Apoxie Sculpt colors

This photo shows why I prefer to avoid using Apoxie Sculpt in the "natural" color. I'm carving away at Bill's leg here, and the older natural colored Apoxie is so difficult to see what's going on compared to the Super White just above it-notice how the tool marks are visible in the white? They're present in the natural too, but incredibly difficult to see, even in person. I'll have to prime him to have a chance of getting those areas to where I want them.

Old sculpting

I have to do a bit of carving on Bill, and it's interesting to see how differently I did some things then. For example...

Bill has aluminum foil bulking him out, not only in his body but all the way down into his legs! I did this to save on the relatively expensive Apoxie Sculpt. At the time, it seemed like such a good idea! Now, I make sculptures solid or nearly so. Having to fight with aluminum foil isn't worth the savings in Apoxie now!

Bill

I've been working more on Bill here! Next up: ears and legs!

Some current sculptures in progress

I've been busy here as usual! Going to try and update this blog a little more regularly, though entries might be brief. For now, here's some of the horses I'm working on!

Some micro minis, Penumbra, and Bill

Minis: Zap (walking qh), Spark (bucking foal), Squirrel! (striking stallion). Traditionals Tumbleweed and Whirlwind

The micro minis! 

Umbra again!

Still working on Umbra (see his broken forelock? Half-baked Super Sculpey is fragile!), but he's getting very close!

I'm starting a list of email addresses for those who would like to receive an email when I release him--send your address to me (maggie@maggiebennett.com) if you'd like to be on that list! I will be doing a limited number of pre-orders on him. That information will come out in the next week or so, I just want to have him very close to being finished before I start selling at all. The pre-orders will be $230 plus shipping/handling, which is $15 in the USA, $40 otherwise). His release price may be different; I still don't have a quote on his base because I haven't designed it yet!

Umbra and Facebook

I'm clearly not very good at updating this blog! One reason is that it's just a bit more work than, say, putting pictures on Facebook. Not a lot, mind, but a little--and since I'm on Facebook anyway, coming over here isn't something I remember often! I'm still going to try to, but in the meantime, I've been posting a lot on my studio Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/maggiebennettsculpture, including progress photos of this new sculpture, Umbra. He's not nearly done, but I just love how he's turning out so far!

Mirrors

I'm working on version 2 of Trenzado, and that means resculpting the other side of his face since his hair will not be covering it (I actually did sculpt it originally and then covered it with hair, though I didn't fully detail it out with wrinkles and whisker bumps and everything). Since I'm doing v2 from a resin cast, there's no way to recover any of that detail so it all has to be rebuilt.

Of course faces are pretty much symmetrical, which is always a bit of a challenge. Here's what I do:

A mirror! This one conveniently stands on its own and came from IKEA but they're available everywhere (you probably already have one). A hand mirror works ok, and is what I used until recently, but this makes it a bit easier to sculpt while looking at the other side. Getting the lighting just right, so both sides are lit evenly, can be a bit of a challenge, but it's doable.

And yep, standard messy desk and references in the background.