Pre-game Warmup.

Pre-game warmup.

Today I had the serious privilege of attending the 32nd annual Lucasfilm picnic at Skywalker Ranch. (I won a blue ribbon at tug-of-war!) As a huge nerd, this place is basically heaven. I met all sorts of cool people and decided that my new goal in life is to become a model maker for Lucasfilm. (Are you listening, George?)

So of course I had to make a little Yoda for today's sculpture. The better-quality clay (no offense, Play-Doh) made a huge difference, although the kebab skewer I've been using for detail work is still way too blunt to do any delicate work. I'm planning a trip to the art supply store on Monday for tools, so hopefully I can start making some more intricate models soon.

This one's for you, Dad.

Marblex, ~25 min.

I'm pretty proud of this one, actually, despite my wretched figure sculpting skills (case in point: there's a toothpick holding up her head). I've been reading a ton of comics lately, and today I picked up Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers. This is Snow White, who is (spoiler!) a few months pregnant at this point in the story. I'm kind of obsessed with her hair.

She looks a little like Miss Piggy, a lot more sullen than I intended, her bone structure is insane (are her cheekbones upside down?), and she's apparently a quadruple amputee. But other than that...!

Marblex, ~40 min.

Today was my first sculpting class ever (woo!), which meant going back to basics and learning a few fundamentals. So I made a few clay dishes to get the hang of using all the tools and patterns the right way:

And another:

Here's one of the storage rooms, including some of my teacher's work:

Unknown clay, ~60 min. for all three pieces

The very first entry! I was listening to a Radiolab podcast about Darwin when I sat down to sculpt, so today's post is a little bird. I modeled it after a sparrow, but it's not exactly a perfect replica.

I swear he didn't look so much like he was wearing headphones in person. I was going for a sort of textured stripe (the reference photo had a swath of different-colored fuzz in that area), but it doesn't really translate in these pictures.

He fit perfectly in the palm of my hand, too.

Yellow Play-Doh, ~30 min.

Today's model was requested by Dayna, who said "make me a wolf!" I said, "there, you're a wolf," she rolled her eyes (presumably; this was over the phone), and then I made her this...fox. Does this look foxlike to anyone else? I'll always be a little more Team Mulder than Team Jacob, I guess.

I struggled with his face for ages. When I work, I like to get one feature done, one thing I know I can do really accurately, and go from there. If the other features look like they fit with the first part, then I know I'm on the right track. But I couldn't seem to get anything right...the nose, the ears, the eyes; all wrong. Hmmph.

He's awful cute, though.

Oh, and sorry about the terrible set design. I was going for "nighttime scene" and ended up somewhere closer to "Lisa Frank on a fireplace."

Marblex, ~30 min.