Sketching in 3D

Yesterday I suddenly decided that I was going to teach myself a new technique, which will be useful for The Project. I wanted to do some sketching in 3D – modelling if you prefer – but with my actual hands on the material. I love thinking about how faces and bodies are put together, and try to bring that out in my sketches on paper, but how about doing it in 3D, to further explore and appreciate things? This would ultimately be also extremely useful in future character design, global consistency when pencilling pages, and so forth. Messing around with plasticine (or its variants) is something I’ve not done since my teens, and I don’t think I ever did much in the way of faces back then, so this would be a fun new challenge.

I went into town and found a place that has some art supplies, and eventually found some great stuff – Roma Plastilina (No.2). While watching the Olympic opening ceremony I messed around a bit and came up with a rough head I liked. (Turns out it is very much like the sketching I do, since I spend a lot of time trying to put 3D into my 2D sketches.) I did not have the right tools for details, but a bit of time in the local pharmacy today yielded some perfect instruments – mani/pedi-cure tools, and so forth. (See them in the snap to the right, for scale and context.) This allowed me to do a bit more detail on the eyes and so forth, but then I stopped before I started to overdo it in terms of fussing over detail. So I consider it a sort of sketch in 3D. A lot of fun and a not entirely disagreeable fellow emerged. An enjoyable first outing…

-cvj