And here he is all washed, highlighted and kryloned.

The blood on his chest and leg, and the water on the rocks (which isn't too visible, its the darker parts) were done with Elmer's School Glue Gel, which is a fiarly faintly clear bluish glue. The blood was done by mixing red acrylic into it, then brushing it on. It gives it extra weight and a high shine, like its still wet. But throw out the brush after you're done playing with glue. Yuck. It also takes forever to dry, especially if you're layering it on thick enough for water. Assume it will take at least two days to thoroughly dry. Take a hair dryer to it right after you apply it to get a crust to form and hold it in place while it finishes drying.

Washing involves heavily diluting acrylic paint in water and then applying it over the whole sculpture. It makes all the edges and details stand out better. Generally, black should work for just about anything but washing black. If you're washing black fur, use a colored wash, such as blue or purple.

Highlighting involves taking a lighter color and just barely brushing little tiny bits onto the high points. Take a brush, dip in paint, wipe the majority off on a paper towel, than brush across the whole thing. The rattier and more frayed the brush you use, the easier. (or buy a fan brush) Got too much on? Dab it off with paper towel. It should jsut barely appear to be there. For smooth surfaces, such as the leather bits here, do the same, but when you've brushed it on, then run a finger over it in a a kind of circular rubbing pattern to take out the brush strokes. All this washing and highlighting being aimed at creating extra depth.

And then use spray Krylon on the whole thing to firmly fix the paint job in place. Matte, not gloss, unless you really want it supershiny. You can see how shiny the sword's grip ended up, and this is using matte!

Further photos of the finished work from different angles are available in my sculpture 2002 gallery.

And here's the same stage from the front. Detailed, but hasn't been dry brushed or washed. The eyes are extremely important and difficult to do well. first paint the outside rims, where the skin is showing through. In Azhar's case, that's black. Theoretically, since he's white, it should be pink, but I painted them pink to start with, hated them, and went with black instead. This means that the nose, pads, and lips should also match, so are black, rather than pink. Then paint the eyeballs white. The stakest whitest-white you can. let dry. then paint the iris in a darker color. Then, while that's still wet, use a lighter, but similar color to make a dot within that. This should make the inner circle blurry aroudn the edges. This is correct. Let dry. Then do the pupil in black inside all that. Eyes should always be two toned, at least. If you want a more beastial eye, skip the white and fill the whole eye with color, but use three colors on the wet, not just two.

Ah yes, ans the insides of the ears. To give them that semi translucent coloring you get with real ears, first paint the inside whatever the base fur color is. Once dry, use just a tiny bit of paint to draw a stripe up the inside of the ear in a color (either red of black). While still wet, dip you brush in water and paint the inside of the ear, moving from the stripe out. This will give a thin wash of color to the inside of the ear.

Here he is all detailed, but without having been washed or highlighted. That's why he looks so very white and the coat look flat. The blood effect on the sword was done by painting the sword in silver, then brushing red onto the blade very lightly, and using a finger to burnish out the brushstrokes.

Wow, he's amazingly white! This is the basecoat of paint. To get proper depth to the coat later, you'll wash it, so you want to do your base coat in a color about one to two shades lighter than you finally want it to be. Azhar will be a somewhat dusty offwhite at the end of this whole process.
This sounds dumb, but always paint the lowest level first! The bracers and leather bits are higher up then the white coat, so get done later. you spend far less time rotuching things that way.

I prefer to use acrylics because they work better on a rough surface like this. also, they dilute with water, making them easier to apply. If you have trouble getting paint into the deeper bits, paint the section, then dip the brush in water, and paint over it while still wet. Magic! It'll dilute in just enough to get in the cracks without makign it run too much. And if you mess up doing it, keep a paper towl handy to blot it. Being water based, you can wick up most of it pretty easily.

The coffe mug is in the picture just to show how big the sculpture is. (that and I was drinking tea while painting. I just failed to crop it out of the picture)

Azhar, newly coated with spray primer. This is a neutral grey automotive primer. You can get fancy artists primer, of in black or white, but I find grey automotive works best. its cheap and works for just about any color scheme, even if it does show through a little bit. That's actually a good thing with fur, if it shows through a light coat. It gives it some extra depth to the fur, the color of the undercoat if you will.

A note on brushes, before you get to painting. Even if you already own a set of nice paint brushes, march yourself down to the local drugstore or dollar store and buy yourself a 10, 12, or 20 pack of those cheap kiddie paintbrushes. Because of the rough surface, sculpture painting EATS brushes. Might as well have it eat a few out of a pack that cost you a dollar instead of good four and five dollar brushes. You can trim the cheap brushes with scissors to get the shape you like. Assume you will destroy one to three brushes on the main painting.

For detailing small things like the lace on the bracers, eyes, nose, and so on, use an actual good quality hair brush, around a size 0. You cna go smaller if you prefer, but that should do you for most things.

At the point you have the sculpting all done, you should be about 2/3 of the way through the whoel endeavor. Here you can see where I've masked the base of the sculpture with newspaper. Its just plain newspaper taped over the base to cover the natural sand base and the rocks. This is in preparation for applying primer.

