Grange Wallis' Custom Workshop

Here is my venture into sculpting, technically this is now the 2nd attempt, But here was my first attempt:





And my favourite angle:


Sculpted out of FiMO, I sculpted the front of the head on a tile, smoothed it before baking it, with Sculpey Clay softener. Then did the back of the head and sculpted the hair. Personally, I'm impressed by my 1st effort. I do think the nose is too thin and long. As in the cheek area. I like the hair, but I think it's a tad too big and soft looking and I like the mouth area, although it too close to his nose and eye area but, it too rough. I filled the eyeballs after baking it and am happy with them. I should have also checked my progression with a mirror from time to time as the face is not symmetrical...

Anyway, Here is my 2nd attempt the tools & products I'm using and I'm still working on the tile. If you could make any recommendation on better sculpting products or tools to use... I'd be extremely grateful. I'm thinking I should be using a darker clay for better contrast... :roll:




By the way, Thanks go out to Tom Barton for his excellect Tutorial of sculpting a head, which can be found here at OneSixthWarriors.com

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

It's a good start!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

Grange....
Dude, welcome in to a most inhospitable land....
The likeness of Christopher Reeve.
This is one hard sculpt! Trust me! I've done one too.

But you are one valiant guy to start, and restart him.

Bravo bro! Good luck! Stick with it and you'll get him.

BTW, that one lower shot looks like the mask in the Superman movie, the big one his dad came from...
COOL!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

Thanks Les, I love your Superman - I'm thinking, once I've happy with the head, I'll use a customized/buffed up Hot Toy body, not the muscular, because I want to maintain the articulation - But anyway, I love your work, I actually used images of your sculpt to help sculpt mine...

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

hey there grange. Great work.. can't wait to see what else you do, and really good to see where you work. I always like seeing workdesks for some reason, lol

Where was that sculpting tutorial? You never gave a link to it on OSW. I'd love to have a look at it.

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

Cheers, Darren thanks for the kind words. That's why I included the picture of the desk, I like looking at people's work spaces as well. Trying to lead by example
Tom Barton's tutorial can be seen here

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

More WIP Pictures coming...

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

grangewallis said:

Thanks Les, I love your Superman - I'm thinking, once I've happy with the head, I'll use a customized/buffed up Hot Toy body, not the muscular, because I want to maintain the articulation - But anyway, I love your work, I actually used images of your sculpt to help sculpt mine...

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Wow man. I am very touched by that. I want you to know that it took me two months to sculpt that Reeve of mine. Redid and reworked him, and tweaked and touched up....he is one tough likeness, no matter what anybody says, ever!...due to such subtle elements in his face. I have had a few good likenesses I have bought and whatnot, but was never happy with any of them. It took me, and another guy who was kind of a distant objective eye, to help me realize him.

If you can take the criticism, and correct what you have done wrong, and not take it personally, but grow from it, you can take this head you've started and make it even better than it is now.

You've definately captured the gesture, and basic feel of his face, you just need to actually do it all again. Seriously! I mean, take all you now know, and start all over, and you'll be surprised at how you approach some of the little things.

Also, look at him (not my head, but HIM) in 3/4 views, from above and below. So many angles. He has this weird central connector thing under his nose...looks kind of odd, but makes his face so much more HIM when you get it right. Stuff like that.

I can see you are fearless, so try again. Seriously! You are very close. Just a nudge from where you need to be.
Your brows, cheeks and chin, and even the basic shape of his hair, are DEAD ON! Just take the time now, to look at how subtle his features are.
Can you make yourself try it again?

If so, I bet you a dollar that you can make him look even more exact.

Try it! And no, if you do, and he is better, I won't take your dollar!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

Hey Les, Thanks for the kind words & direction. My Dad was pretty good at telling be what was wrong and I also took a note out of Andy Bergholtz tutorial on his site and kept double, triple checking my process with a mirror. Massive help in seeing the mistakes in the likeness. Anyway here are some WIP pictures...

But for starters here is my Sculpting box...

Here's inside my sculpting book, note the A4 page with all the Christopher Reeve reference shots...

Now here is the preliminary work to get the likeness going. Note: I sculpt the eye sockets and fill them later with white FiMO after baking sculpt. I don't like sculpting around BBs.



And for a size reference.

(Note: That shot was taken before I alter the mouth and chin heavily!)

Now I'm happy with the sculpt I'll use my Sculpty Clay softener to smooth out finger prints and tool work.


Take the sculpt out of the oven, pop the eyes in and use the rest of my FiMO to put the back of the head on and here's were I'm up to now.

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

The morning after shots...






From here, I'll had to the head, neck and put ears on him. Then wax casting and Resin Casting, then Hair (Maybe Kent & Superman cuts) then final casting paint and figure... We'll get on to the clothing later!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

Here we go... Some final shots of the head sculpt all said and done, before the wax and the hair process.




The sculpt is in some silicone as I type this. I'll have to buy some more for the resin cast next week!

Some feed back would be awesome, I just want to make this the best it can be... Let me know. Cheers.

Personally I'm really happy with it!!!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

very nice sculpt!! can't wait to see it finish!! keep it up!!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

Cheers Tony, I've cast it in wax and will try to refine the likeness more. I'll then cast it again in Resin and add the Superman & Clark Kent haircuts, can't wait! I'm going to order some Hot Toys nudes and build them up to a Reeve like build and hopefully be able to have 2 Christopher Reeve figures to stand proudly next to my Routh ones!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

Looks promising! You have excellent taste in computers too!!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

Great work GW..... Really looks to be coming along. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

Wow GW that looks amazing! Looking forward to the rest of the progress pics!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

Wow, grangewallis! Great work! You're really stepping out there on the edge and just...going for it! Lord knows if and when any company will do a Christopher Reeve as Superman...and that's a BIG "IF"! As I've told Les, he will always be "my Superman". The Superman of my childhood. The man who portrayed my all-time favorite superhero to perfection. I hope to give it a shot and sculpt some custom heads of my own someday. Mainly for movie and TV characters I have always wanted...and likely won't be done.

Your hard work is inspiring. I'd love to see your finished product! Les's Christopher Reeve IS the single best one I've ever seen, but your's is turning out great so far. Keep up the great work!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

I pray you cast this!!! I have almost the entire outfit planned out in my mind, just can't ever find a decent head. Your's is sweet beyond any doubt!!! Can't wait to see him finished!!!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

Xander said:

I pray you cast this!!! I have almost the entire outfit planned out in my mind, just can't ever find a decent head. Your's is sweet beyond any doubt!!! Can't wait to see him finished!!!

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Wow, thanks for the encouragement Xander & Jedi Mike. I'm going to work hard on this and want to have a a sound Superman & Clark Kent head done by the end of the month. Fingers crossed!!! I've started sewing to be able to do a proper Superman suit & 3 peice suit... I'm really pumped about this as so far it's taking great shape and my sculpting skills are a real surprised... It's turned out better than I thought it would... So happy with it... Keep you'll posted!

Re: Grange Wallis: Jack of all trades, I masters most of them!!!

I'm loving watching this progress, as I'll be attempting my first 'full' sculpt soon too..... so this is really interesting to me.

And it's good to watch you getting better even in this short space of time.

keep it up!