So because I couldn't get hold of a head blank that would work for my priorly-mentioned project using my own eyes in Kurama's head, with my husband's encouragement, I decided to attempt to sculpt and cast it myself despite being short on time. I have been working on the sculpt this week in my spare time (needed to buy some more sulfur free clay!) and I am nearing completion for the sculpt, I think. I'm just not sure where to go from here.
Like most animes/mangas, Kurama's head has that problem where the apparent anatomy can change shape drastically depending on what angle he's being drawn. Sometimes he looks like a wolfish-creature, sometimes he looks almost like a pug because his face is so short! His muzzle is annoyingly way too thick and stumpy for a fox, though, almost without exception no matter what angle you're viewing him.
Here is the image I decided to mostly base it off of, since I wanted him to be "smiling" for my head. It's a very vicious-looking grimacey smile, but that suits me just fine!!
![Naruto57016]( "Naruto57016")
Now, since I'm a fan of realistic styles and have the style at my complete disposal (since I'm making it myself), I wanted to go for a slightly more realistic reinterpretation of his head. I am sorry about the change in color of the clay because it does make seeing the contours around the mouth more difficult, but that terracotta colored clay was all I originally had and they weren't making that color anymore, and I didn't want to resculpt the entire top of the face. :( Sorry about the picture quality too, but all I have is my phone.
![frontsculpt]( "frontsculpt")
![kuraside]( "kuraside")
![sidesculpt]( "sidesculpt")
I don't know if the style choices I've made will be manageable, because I've never done this before and wasn't expecting to try yet. I didn't want to add ANY bulk to the dome of my forehead as human foreheads are already extremely domed compared to what I needed to create (fur only makes it worse) and was hoping the create a base a bit farther back for the ear attachment to help counterbalance the face, and use straps to help hold it on (probably with a center-forehead strap going to the back, as well.) Due to the fur and the fact that use-your-own-eye masks can give a character a very "beady eyed" look, I wanted to avoid that as much as possible, and I THINK I may succeed....
(Yes, I know that the fur will hide the details. Mostly I'm hoping that being able to FEEL the shapes under the fur will remind me where to trim for extra detailing!)
The only problem I'm having is that I'm not sure where go to from here. I know I'll have to fill in the eye area of my face cast to being level with the eye of the sculpt (with a groove to mark where to cut the eye holes away from the cast) and do the same to fill in the teeth area closer to lip-level (I just wanted to know roughly where everything would be before I did that.) But I don't know where I should separate the jaws at the back, or where to place the hinges (I wanted to use a V-hinge arrangement for improved sensitivity). Nor am I sure if I should build a wall around the face sculpt before I pour the silicone (It'll be DragonSkin 10, and I have the thickener for it to keep it from running too much). I fear I'm a little over my head here.
Help? Suggestions? Thoughts?
Thanks.
Like most animes/mangas, Kurama's head has that problem where the apparent anatomy can change shape drastically depending on what angle he's being drawn. Sometimes he looks like a wolfish-creature, sometimes he looks almost like a pug because his face is so short! His muzzle is annoyingly way too thick and stumpy for a fox, though, almost without exception no matter what angle you're viewing him.
Here is the image I decided to mostly base it off of, since I wanted him to be "smiling" for my head. It's a very vicious-looking grimacey smile, but that suits me just fine!!
Now, since I'm a fan of realistic styles and have the style at my complete disposal (since I'm making it myself), I wanted to go for a slightly more realistic reinterpretation of his head. I am sorry about the change in color of the clay because it does make seeing the contours around the mouth more difficult, but that terracotta colored clay was all I originally had and they weren't making that color anymore, and I didn't want to resculpt the entire top of the face. :( Sorry about the picture quality too, but all I have is my phone.
I don't know if the style choices I've made will be manageable, because I've never done this before and wasn't expecting to try yet. I didn't want to add ANY bulk to the dome of my forehead as human foreheads are already extremely domed compared to what I needed to create (fur only makes it worse) and was hoping the create a base a bit farther back for the ear attachment to help counterbalance the face, and use straps to help hold it on (probably with a center-forehead strap going to the back, as well.) Due to the fur and the fact that use-your-own-eye masks can give a character a very "beady eyed" look, I wanted to avoid that as much as possible, and I THINK I may succeed....
(Yes, I know that the fur will hide the details. Mostly I'm hoping that being able to FEEL the shapes under the fur will remind me where to trim for extra detailing!)
The only problem I'm having is that I'm not sure where go to from here. I know I'll have to fill in the eye area of my face cast to being level with the eye of the sculpt (with a groove to mark where to cut the eye holes away from the cast) and do the same to fill in the teeth area closer to lip-level (I just wanted to know roughly where everything would be before I did that.) But I don't know where I should separate the jaws at the back, or where to place the hinges (I wanted to use a V-hinge arrangement for improved sensitivity). Nor am I sure if I should build a wall around the face sculpt before I pour the silicone (It'll be DragonSkin 10, and I have the thickener for it to keep it from running too much). I fear I'm a little over my head here.
Help? Suggestions? Thoughts?
Thanks.