Stop! a word of warning before getting onto primer. If you use spray primer, always use it outdoors. Preferably use it on a day without a breeze. If you can't get that, apply primer either wearing cheap shoes you don't mind getting paint on, or barefoot. Its easier to scrub primer off your toes than you leather boots, trust me. Don't breathe the fumes!

Azhar, now with sword. The sword was sculpted as a seperate piece. So was the cloth wrapped around it. You can also see he had his mane added since the last picture. Sometimes its easier to do detailed props, such as this sword, as a sperate piece, then add them in later. Plan accordingly.

The mane is done by applying a blob of Apoxie Sculpt to the area you want the mane in, then cutting it as soon as possible while its still supersoft and kinda sticky. Turn the knife edge a little bit to the side, to get big loose strands like this. I usually drape the mane across the shoulders and in between the ears, but usually not into the eyes or much beyond the shoulder blades. azhar has a bit more hair in back than usual.

To do a thin unreinforced piece like the cloth strip (or the bracers from earlier) you actually need to let the material set for a little bit before trying to flatten in out into sheets. About half and hour to an hour after you mix it should do, depending on humidity. Then just flatten it with your fingers.

The edge was left purposely ragged in this case, and was draped over and around the sword carefully. If you look real close, you can see on of his claws is actually poking a hole through the material.

A terribly fuzzy shot of the front of the head. The head is one of the trickiest bits, because you got a lot of different things going on with the expression. The eyes are done by putting a little more material than you need in the eyes, then taking a scalpel and literally goinging out the sockets. then put a small ball in the hole and use the edge of the blade to pull the edges over to get eyelids. Voila! Note, you can't do this trick with clay. Apoxiesculpt is semi elastic, unlike clay.
If you run a sclapel through clay, you get a line, with relatively little material being pulled out of place. Apozie sculpt tends to resist being cut, so if you're gentle about it, it will naturall want to pull slightly, giving you that very rough, layered fur texture.

The lips are done taking a little material in your fingers, rolling it out into a coil, then squishing it onto the face. Smooth down the top edge, leave the bottom one as is. Add fur detailing to top. If the mouth is open, do the same thing to the lower jaw. The way the lip is set is also very important for the expression (not that you've got a good view here). The ends are the most important, as whether they're up or down is a clear indication of mood. However, the egde is also important. Curl it up right over the fangs to indicate a snarl. or pull the edge out away from the muzzle to give it a more hollowcheeked and gaunt appearance.

And another word on fur. To get the fur to bristle on the muzzle, rather than look mostly flat like on the rest of the body, hold the knife almost vertical to the surface and and give it a kind of flick up and out. This will pull the ApoxieSculpt out a bit so it looks bristly. You can use this same trick to add eyebrows (if you want big floofy eyebrows).

Now with head! The ears may look delicate, but they've got the edges outlined with 20 gauge steel wire. They're one of the least delicate parts. To get the ears so thin, you build the edges and center rib in wire, then fill in the space in between with masking tape, sort of like applying the wing membranes between the struts on a batwing.
Then apply the sculpting material in a thin, thin veneer. Texture the outside and the very edge, leave inside smooth. The ears are strangely difficult to do, because they are one of the most expressive parts of the sculpture. the overall shape is import, but so is the edge. a downward curl, a wavey edge, a flat one, they all subtly change the expression. Ears are darn tricky.

A different view of the hands. Azhar's head was removed to give a clearer view. One of the sneakier tricks that you can use to reinforce weak points, such as a the wrists, is to give the character jewelry, or, in this case, bracelets. I recentely had a sculpture have a wrist break where it was holding an object (Flatline, see my 2002 gallery) so since he'll be holding a fairly weighty sword I wanted to be doubly sure he wouldn't have any breaks.

As to the rest of Azhar's get up, it was inspired by Kemono Inukai's picture of Guigelf. I was trying to sort out exactly what I wanted to do, and the picture served as a kind of jump off. Kemono's site: http://www.kemonet.com/kemo/index-e.html the picture is in the "push" section.

Yes, Azhar does end quite different looking in the end, not an exact copy of the picture.

Next step, the arms and hands. In the final piece he'll be holding a sword, but I want the hands to set in place first. They were positioned with the sword ( a seperate piece), but had it removed so they'd set in the proper position. The hands are incredably sturdy, but if you put too much weight on the joints, particuarly the wrist, they may come out of position while drying.
If you look closely at Azhar's right hand, you can see a black line showing through his pinky. That's the underlying armiture. Apoxie sculpt, if you get the cream color, goes through a semi-translucent stage while drying. Nothing to be concerned about, if you're painting the sculpture later.

This is the same stage as the back view below, but a fornt view. From this angle you can get a better look at how the arms and shoulders are set. The hands are still unpositioned at this point, but the arms are more or less in their final position. They hands and wrists will be adjusted later once the sword is added.

