Although I have gotten more work done since my last post, as you can see in the above image, the project is on yet another hold. My husband and I are currently in the process of moving to Washington DC. Work will resume once I set up shop in our new house, which should be around late May.
Stay tuned!
So it turns out that I am having a hard time finding enough time to work on this big guy. On top of that, I’ve found that I can really only work in two hour sessions before I am pretty much exhausted. Fortunately, I have had this past week off (one of the perks of teaching!) and I’ve been able to put in a good 6 hours or so with more to come this long weekend.
I began by getting the second half of the torso shaped and glued to the armature. This side proved to be a little trickier, because of the curve in the spine. But I managed to get it on there. Unfortunately on my second day of working, I realized my foam dispensing gun was clogged to the point of no return. After google searching the problem, I learned that if you leave the gun too long between sessions, the foam will cure inside the gun and will become unusable! AH! I overnighted a new gun from Amazon.com (ah the magic of technology) and was back in the game the next day. I have learned my lesson and will be cleaning my gun very well after each session. One of the photos above shows the interesting sculpture one of my foam bottles decided to make for me after I removed the gun.
The foam gun works as both a glue and a gap filler. This is a good thing because the foam pieces haven’t exactly been lining up perfectly, as you can see in the top row of photos. I’ve found it sands down very nicely too. I am amazed at how much foam came off those blocks just to get the basic shape of the body. At least it’s starting to resemble a dragon though! Large scale sculpture definitely isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s a lot of backbreaking work just to get simple forms going. But it’s also very rewarding. I actually feel like I am making a real creature in my garage, super cool!
I included some photos of my workbench because everyone loves studio photos. It’s never this neat while I am working of course. Check out the pair of fingerless gloves. They are weightlifting gloves I got from Sports Authority for $15 and they have been working GREAT! They keep the blisters away on my hands and it makes it a lot easier to grip the comb. You can see my (now) dead foam gun lying on the bench. The new one is attached to the bottle of foam. I think I will keep the old one as a reminder to take care of my equipment!
Today I got most of the main shaping of the body done and got the limbs cut out. I am hoping to get the limbs in place and the basic shapes formed before I have to go back to work next Tuesday. Here’s hoping!
I hope everyone had a great holiday and happy new year!!
I started off the day by splitting the torso in half with the hot knife to get a better curve to the body. It helped a lot when lining it up with the armature. I did some rounding out of the form with my precious curry comb (the best rasp tool for something so large) and then I started carving out the grooves so that the foam will fit on the armature. Not to my surprise, it didn’t line up perfectly. Due to the curved armature and the flat foam, it made it very difficult to line the two up. I got it as close as I could and used the foam glue to adhere it to the armature. I wrapped it with thick masking tape to hold it in place and then used the foam glue as gap filler between the foam and armature. Talk about working like a charm!
I did the same thing for the other part of the torso and then filled the gap between the two pieces with the foam glue. I intend to do more gap filling once the other side of the body is put in place. Today I learned :
- My curry comb will be doing most of the work when I am working with foam. The hot knife only helps me when I am doing my initial cuts.
- I need a fingerless glove! I have a big blister on my hand now from gripping the curry comb.
- This is my first sculpture of this size and the foam isn’t going to fit together perfectly this time around and that’s ok! I am an artist and I will make it work!
- Foam pellets go everywhere…..EVERYWHERE! I need to get liners for my shop vac for easier clean up.
I think I am starting to get a system down! Next weekend, I plan on tackling the second half of the body. I am hoping to do my first live steaming video at that time. Please stay tuned for the announcement of date and time for that.
About the Materials
Curry combs are use to brush horses, normally. Not for me! These metal brushes are great for blocking in forms and taking away the “squareness” of the foam. It helps me to be much more artistic than the hot knife and it makes a great hollow rasping noise on the foam. It is a full body workout to use it!
Dow, the makers of GreatStuff, also make this amazing foam glue called Enerfoam. The bottles attach to a foam dispensing gun, very similar to a caulking gun. It is smooth and sounds like whipped cream when it comes out. The foam expands as it dries so you have to be sure to strap everything in place tightly. It also makes and EXCELLENT gap filler.
So sorry to all for the delay in the commencement of this project. I had a number of things holding me up, including a fairly major wrist injury. But I am back in the game, and have made the first steps on the project today.
When I first saw the stack of 3×4 foot blocks of foam sitting in my garage, I had no idea how I was going to begin tackling this.
I decided to take the photos of the maquette into photoshop and do rough outlines of them. I placed them onto scale versions of the foam blocks to see how I was going to fit them all into place in order to conserve foam. I then sent them to the printers to be printed out at the same size as the foam blocks. It worked like a charm! I may have to modify some of the shapes, especially the limbs. But it’s a good start getting shapes out of very daunting blocks.
I started by cutting out the torso today, since everything stems from that piece. It is a very large piece, spanning the entire length of the 4 foot slabs.
