decided on doing a woman for no better reason that there seem to be so many men draped with weapons out there, I thought I would do something different. (and 50% of the worlds population is female)

As for the choice of woman, I choose my friend as a model, because she is attractive, has a real build, and the combination of Yukata (and design) in a spring time setting just looked to be a lot of fun.

There are a lot of glamour women out there, model wise speaking, I feel as though there is still room for the attractive 'girl next door' to be depicted in a contemporary way. Too many skinny ladies out there with exaggerated busts, hips, and legs.

I've decided to include her pet dog, just to make a nice little vignette of it all.

I am looking forward to learning the sculpting hands and wrists, as well as feet, toes, ankles, as she will be wearing 'zori', a type of flip flop/ thong style footwear.

I'm using lead foil for the Obi (Belt sash with bows) and think by switching to a thinner foil, I might bet the results I'm looking for....

sharing the learning as I go.

Cheers

PS, my friend sometimes checks in on the progress of this sculpt, and she appreciates your comments too!

Hello Janus

I will follow your work, keep us update!

Regards from Portugal
Pedro

You're making good progress Jamie. My only advice is to persist - keep at it and don't give up. Concentrate on getting the proportions right and that will make many of the smaller details easier to deal with later.

Jamie,nice looking piece.
And it seems to be developing well.

Pedro,
Thanks for your kind words

Tony,
thanks, yep, I will persist, moving from wire armature to pushing putty, I find I am having to rework the armature to get the basic dimensions right. Doesn't matter if the smaller details are correct if the larger anatomy is way off...

Mark,
thanks for that, you handsome rouge...

Cheers

Ok,
went back and made a third torso, as the first was a planning effort, the second, the legs were not supporting the hips, the third is closer to a human!

Basically, narrowed the hips by about half a head - a 1/4 width each side. Now the legs are under the pelvis, and as I add putty, the figure will stay in proportion

Roughed out the legs and feet, lots more work to go on that area. So I'll end up sculpting a bit, carving a bit, baking it some, then carving some more. Open toed shoes will be worn, so sculpting the feet as a believable structure will be a challenge.

(The great irony being that most of the body will be covered by the yukata... )

Also found this pattern, which I will use as a a basis for the pattern for a fan. The Fan will be a non - folding type (Uchiwa), which seems to be more common with images of Yukata

Decided also to keep the arms separate at this point, so I can do the all the torso details, then do the arms, with out having to compromise the painting of the yukata design later.

(The idea of keeping parts separate was clarified by this thread)
http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29968

Because when it comes to painting the figure, the sleeves will be interfere with the some of the design.... a few moments forethought...about 45 minutes of re sculpt...sigh....

Keyed the figure by stippling the surface with a an old toothbrush...next time, I would key it in with a brush with a coarser bristle size, say an old scrubbing brush

Progress......slow, and steady

Cheers