Here's Azhar even further along. This next pass has moved him up from just having the legs done, to the whole torso and the shoulders. Depending on how far forward the sculpture will be leaning when done, you may want to do the hip, let it set, then move on. Azhar's no leaning that far forward so I could do his torso at the same time without worrying about him falling forward. To hold it in place while it sets I usually either use my knife as a prop, with the blade stuck in the throat area, or use a string tied to something behind the character to hold it in place. Get the shoulders set correctly, then let dry before proceeding on with the arms. Otherwise they won't stay where you put them.

Now we've got, two, two, legs, ah-ah-ah! (excuse the Sesame Street moment). As you can see the second leg is stretched out with the paw turned up, the shin almost touching the base, but not quite. There's no wire connection into the base, its actually only adheering (via the sculpting material) at the knee and the very back of the foot. Nothing above the hips is currently positioned in its final spot, nor is the tail, so he's just sort of slumped for now. The phone and ire bits in the foreground is the armiture for the sword he'll be holding later. Sometimes it's easier to do accesoried such as sword, rifles, etc, seperate, and then add them in later. There's also plastic wrap under the whole affair, as its one of the few things Apoxie sculpt won't stick to, so is great for covering your workbench with. To keep it from sticking to your hands, make sure you wash them absolutely throroughly before touching the stuff.

Azhar's got his first leg! This is the great thing about Apoxie sculpt, you can do a little bit at a time. This was done while the sand base was still moist. The underlying wire frame is punched into the base only on that one back foot. The knee doesn't actually have a wire connection into the base, it's just adhering. Its a good idea to do one or both legs to at least the knee joint first and let them set solid. Apoxie sculpt has a working time of amount two-three hours, and sets completely solid in about 24. It's sufficiently set to continue on with in about six. You may notice the back looks too long. This is CORRECT. if the back looks too long, its the right length. Much of the length will be lost once the hips and shoulders are actually fleshed out because the sculpting material will almost double their size. it's also easier to hide an overlong back than an overly short one, so err on the log side with the armiture.

Here's the base. I didn't bother photographing the base before I applied the Apoxie sculpt since, well, it was just a big slab of foam. Your base should at least take up the entire space under the character, so they've got secure footing. Nothing is worse than a sculpture with a tendency to fall over. Most of the weight of the piece should be over the middle when you're done. This means if you have a character just standing, you can have a very small base, if they're spread out, leaping forward off one foot, it'll be very long, to compensate for al the weight being thrown forward. Round of the edges. This is a sand and stone base. I usually sculpt at about 1/10th scale, so picking rocks becomes important. You need to look at any crystals in the rocks and say "how would this look ten time larger?" Sand, well, no matter the scale, still pretty well look like sand. You get this affect by spread a thin veneer of Apoxie sculpt over the top of the base, then pressing sand and stone into it while wet. The rock pile will be taller in the final piece, but this is layer one. You can see the armiture hanging out in the background. At this point you have gone through roughly 1/3 of the total time for this project.

Here's the bulked out armiture semi-posed. Mostly its just standing up. This is the reason you have joints, so you can mess around with the pose before making you final decision as to how to position it. Even without a hand or any detailing, jsut the way its been positioned, you get a bit of body language going, like he's leaning against a wall in a James dean kinda way, checking out the world. That's why sculpture is great. Even if you do mostly drawing, you might want to make yourself a bulked up armiture like this, just to try out positions.

Now here's the armiture bulked out with foam. This will save you greatly on the amount of material you use. I like to use hard insulation foam because it's very firm and holds its shape well when carved. styrofoam is okay, but doesn't cut as smoothly. Under no circumstances use florist foam! It's too dusty and the Apoxie sculpt won't adhere properly. You'll probably go through an amount of foam about the size of a shoebox, but only an inch to two inches thick. Note there's space left at the joints to allow you to flex them. And there's no head. It's easier to add the head later as it tends to overbalance the armiture early on, especially if you have it in an action pose.

werewolf roadkill! Not really. This is the basic "skeleton" for the sculpture, the wire armiture. The points where there are loose flex joints on the armiture are circled in red (thanks to Photoshop). To build the armiture you pretty well want to cut five equally long pieces of wire for the spine and tail piece and each of the legs. Two smaller pieces are threaded across to make the pelvis and the shoulders, respectively. The hands/paws are done freehand, whatever length looks right. The spine piece was two loops, one that the pelvis piece is threaded through, one for the shoulder. You want them to slide back and forth freely as this makes it easier to position the armiture later, especially if you have a dynamic pose. The shoulder, hip, and wrist joints are done as free loops as they're rotating joints, so you have more range of movement. Elbows, knees, ankles, and knuckles are simple bends in the wire as they are linear joints. These are the rough proportions for a canine were. other critters may vary a bit as to how they're proportioned exactly (as felines will likely have longer tails), but the basics hold true.

The first step in any sculpture project is the concept sketch. it doesn't have to be a good sketch, just A sketch to make you think out roughly what you want to do. you may change the details later (which I did) but this gets you going. The red lines show where the major wires for the armiture will go. Plotting the lines is actually the most important part, as this is what will keep your sculpture standing!