Skulls And Rain Bones Society 2021

:)

While i wait for some packing materials to show up, and get all these glorious orders out the door, I’ve been working on sculpts for 2021 Skulls memberships. I’m doing three beetle themed critters. around the same scale as most of my new buddies right now. There’s a Banana Beetle, Mama beetle (or papa beetle in drag?), and I’m bring back Frederick, who a few of you will remember in sofubi form from my days with Super 7. Frederick is actually my oldest running character. Predating Killer, and even Steven the Bat. Little Frederick started out in an old comic I did as a Dung beetle rolling a big ball of poop home for his family so they could eat for the winter. So little Freddie has changed a bit over the years.

:)

Here’s a nice process shot. I’m working here on the underside of the Banana Beetle. For me roughing out all these shapes, and my first pass with the Sculpey before I bake it, is the easy part. The tricky part comes next. Sorta like the difference between a bad movie that is really good, and just a bad movie. Lots of sanding here, little bits of carving there. It’s all very time consuming, and tricky fixing some spots that may be too wonky for my eyeballs when finished. I almost never use any armatures. If I need to attach any sort of limb or horn, or in the case of the feets above. After i get the position right, i’ll poke holes as deep as i can go with a little awl, creating a solid bond between the two parts, then work on sealing up all the seems. Worst feeling (next to burning your entire sculpt) is breaking an arm or leg of after hours of sanding and smoothing, so I always try to get things to really stick to each other.

My last silly note of the day. See the sculpt on the right. I watched Kazu (Itokin Park) sculpt this Dolphin Zilla before my very eyes in less than an hour. The skills of a master carver/sculptor gives me inspiration, and a little jealousy. So sometimes when I’m sculpting I grab this guy off the shelf and stare at it.