Anatomy of a Custom Figure - Part Two

In the first installment I showed the concept art developed by character designer Larry LaFontsee and the special armature I made just for this project. I did not get any photos of the clay sculpt as it progressed unfortunately, because so often as I get sculpting, I don't think about getting a camera out. Here are some photos of the sculpture well along. . . .

The customer picked 3 of the drawings from Larry LaFontsee, and I had him pick out which features he liked best from each of those. So then I proceeded to sculpt a face incorporating each of these features and creating a composite face. As time went on, and more conversations with the customer, it was decided to make a few small changes in the clay sculpt. One of the changes was to make the neck regular size instead of the exaggeratedly small neck in the original concept. Here are a few pics of that the updated clay sculpture. . . .

 

 

Next a quick mold was made and then the head was cast in resin. I also made some custom eyes for this figure with larger irises (the eyes in the clay were just a mock up for reference to sculpt around), 3/4 of an inch in diameter. There was one more change made when we got into the casting stage of the project. It was decided to make the mouth bigger for better visibility (usually desirable on a pro vent figure) and more closely resembling the mouth of the real little girl. Here is an early pic of the casting. . . .

One more subtle change was made in the sculpt at this stage. Instead of a neutral expression, a little bit more of a smile was added per the customers request. Finally, the head was fully sanded, primered, painted, and the eyes and winkers were installed. Here are some pics of her currently. . . 

This is where is starts getting exciting and you know that all your hard work is paying off. I sent these photos off to the customer and here's what he had to say, "The face is perfect. What you have been able to do, is remarkable. You have managed to capture all of her different looks, ...in one figurine. It is not your typical dummy. This dummy has facial expression, just like my God daughter. Now, I'm really excited, I hardly know what to say."

That's what makes it all worthwhile!!! I have yet to install her up/down eyebrows, finish her mechanics, wig her, and finish her body. But it won't be all that long and this cute little figure will be in the customer's hands.

I hope this little peek into the 'Anatomy of a Custom Figure' has been of interest. 

Anatomy of a Custom Figure - Part One

Most people never get to see some of the 'behind the scenes' steps involved in the development of a custom figure. Thought some might enjoy getting a taste of that process. I have a customer who wanted a custom figure that looked like his goddaughter, and wanted a nice caricature of her.

On occasion I will consult with or consign a fellow artist or colleague, and felt this was the perfect project to utilize that kind of help. I called on fellow figure maker and character designer Larry LaFontsee of 'LaFontsee Character Design'. I sent Larry several photos (provided by the customer) of the little girl in question, and set him free on doing a caricature suitable for a custom little girl vent figure. (These are all copyrighted by Larry LaFontsee.)

When Larry sent me the sketches he had done, I was bowled over! I knew he was talented in this department, but didn't realize just how talented he was. Here are a few of the sketches he did for me. . . .

 

These are just a few of the drawings Larry sent me. I was absolutely amazed at the variety of caricature styles that he came up with. He is one of the most creative character designers out there, I think. In any case, he gave me a plethora of material to work with, which is always better than not having enough to work with. I then got to work on it. I created an armature just for this project. I lathed a smaller than usual neck piece, and tried something new for this armature. I set in small dowels with markers on them, so I would have proportion references during the roughing out of the clay model. Here are some pics of the armature. . . .

The armature worked very nicely and the dowels with the markers came in quite handy. Saves some time in the rough sculpting stages and keeps you on track. So then wads of oil based clay began to be added to the armature. In the next installment, Part Two, I will show you the clay sculpture and the figure of her that's almost complete.

It's All in the Style. . .

Puppets and Props now offers two styles of vacuum formed styrene winker shells. We now have both a tabbed version and a tab-less version available for purchase on our web site for our customer's convenience. . .

You now have a choice, depending on what building style you prefer. There is more information on our web site on our eyes and winker shells page. . . .

 http://www.puppetsandprops.com/casteyes.html

So which style should you choose? I thought that was an awfully good question, that deserved a somewhat in depth answer. Inquiring minds want to know! <G> So I created a page on our web site which explores that question and helps those wondering, with some basic information on the two styles, which explores why and how they might be used. Here's the web page for that. . . .

Should I Choose Tabbed or Tab-less Winker Shells?

There's a least a couple of photos on that page that figure builders might find interesting, so you might hop on over there for a few minutes just for that, even if you have no interest in tabbed or tab-less winker shells at the moment.

It's All in the Controls. . . .

