QUACK!

Long break, but I'm back with stuff to show!

A friend of mine loves rubber ducks. She collects them. So I thought a great present for her would be her own custom duck! Official Title: The Paula Duckie.
Sadly, he's not made out of rubber. He'll prob float in water, but I wouldn't recommend regular tub usage. I'm pretty sure my friend keeps hers as ornamental ducks anywho.

This little duck was originally an occupant of my bathroom. He lived near the shower, and when the hot water was put on, he was placed on the landing to remind us to switch it off when we were done. Being the larger of 3 ducks, he was rarely used for that so he's now gotten a full make over!

Made from cheap plastic I sanded down any flash that was being rather unsightly and I started to model up from the plastic. Now, normally I'm a Sculpey person, but Sculpey, followed by oven usage would melt this duck in to a little yellow puddle. Not good. So instead I decided to use Milliput. (For the non Modelmakers out there Milliput is a 2 part epoxy putty, when kneaded together it starts to cure, and you can sculpt with it, leave it, and it sets solid. It's also used for fixing leaks and can set under water. Pretty awesome stuff.) The guy in my local model shop tried to sell me Revells Plasto (filler paste) as a substitute cos he had none in stock. He looked at me like I had 30 heads when I said I wanted it to sculpt up, not fill in model holes.

Anywho, I chose some distinguishing features from my friend, he hair, the fact she wears hoodies, and her new tattoo (the benzene rings of Vit B2 - She's a food scientist)
Here's some pictures I took while waiting for her to set.

It took about 2 coats of white paint for a solid base, then I painted the basic colours. I think next time I do something like this I'll have finer sandpaper, primer (I ran out) and use my airbrush instead. Here's a picture of the basic colours anyway...

Then I added in the detailed bits, shading bits on the hoodie, eyes, texture to the hair, a t-shirt, and the tattoo. I like the eyes, and was really pleased with how the hoodie turned out. The hardest part was the tattoo, done with a 0000 cotman brush which has about 10 hairs in it.

 oh and forgive the quality cos these were originally taken with no flash

you can see the tattoo in this one!

 This last one will be a little confusing, it's the underside of the duck. RJR stands for Rocha, John Rocha. Which is a particular label of clothing Paula used to like, and I hope still does like! I like the pockets the the hem, painted on flat, all the 3D is on the topside.

So that's the Paula Duckie. Really happy with how it turned out, can't wait to give it to her! I don't think she reads this blog so it's prob still a surprise!

George The Fish.

George our goldfish, well, really my sisters goldfish but he was kinda seen as a family pet, passed away a few days ago.

He was 23 years old.

....

No that's not a typo. George was a grand age of 23 years. He outlived every other fish that was put in that tank (save for the weather loach we still have). A few years ago he turned a grey/silver, lost an eye, and his spine even twisted a lil. But he could still swim happily around his tank as if this was normal, and nothing bothered him.

His swim bladder actually went a day or two before holidays, but when i went to euthanasie him, he was OK again. It was while we were on holidays that the people taking care of the house found George dead.

See, in our house pets aren't flushed. They're given a spot in the back garden, and possibly a rock as a marker. My dad was actually the one who suggested making a lil box for George. I thought it was a great idea. Rather than just placing him in the ground, we'd have a small coffin. Let him go in style.

Here's the mini coffin I made. Only Balsa wood and some ink to stain it. I then covered it in a gloss varnish and stuck on the cross. (not sure what the cross is in the fish world. But it looked rather plain without it.)




Rest in Peace ole chap. Enjoy that great big fishbowl in the sky.

Competitions and Cats...

Hi all,

Up late again (came back from Orlando a while ago and my sleeping clock doesn't wanna go back to normal. Plus its reeeally unusually hot in Ireland lately!) So I decided to update the blog. I'm just doing sketches at the mo in prep for entering the Imagineers comp Disney runs every year. Sadly I cant actually post pics of what we're doing for obvious reasons buuuuut...

I rooted and dug up a picture of the mask I made for my last module in 2nd year. The project was done in conjunction with the Natural History Museum here in Dublin.

Basically we went along to the "Dead Zoo" exhibition in Collins Barracks (some animals were there while the museum was being done up) and started sketching animals, doing different studies etc. We then choose an animal to do a realistic sculpt of, and one which we'd then turn into a puppet or costume for a show at the end of the year. We'd also wear our finished pieces to the reopening of the museum.



The mask is a lil tossed in this photo cos i hadn't brushed the ears. I was really pleased with how it turned out and I really liked working with the fur I'd chosen. The inner ears are pink latex painted onto the vacformed plastic mask. I used the same latex to make paw pads, which I'm now raging I don't have a good photo of. The college now owns the costume I made. Mind you, I'm still waiting to be paid back for the materials...

[EDIT: Just realised the photo doesn't have the long tufts of fur the final mask did, which'd make it much more difficult to realise it was a lynx! Shame cos they were my favourite part...]

Incase you can't tell from the mask (and a lot of people couldn't even with the full suit sadly), the animal I chose is the Lynx. Which is smallish wild cat. I do love cats, and I managed to earn myself the title "Crazy Cat Lady" in college. I guess it didn't help I just got a new kitten and was obsessing over him. You might hear about my kitten, Tugger, a bit on this blog. He follows me around a fair bit, which includes keeping me company in my mess of a studio!

Right, back to the sketchbook I guess.
Bennessy posted on his blog that it takes 10,000 hours of practice become awesome at something, guess I've a good few hours to go yet!

Ciao for now!