Beautiful work. Loads of talent in this forum!

Great job and you certainly have some sculpting skills. He will ba a fine figure!!
Dan
http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Hey All!
Here is Day 4 of the progress.. I have made several changes to his brow and mouth.. Hopefully enough to make his appearance a little less Toy story-ish.
Thanks again for the feedback; keep it coming!
For those who have not done any puppet building; it is a crazy amount of work to go from start to finish with building a puppet.
Also - I am planning on incorporating several animatronic components into this particular puppet; which should be fun!
I hope to do much more work on him this week - stay tuned!
Damien

Click here to view attached image.

Hey Everyone!
Here is a different (front) view of the old man puppet sculpt...
As you can see - I am keeping his wrinkles and features quite caricatured and pronounced.. so it reads better from stage. He is quite a long ways away from finished though.
Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!
Damien

Click here to view attached image.

Damien:

Like I said before, great sculpting.
Are you making a mold and if so what will you be casting him in?

He loaded with character.

Jimmy

He's looking better everyday. great job! Is there a chance to see yr other characters that you mentioned are retiring?

Howdy!
Thanks again for the positive comments everyone!
Jimmy - this character will be molded and then the skin will be cast with either silicone and/or foam latex. There will be a plastic under skull that the animatronics will be built into.
Stay tuned! I will be updating the whole process until he is done!
Maps - I am getting a website together that will show my portfolio. Much of my work is related to film and television special effects make-up/creatures. I love my work but I have done projects for films and TV so much that I have neglected my own projects.. which is why I am trying to work on this old man a little bit everyday (between Effects work).
Thanks and hopefully I will have something more to show soon!
Damien

Damien:

Just beautiful work. How you get so much character out of clay is amazing to me.

B

He's looking MAR-VE-LOUS!!!!

WOW!! I can't imagine all the time you are spending on him!! I am sure his character is developing right before your eyes as he continues to develop!!

Hey Everybody! Thanks again for all of your kind words and encouragement!
Here is day 5 progress. I am starting to further flesh out his brow and forehead.. It is still very rough - and he will probably be changed several times yet.
ljlvent - inregards to seeing his character develop; it can be cool to see where the design goes.. It really looks nothing like it did at day 2.. which I liked, but he was too similar to Geri, the cleaner from Toy Story - which was thankfully brought to my attention by Bob Baker - thanks again Bob
When you work from a picture or have a design in mind; it is easier to sculpt from that; but I am sculpting as I go - without a blue print.. The only thing that I know for sure is that he is going to be an old man character - but there is lots of interpretation within that.. So until he is done, I really have no idea what he will look like.
I will definitely keep posting progress.
I have not had a lot of time to put into this character, but I am doing as much as I can around my job.
I will be making his eyes in the next few days - stay tuned!
Damien

Click here to view attached image.

It's so much fun watching this project develop!

Howdy!
Here is day 6 of the progress of my old man puppet..
I have decided on the character of my puppet.. He will be a hobo-type; but no shotgun
I plan on doing a very different type of routine with this character.. Something that I have never seen done before in a vent show.. I can't wait to finish him so that I can start working on his routine. Stay tuned!
Damien
P.S. - I really appreciate this forum - it is great to have this community and I am learning so much!

Click here to view attached image.

Are you expecting any problems molding him with those deep sharp wrinkles?

Hi There!
Here is Day 7 of the progress.. I focused mainly on adding to the form of his lower lip and chin today.
I will hopefully be able to devote several hours tomorrow to the sculpt!
In regards to molding him - the deep wrinkles should not pose a problem. I will be molding him out of a very strong material and he will be a 4 piece mold (including the core) so undercuts will not be an issue.
Thanks for the question!
Hopefully I will have more to show tomorrow!
Damien

Click here to view attached image.

Damien,

He's looking really good! You have quite a character there.

Oliver

Hi Damien,It's looking better everyday! What kind of clay did you use for him?

Thanks for the continued kind words!
Here is day 8..
I am starting to add a bit of skin texture to him now.. So far - it has been very smooth basic forms; now it has to start looking like skin.
Each pore and wrinkle is added one at a time.. It can be pretty time consuming. He is still far from finished.. but it will be very subtle changes (just minute detail).
To avoid boring anyone, I will put up my next update when the sculpting is complete..
Otherwise it will be like - "Hey, look - there's another bunch of pores on his chin!!"
Maps - The clay that I am using is Chavant (medium - NSP).
Thanks again for the encouragement! You folks are the best! I am always up for criticism too; so if you have any pointers or ideas - send them on down!
Damien

Click here to view attached image.

What are you using for adding the texture?

Hi rcav8r!
I am using basic homemade sculpting tools for the wrinkles and directional pores and a bought Ball Stylus (pic link below) for the round pore texture:

http://pj.b5z.net/i/u/2047940/i/Double_Ball_Stylus.jpg

Some Artists use texture stamps that push texture into the clay, but I prefer to sculpt all of the texture into my sculpts.. It takes longer, but I have more control over the direction of the pores and wrinkles.
Damien