I've not posted anything in a while because I've been super busy with life in general. I have been working on multiple art projects though. This is a work in progress pic of one of my bigger projects, a graphic novel I am writing, illustrating, designing and producing all myself.
yes, I'm a little ambitious when it comes to my art projects.
Rough start of some batarangs for the Dark Knight to hurl at the bad guys. I intend to do three of them that will be held between his fingers.
The Batman cape lives! I was able to get a decent casting in resin. It took a lot of patch work, cleaning and sanding to bring it up to a quality level but it looks good. It should look better primed and awesome painted. very cool.
......Extracting the green Castilene cape sculpture did not go so smoothly. The cape was destroyed as it proved to delicate to pull out in one piece. The undercuts were too deep, the cape too thin and fragile overall and I pulverized it. It was crushed, I was literally pouring Castilene dust out of the mold. super sad bummer time.
However, there is still hope for a decent casting of this problem child.....we shall see.
After the rubber dried I extracted the green Castilene sculpture of the batman cape. You can see in this pic what the inside of the mold kinda looks like. The sculpt should slip in and out of the rubber like a hand from a glove........
Pictured here is the Batman cape covered in another layer of brush-on rubber and the surrounding support mold. One thing to be concerned with when doing a brush-on mold is that it needs support or the material poured into it can cause the thin rubber to ballon out like putting water into a rubber glove.
I make a support out of a paste that dries to a hard plastic. This gets sandwiched around the thin rubber mold. The mold itself should be able to stretch like a rubber glove to slide off my original green Castilene sculpture. I can then use the support shell to hold up the thin rubber mold and pour in a liquid resin for my final copy. super cool fun time!
After much thought I decided to try a different molding method than what I was used to...brush on rubber. I thought doing a two piece mold would fail for a couple reasons. one, It would cost a ton of money in rubber for a two piece mold thick enough to work, and two, the undercuts are going to be a huge problem and potentially cause demolding issues...aka, the thing would get stuck in the mold.
pictured here is the cape with a layer of brush on rubber applied.
I finish putting in some detail for the cape. I refine the folds and curves then try to give it a nice leather looking texture. Next stage is molding the bad boy......
Rear view of Batman figure assembled in resin and patched up with epoxy. Still a little work to be done on the body and the cape is in dire need of attention.
Batman figure reassembled in resin and patched up with epoxy. I need to do some overall clean up and sanding before painting.
A resin cast of the Batman figure head along side the silicone rubber mold it was extracted from.
Closer photo of a resin casting of Batman's arm extracted from the silcone rubber mold.
After refining the sculpture in green castilene it is time to mold it again and cast the figure in resin. This is a shot of the open two piece silicone rubber mold along side an extracted resin casting of Batman's arm.
Batman's cape from a front overhead view. You can see more of the folds and tight wrinkles I'm sculpting from this angle. This cape is fun and challenging to sculpt. O.K. mostly challenging. It will look awesome when I'm done though!
Another angle of the cape for the Batman statue in progress. Here you can see some of the folds and angles developing. You can also see some massive undercuts I've created that may pose some problems in the molding process but I'll cross that bridge when I get there...;)
Front angle of Batman's cape. I'm trying to achieve realistic folds and draping of the cape but retain a fantasy element to it. Using wax and green Castilene I continue to refine and detail the forms of the cape.
The back of Batman's cape structure. sculpted in sheet wax and hard Castilene. It's shaping up little by little. I'm trying to get a lot of folds and complexity in this cape.
Here I am getting pretty far into the sculpt of Batman's cape. I created the base shape with a sheet wax and then built up material with a layer of green Castilene. I used a waxer and heated metal tools to shape and refine the folds and wrinkles in the material. This cape is proving to be the most elaborate and difficult piece I've ever tackled. I hope it comes out the way I'm imagining it. whew, I'm tired.
A detail of all the pieces to the Batman body for the statue I am sculpting. This stage was completed in green Castilene. I detailed and textured the material with heated wax working tools. These pieces are now ready to be molded and cast in a resin for the final stage of the statue. The cape is not included here of course, but it will be completed soon.
