Wow, that was an intense 8 hours. We got stuck straight in with building an armature, posing it (by design!), and gluing it into my base. This was fun for me, I had to quickly attach two bigger 2 x 4s to my original base support in order to accommodate my pose. (my character has a fairly wide stance). Thank goodness Duct tape was invented. We’re fortunate in this part of the world, for Zap a Gap in my opinion does a great job gluing metal and wood etc, verses epoxy glues. Regarding my character design, I made him up as I went along. Building the armature and posing lends itself greatly to ones imagination.

This was my first time using Chavant clay. It will need to be warmed up a little before it’s used in the way it is intended. Chavant is an oil based clay so cannot be cured. A toaster oven may have been handy here. We had around 4 critiques throughout the workshop so while Jordu was character sculpting and demonstrating various approaches and methods etc, we had ample time to have our own work critiqued along the way. Feedback for my character was for the most part positive. He has good movement, pose is strong,, but I need to revisit the anatomy and make him more ‘believable’ in that department. I think my initial approach was too Ecorché. Jordu’s input however was gold. I really appreciate his input. I’ve lots of changes to make before the final deadline for submissions.

Everyone involved in the workshop were exceptionally talented. It was a humbling experience being apart of this. Our deadline for this coming Friday (midnight), is to upload final updates on our characters. I have uploaded a work in progress of him so far from my workshop right here incase anyone’s interested. He can only be best described as a demon type fella, probably close to life size already, he likes to sneak out of the walls late at night, especially during a full moon to steal trinkets. Even USB sticks aren’t safe, believe me I know this first hand.

Jordu Schell was amazing fun, and equally highly knowledgeable on character building and sculpting. I am privileged to have had the opportunity to be apart of this workshop and hope it happens again soon! http://www.schellstudio.com/

I have to say, thank you so much to the Stan Winston School for being able to host these workshops. It opens the door for so many around the world.