I needed to cut out two pieces, one for either side of the armature. Each piece is about 9 inches thick and will be trimmed down considerably. I had a small dilemma in that the foam I was cutting is 9 inches thick and the blade of my hot knife is only 6 inches long. I therefore had to trace the pattern onto both sides of the foam and do two separate cuts from both sides.
WHEW! What a lot of work! While a hot knife does vaporize foam on contact, it is still a long and tedious process to cut out big pieces like this. You have to move very slowly, never forcing the blade through the foam but rather guiding it along.
Next step, cutting out slots to fit the pieces over the limbs and channeling out the inside of the pieces so that they will fit over the armature.
About the Materials : I am using an industrial grade hot knife from Hot Wire Foam Factory. I got this great little kit that comes with different attachments that I will be using later on in the project.
The foam I am using is EPS foam (expanded polystyrene). These is the bead type of foam that you have probably seen used in packaging. It is fairly inexpensive and can be recycled. All of the scraps from this project will be recycled at a local drop off spot (which happens to be the zoo!)
Don’t forget to follow the forest emperor project facebook page and the forest emperor twitter feed for the fastest way to be notified of updates!
Today, I got the completed armature from the awesome Qui Design Studios. He looks great, perfect to the designs that I provided! And he is HUGE! I just got my hot knife in the mail yesterday too. All I need to do is get the foam ordered and get a make shift base put together and I will be good to start sculpting. Stay tuned, production will begin soon!
The interview I did with 3D Artist Magazine is now published in issue 28, available on newsstands now in the UK. It will be available for purchase in the US in the next month or so. If you haven’t gotten the chance to read the online article, you can do so here.
Hopefully those of you that pledged at least $5 to the project and sent me your address have already received your thank you postcards. They were mailed out last week so if you haven’t gotten yours yet, you should soon. Please be sure to forward me your address if you haven’t done so yet.
The armature for the Emperor was ordered last week. I was given a wait time of 8 weeks, but it may be a little sooner depending on the welder’s schedule. I had the opportunity to visit his workspace Qui Studios. He does amazing work and I really look forward to working with him on this project.
I am currently putting together a foam cut and hot knife order so I will be ready to go once the armature is finished. Everything should be ready just in time for the hottest weather of the year here in Florida!
WE DID IT, THANK YOU!
It’s been 46 days since I launched the Forest Emperor project on Kickstarter.com. Through the help of a number of awesome people that donated funds to the project, passed on the link and spread the word, I am happy to officially announce that the project is 105% funded! The response to this project was amazing! I thank you all for your support, be it monetary or otherwise. I couldn’t have gotten this far without you, and I am very grateful that you have stood behind my vision. It’s been a lot of hard work getting here, and the fun is just about to start!!
Though I want to get started on the project right away, I do need to wait a few weeks as Kickstarter puts a two week hold on the funds. I then need to wait for the funds to be transferred from Amazon to my bank account. Once the transfer takes place, I will be ordering the armature to be welded and we will get this show on the road!
About Rewards
If you pledged $5 or more to the project and have given me your mailing address, expect to receive a thank you post card in the mail in a few weeks. Please note that most all other rewards require the completion of the piece before they can be created and shipped. I am hoping to have the project completed by the end of the year, but since I have never taken on a project like this before, I cannot give a solid date.
Notice the “Supporters” link above. This is where I have listed the names of all 67 of the project supporters. Please check to make sure I have listed your name properly. If you would like me to include a link to your website, just let me know the URL and I will get that hooked up!
If you pledged $250 or more (that’s 3 of you), I owe you a custom sculpture! Please send me an e-mail at forestemperor (at) emilysculpts.com and we will discuss the details!
Special thanks and congratulations go out to supporter Monica Zapata. She was our top supporter by far and will be the recipient of the original Forest Emperor maquette at the project’s end.
About the Blog
I will be posting constant progress here on this blog. I am aiming for a weekly update, but some weeks may have multiple updates while some weeks might not have any updates at all. Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog by clicking on the orange button in the top right box on this page. You can also follow the project through Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Again, click the respective buttons in the box above to do this. Be on the lookout for announced livestream sessions where you can watch me sculpt live! If you can’t make it to the sessions, they will be archived for later viewing.
The links you see at the top of the page will be used as quick access to different categories of entries. Clicking on the “Go Green” link will take you to environmental related posts, “Sculpting” will take you to process related posts, and so on. These link names may change and I am bound to add more as time goes on. This will be an ever growing, ever changing, living project. Please feel free to interact and ask questions. I am here to share and teach in any way I can. I just ask that you post questions publicly so we can share with everyone. If there’s anything you want to see specifically, or if you have a suggestion, don’t hesitate to ask!
This project is also about bringing awareness to the problems that are currently plaguing our environment. You may have noticed the NRDC link to the right. I encourage you to click through this link and read about what this wonderful organization does for our country, our planet, and our environment. Throughout the creation of the forest emperor, I will also be posting about current environmental issues along with tips on what you can do to help. I am in no way affiliated with the NRDC, but I stand behind what they do.
Again, thank you for your support of the Forest Emperor project! I look forward to starting this project and sharing with you all.
