Fun with clay!

[auntiemeesh]

I haven't played with modelling clay in many, many years. So my expectations for sculpting any sort of usable cat face from clay were low. But I had fun playing and it's coming along better than I thought it would. Of course, being the failed perfectionist that I am, I see so many flaws in it that it makes me want to cry, but I'm feeling pretty good about it anyway (thus the failed part of failed perfectionist).

Here's the front view of the face. The upper lip thing is a bit bigger than it needs to be, so that will need a bit more work. And because it's still a work in progress, I haven't smoothed it out all the way or put texture on it yet - still a rough model, I'm afraid.


Top view. The nose is a bit slanted to one side, but faces just aren't symmetrical and that's how it turned out - the clay actually seems to be pretty even over the nose, I guess I'm just crooked.


Left profile. The upper lip looks somewhat better in the profile views.


Right profile.


So, those of you who have any sort of experience with this sort of thing and know how to fix any mistakes you see in this, feel free to chime in and offer suggestions. I'm going to work on it a bit more tomorrow, but I think I've done as much as I can for one night.

Comments

[dativesingular.livejournal.com]

Okay, that looks hella cool to me.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I can't wait to see what the finished thing looks like.

[ansostuff.livejournal.com]

Oh, this looks interesting. I don't think I can be of much help though. I've never done anything like this. I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Me, too. :)

[dreamflower]

Way cool and Most Excellently Well Done! What's the size/scale of this? Is it life-size? I've never tried anything that large. I look forward to seeing more of your progress!

You know, you might enjoy working with polymer clay.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

It's a life-sized mold of my face, with the clay on top. When it's as close to good as it's going to get, we'll use it to make a latex mask to wear for the cat/nun costume I'm taking to Dragon*Con.

[eve11]

That looks great so far! I like your nose. My nose looks too much like a bunny's nose right now. *sighs*

Are you doing the chin piece too? I wasn't sure if I was going to do the chin piece or not.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I am doing the chin piece - in for a penny, in for a pound, I say. Once I got started, the whole thing was a lot easier than I feared it would be.

[shirebound]

I'm impressed! I have no artistic talent whatsoever.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Me, either. I was really dreading this step because I can't create things at all, but I have some very good pictures to work off of, which helps enormously.

[whtmtnwmn.livejournal.com]

Add my name to the "impressed" list!
=D

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[whtmtnwmn.livejournal.com]

You sure can't be upset for long with a jester like Mal keeping you laughing!
=D

[ani-no-mouse.livejournal.com]

Fantastic! You've got the kitty nose down perfectly. It must have helped to have three great models, eh? The only suggestion I would have had was to build up the chin a bit, but it sounds as if that is going to be a separate piece.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

The chin and cheeks will all be one piece. I did build the chin up a fair amount yesterday, but the picture I'm working off of doesn't have an entirely pointy, cat-like chin.

(http://photobucket.com)

[ani-no-mouse.livejournal.com]

P.S., I thought of you yesterday when I was talking about the Maynard the Cat study in one of my classes. Are you sure you wouldn't like to make a dog face mask to go over your cat face mask? It would provide plenty of laughs to all the (Many, many, no doubt) cognitive developmental psychologists who will be hanging out at Dragon Con!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I'm sure all the cognitive developmental psychologists would indeed love the joke. I still think I'll pass on it, unless I find a free dog mask lying about in the next few days.

[obeliamedusa.livejournal.com]

Wow! that looks so cool!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)