Crowd-Learning Challenge 2018

New challenge! I’m going to learn how to create my own handmade resin toy, I start off with zero knowledge so to accomplish this goal I have to learn: modeling, molding, casting, painting and packaging… and hopefully, I’m going to learn it while getting paid. Easy job! 😀 😀 😀

Now that I got your attention let me point out that my main motivation won’t be financial profit, I won’t even run a Kickstarter campaign as I did some years ago, I will be lucky if my hourly rate gets close to 1US$/h but hey! even if it’s 1 penny per hour I’m technically being paid, which is an accolade because people usually pay for it. I just want to have fun, learn a new skillset and share it with the crowd, if just 1 person in the world gets inspired, enjoyed or challenged to do the same I have made my contribution to a better world.

I will use only free educational resources found at Google and Youtube. Hopefully experienced users will help me in my learning process.

So what’s the plan?

  • I will limit the production to 5 sculptures that you will be able to preorder once I setup my shop.
  • Each sculpture will cost 250US$ (shipping not included), so I have a budget of 1250US$.
  • If I fail or I don’t meet SOSFactory quality standard I refund all payments, fees included.
  • I will post monthly updates sharing my Crowd Education Challenge progress.
Only 2 available

SPENT

150

hours

EXPENSES

217 €

=257$

BUDGET

+1000

US$

DEADLINE

25 th

December

CURRENT STATUS

  1. Planing.
  2. Putting together the arsenal
  3. Sculpting a test model.
  4. Creating the final Sculpt, hopefully.
  5. Molding.
  6. Casting.
  7. Polishing and assembling.
  8. Painting.
  9. Packaging.
  10. Delivering.

1.- Planing.

So the challenge starts and I only have 1 asset, my will… which it’s not a little thing, but not enough to get the ball rolling. So first stop in my learning experience is sitting down and creating a route. For now I reduce it to 2 key points:

Main ImageHover Image

Finding the object that I want to sculpt: don’t require much thinking, I will start humble so I look for an small, simple and fun to do model. I decide that SOSFactory’s monkey soldier is perfect for this purpose.

Finding the material more suitable for my object: I have no idea about the options out there but I know wood is discarded, on last year I spent a few months working with wood and it’s not for me, too slow and too dirty. Water based clay is also discarded, too dirty and fragile.

After some research I found the product that suits my needs! It’s Chavant NSP clay. It’s not too dirty, not too expensive, easy to model when warmed and retain good detail.

In the future I may consider 3d printing, but first I would like to learn the whole creative process in the traditional way.

So I spend 1 month to get familiar with all sculpting terms, tools, techniques and materials. For now I don’t care about later stages of the sculpting process, all I care is that I have a high quality clay commonly used in the Art industry, so it can’t be a bad choice.

2.- Putting together my arsenal

I spent a few weeks watching random Youtube videos about traditional sculpting techniques with water based clay and also videos to learn the specific features of oil based clays.

modeling-tools

I got sculpting tools to manipulate Chavant clay which are the same as for normal clay. I practice a few hours from time to time. For now I just want to learn get familiar with the clay.

Lots of newbie questions!!… how could I get a polished final model out of this mess? Do I paint over the clay? How do I replicate the model?…

I spent a few dollars in a book named Pop Sculpture that helps me a lot to understand the whole process.

A chat with Inktoys gave me an overview of later stages like molding and casting just to be sure that I’m using the right material. Later on I will do extensive research about those steps.

So I must create a model in clay that is not final, I will duplicate that model into resin and I will work the fine details. Then I will create a master mold out of it that I will use to replicate the final sculptures.

pop-sculture-book

3.- Sculpting a test Model.

So the fun starts finally!… I spent a month for a first model that didn’t work quite well, I could write a catalog of mistakes but I summarise it in just 3:

  1. Create 2d front, side and back views: unfortunately I only had a front view of my model, I will have to figure out solutions for back and side views.
  2. Plan with blocks: another huge mistake I made was starting with a rounded mass of clay, I better had started to split the volumes in blocks, just like traditional 2d drawing.
  3. Don’t work the details: as a consequence of the previous mistake I found myself working again and again the same details because the elements where not in the right place.

4.- Sculpting a Final Clay Model, hopefully

Ok, this get closer to what I had in mind. I learnt that I can use citric base cleaning products to soften the surface when get’s messy.

I also made some research about molding complex sculptures, I decided modelling the ears apart so I can control the head shape as a whole. Once I get the final resin cast I will use Epoxi Bicomponent to bond the ears to the head.

I finally attached the ears to the head and decided using a 2 sides mold technique  instead of a simple cut block mold. Anyway I have time to study the beast approach since I still need to make some symmetry corrections and polishing all surfaces.

5.- Molding time

After around 150 hours of practice with my first model I’m almost ready for the molding process. Wish me luck, if I screw the model I must start all over again.


The  cute cuckold fairy will explain you the whole thing.

 

 

Special Thanks!!!

Just some credits to those artists that where kind enough to share their knowledge with this newbie sculptor:

Sergio Ordoñez Suanez
[email protected]

Hi there, I'm webmaster, designer and digital content creator of everything you see at SOSFactory. I love sharing my limited knowledge as more experienced designers did when I was a newbie.

4 Comments
  • Nadeem Ahmed
    Posted at 16:22h, 04 May Reply

    good luck man , sounds like interesting project

    • sergio ordonez
      Posted at 16:28h, 04 May Reply

      Thanks for your support! If you can share it, I would really glad 🙂

  • Raheel Hussain
    Posted at 19:45h, 04 May Reply

    Impressive…! Great Inspirational Artist for self taught learners. Congrats…!

    • sergio ordonez
      Posted at 21:48h, 04 May Reply

      Thanks Raheel, please, share the post if you appreciate it 🙂

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