8 Feb 2010
just an update on the octopus, managed to go home over the weekend and get my paints.
the idea for his stitched mouth and eyes came from this character who I think is from some tv show, I am not sure of his name.
I liked how you could see the thread used to make the characters on the film 9 and so I decided to keep the wire showing on the finished version of the octopus as I wanted it to be clear that he had been thrown together using whatever pieces I could find rather than something manufactured. I think it adds to his character.
the idea for his stitched mouth and eyes came from this character who I think is from some tv show, I am not sure of his name.
I liked how you could see the thread used to make the characters on the film 9 and so I decided to keep the wire showing on the finished version of the octopus as I wanted it to be clear that he had been thrown together using whatever pieces I could find rather than something manufactured. I think it adds to his character.
plasticine armature
I began by making the frame for the torso out of wire, tying the pieces together. I have used this wire in the past to make other things so I had no problem with this part.
Below is something else I made out of wire a while ago.
then I proceeded to add the plasticine on top of it, I had a problem with this part because every time I tried to reshape it bits of wire would stick out and would be hard to cover up, I think this was mainly due to me using one thin layer and then pressing it down rather than building it up in layers.
I made the arms and legs separately and held them together to the body just with the clay, I did this so that the arms, legs and head would be relatively easy to detach so that I could change the parts.
A finished and unfinished leg.
to the right in this image you can see the head, I just stuck this in to the torso and it stayed on pretty well.
for the hair I flattened a piece of plasticine and cut it out to the shape I wanted, I inserted piece of wire in to it to give it some rigidity so it didn't loose its shape.
the biggest problem I found with using a wire armature was with moving the hands, they weren't flexible enough as I had tied the wire together to firmly and didn't allow for any movement, also the clay kept tearing in places when it moved. I tried to fix this by adding more clay and smoothing it over but this just made the model too chunky and in the end I decided to go for the aesthetics and have the arms stationary. The arms detach, so I could always make better ones in the future and replace them. I also had some trouble with the feet and keeping the model standing up, this was because the wire for the feet was made in loops which stuck out a bit at the bottom and made it off balance. I fixed this by adding more plasticine but I would have preferred to keep the feet small.
the finished piece, painted. the face is just tiny pieces of black plasticine that are removable. I am quite happy with how this turned out considering it is my first real model I have made out of plasticine, next time I will make sure the feet are capable of supporting the weight. I would like to have defined the jaw more, I think it lost some of its shape when I was painting it
Below is something else I made out of wire a while ago.
then I proceeded to add the plasticine on top of it, I had a problem with this part because every time I tried to reshape it bits of wire would stick out and would be hard to cover up, I think this was mainly due to me using one thin layer and then pressing it down rather than building it up in layers.
I made the arms and legs separately and held them together to the body just with the clay, I did this so that the arms, legs and head would be relatively easy to detach so that I could change the parts.
A finished and unfinished leg.
to the right in this image you can see the head, I just stuck this in to the torso and it stayed on pretty well.
for the hair I flattened a piece of plasticine and cut it out to the shape I wanted, I inserted piece of wire in to it to give it some rigidity so it didn't loose its shape.
the biggest problem I found with using a wire armature was with moving the hands, they weren't flexible enough as I had tied the wire together to firmly and didn't allow for any movement, also the clay kept tearing in places when it moved. I tried to fix this by adding more clay and smoothing it over but this just made the model too chunky and in the end I decided to go for the aesthetics and have the arms stationary. The arms detach, so I could always make better ones in the future and replace them. I also had some trouble with the feet and keeping the model standing up, this was because the wire for the feet was made in loops which stuck out a bit at the bottom and made it off balance. I fixed this by adding more plasticine but I would have preferred to keep the feet small.
the finished piece, painted. the face is just tiny pieces of black plasticine that are removable. I am quite happy with how this turned out considering it is my first real model I have made out of plasticine, next time I will make sure the feet are capable of supporting the weight. I would like to have defined the jaw more, I think it lost some of its shape when I was painting it
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