Continuing to Create My Own Posable FIgurine

A few weeks ago, I posted a picture of a clay statue:

The purpose was to continue to illustrate a little fellow from a few years back that I do believe has some merit. I've done a multitude of simple thumbnails and wips on the guy, but somehow creating a posing figure that represented more of the proportions from that character seemed not only helpful but let's face it - fun!

Once the basic figure was formed and cleaned, I had attempted a first trial - with some unfortunate results. Using some household products: silicone, corn starch and low odor mineral spirits, I had attempted a mixture. The silicone product however, contained other materials which reacted not only with the mineral spirits, but the oil based clay beneath. Long story short...it was a mess and one that luckily was able to be rectified with q-tips and toilet paper to clean off.

Second trial started with using 100% silicone mixed with the mineral spirits worked with much greater effectiveness.  When researching on the net, there are many others who have used this methodology and the same three products with varying results.  

I found that a 4:3 ratio of mineral spirits to silicone, blended well, gave a great runny consistency. To this, I added 2 heaping teaspoons of corn starch as the thickening agent.  It yield a pot life of approximately 7-10 minutes to work with the substance. It should be noted that higher amounts of mineral spirits to the pure silicone will increase the liquid nature, as will the lower proportions of corn starch.  Drying times also reportedly vary, this trial took about 25 minutes to the touch, and an extra hour cure time before putting on a second coat.

Three coats later and I had a pretty thick flexible mold. Next was to create the mother mold of plaster that would encompass the silicone mold to add some stability for future pours. I started with a simple box:

Tape was used to help provide a little more rigidity from liquid coming from the plaster later on, and also to help keep the sand that will be used in the first half of the pour.

The silicone mold was placed in the box with sand covering the lower half of the mold. The sprue was placed firmly against the side of the box. 

The first side poured. Next comes removing the sand from the bottom and then pour the second half of the mother mold.

The second pour of plaster. The bottom of the box was cut open slightly to release the sand into a bucket, and then a soft paintbrush was used to brush off the vast majority of sand on the bottom side. Then, once release from the mold, the piece was flipped and re-positioned so once again the sprue was flush with a side; and finally the second side was poured/smeared on top. 

And here we have the end result: two halves to the whole mold. I am excited about the first resin pour. All there is now to do is clean out the clay residue and get things prepped for pouring!

UPDATE: 12/28/2012:

Ok, trying not to slam my head against the wall for such a stupid rookie move F@#$-Up I did on the first resin pour.

See the marvelous shaft/tube like area between the legs? A support during sculpting, and removed when the plaster mother mold was created. And right as I was pouring the resin...and watching it come out into the sand-lined tray below the mold...remembered that that lovely HUGE escape tunnel had not been plugged up prior to pouring. ARRRRRGH!

On the bright side, several things: The Alumilite 2-part resin needed no release agent from the silicon mold (very lucky mistake on that one..forgot a release agent as well); clean up went quick for the silicon; and once the tube chamber filled up, the hands, feet, legs and lower torso formed. So at least I have some spares when it comes to making the figure for posing.

UPDATE 1/9/2013:

Second pour today resulting in an almost complete figure. This time around, that hole was plugged up and although there seemed to be a small amount leaking, all went pretty well. Well, that is until the resin hit the flash point about five seconds earlier than I needed. The result was a great pour for feet, legs, torso, neck and head..but no arms. Third time will be a charm!

There was one minor keying issue around one side of the head; and since I have enough to keep the form filled, I will be slightly bulking up the silicone portion a tad bit more and then reforming the plaster mother mold pieces.

Using Cheesy to Create Some Fun

Anyone familiar in the slightest with Photoshop will recognize every one of the simple tools used for this picture. Yes, it's a tree, a Christmas tree...something that is not done but done enough to share at this point.

The point of this was to use actually as many cheesy brush strokes, filters, and whatnots to create something fun. This year, the family decided to be a bit more sentimental towards gift giving, and this seemed like a great place to start. So, the project is two-fold: creating elements of sentiment within the illustrations; and to give something of myself, art, towards each of the family members. I hope they enjoy.

Creating My own Drawing Figurine

Ok, so maybe it's just an excuse to play, but recently I've been sculpting a figure that I want to use more - to create my own posable figurine. Because the body proportions are heavily distorted, this seemed like a good route...and let's face it, getting dirty is fun! Meet Olaf...Olaf, people...people, Olaf.

Here is the little guy, based off earlier sketches from a few years back. 

Soon, I will be creating a mold using household items: corn starch, silicone and mineral spirits. Although the practicing of sketches in various poses is nice, I just wanted something to help me with perspective, positioning and composition. It's also been a long time since sculpting anything or creating a mold, so let's go with this as a great excuse.

As the mold is made and the casting is underway, I will update with more pictures.

New Logo revealed!

Had an opportunity to help out a friend of a friend recently and to dust off the art tools in graphic design.

The company, Essential Cleaning, is based out of NW Indiana; and having witnessed some of their work first hand, can say it was a pleasure to help redesign their logo. The logo went public this past week. 

I wish them well in their continued success!

Two weeks in...

Well, it has been two full weeks now at the new job, and a few extra days prior to that. I cannot help but chuckle at the thought that as I enter into the world of plants again, we are experiencing one of the worst droughts since 1988. Now perhaps that doesn't seem chuckle-worthy; however in 1988 was one of my first jobs dealing with plants.

Aside from the horrific lack of natural water, what happened in '88 is happening now - losing lots of weight!  Hey, 43 is coming up fast...so I'll take the weight loss program any way I can at this point. Working outside all day long, and getting paid to lose weight - it's a win win!

And so, the next chapter begins...

Well, in the last post, I was wondering where life would take me. It looks like - back to plants! Although the Director of Media was fun, and I was pretty instrumental in increasing ratings, the call of the outdoors and plants has become too strong to resist.

This past week, the Director of Media job ended, and now I am working with a company on a more horticultural level. Very excited, but dang if I chose bad timing. Going from 66 degrees AC to 90 degrees outside has been a HUGE change.  It's been about four days at the new job, and slowly my body is remembering what it is to be outside during an Indiana summer. Weee!

The great outdoors

So, it's been a year since leaving the landscape nursery for a job offer as a director of media (graphics, videos, website, and social media). Ya don't know what ya got til it's gone I guess...  hmmm...in some ways I am very glad for the shift. It has been quite the dramatic change going from working outside, teaching people how to care for plants and what would work best for them - to working inside all the time on a computer in a cabinet. Talk about stepping out of a comfort zone. ha ha ha

There are times I miss working outside. For one, is it just me or do people that work indoors become ill more often?  I also miss the connection with working a more tactile job.  Maybe it's the slower pace, or maybe it's the lack of sunshine...dunno.

Don't get me wrong. The new job was an opportunity to sink my chops into a new area, and I am happy to state that working alongside some great people, we managed to turn out numbers that would make any small company proud.  And on top of it, this job is to connect people with financial education - how to put their money to work for them, instead of the other way around. Trust me, it is no easy task! So yeah, it's definitely a feel good moment. I've learned AdWords, AdSense, the ins and out of YouTube's advertising and ever evolving analytics, Facebook's changes over the past year, as well as becoming more efficient with using LinkedIn for a networking tool for the business.  What is interesting to me is that my crew taught ourselves these tricks, and the constantly changing formats of social media only enhanced our abilities to constantly change with them. And it is nice to know that these skills can be applied to many other types of businesses as well.

Although I've not gotten to do a lot of art per se, this past year has been a valuable learning experience!