I've been working with wood since I was 12 or 13. My dad bought a 'Shopsmith' multi-purpose woodworking tool way back then, which I still have and use to this day. Of course it has been completely rebuilt with new variable speed motor and all. So, making high quality control sticks out of wood was surely not too big a stretch, and I always enjoy working with wood. Here's some examples of some wood control sticks I fabricated on the old Shopsmith.........

May not look like much, until you realize they are hollow from top to bottom, so that any controls that you would like interior mounted, they have a place to go. Actually that's the hardest part of the process. I mean, making precision slots for the controls has its own challenges, but the hollowing out of the control stick can be a trick. Here's a photo that will give you more of an idea of what I'm talking about. . . .

The trick is first of all getting the hole fairly well centered, not only at either end, but on into the middle of the control stick as well. I will show the technique and jig for that in an upcoming instructional DVD I will be doing (as well as the slot milling process).

But that's not to minimize the work involved in milling the slots for the control levers. There's a lot of precision involved there as well. Whether doing all rod control like I did on this figure here. . . .

. . . .or a combination of rod control and cord control mechanics, its still nice to do quality workmanship on the wood slots, lever pivot holes and such. . . .

 Needless to say, fabricating high quality wood control sticks takes a lot of time, effort, and skill to make. And you fight with the wood a lot of times trying to convince it to behave while you are milling, drilling, etc., without splitting, splintering or other fun things that can happen along those lines.

What a lot of people don't know is that I've also been making composite control sticks for some time. A long while back, I knew that I could make some high quality composite control sticks, it would just take some mad 'model making' and 'mold making' skills to accomplish it.  Here's a picture of one of those. . . .

I like them in the ebony color, but they don't show up so well in photos, so I have a neutral one next to it so you can better see what is there. These are very high quality and very strong. They won't shrink and swell like wood can (although they have a wood grain pattern molded in). They won't splinter or crack. And the best part? All the slots, pivot holes for the levers and the pocket holes at top are all automatically cast in place! Way cool, as they say!! Here's some pictures of a composite control stick on one of my figures. . . .

The interior mounted direct linkage jaw mechanism works effortlessly. The interior mounted eye control rod works pretty slick as well. The control stick has some internal flanges made for perfect placement of the eye control rod, and causes the brass lever to be centered up/down wise, so it does not rub anywhere on the milled slot.

Sorry for such a long post. I originally was only going to do something on the composite control sticks, but thought a little background with the wood control sticks might be of interest as well.

My Creative Customers......

Ventriloquist and comedian John Wayne Peel sent me a great picture of the figure that he finished with our cast dummy parts. He customized one of our Fred heads to resemble his late comedy partner Vic. A very nicely done tribute I would say........

John is apparently quite creative and did a great job on this figure! Nicely done John! Here's some kind comments that John sent along with the picture.......

"Mike..... It's been a long time since I finished my figure with your kit, but here is a picture of me and Vic completed. Feel free to use it as an example of what can be done with imagination and hard work using one of your fantastic kits. Mary Ann Taylor made the arms from my drawings and specifications. I painted the tattoos myself and did the artwork on the shirt as well. I am very proud of my new figure."

John Wayne Peel

Another Blinker Experiment. . .

As in a previous post on Blinkers experimentation, this little experiment from the archives was quite interesting to me personally, because of the challenge. Sometimes I like to do these little experiments to see first of all if the idea will work, and second to see if it has any practical value. Also, I am a big Paul Winchell - Jerry Mahoney fan, and I have always been fascinated by Jerry's metal shell blinkers (blink in tandem, but do not wink separately), and have often speculated on how they might have worked. Jerry Mahoney's head is very tight and narrow around the temple areas, especially inside the basswood head, leaving little or no room for winker pivot support. In other words, there is no room on the right side of the right eyeball, and no room on the left side of the left eyeball for winker pivot support frames. I've had the theory that maybe that's why Winchell did the tandem blinkers on Jerry, as there wasn't much if any room for individual winkers. Well, in any case here is what I came up with. . . .

There were several challenges with this project. First and foremost were several solder joints (I use a small torch for soldering), as it would be easy to undo a previous solder joint when going on to the next one. Also, I had to figure out a way not to accidentally solder the horizontal singular pivot to the vertical pivot frames. Typically if something is close to another solder joint, you can use 'White Out' to prevent the solder from flowing into unwanted areas (I do this all the time on my regular winker frames), but that was not an option in this case. The solder joint is right where the singular pivot rod connects to the blinker shell, which......, is right next to the vertical pivot frame! Here's another shot of the unit where you can see the actuator arm better and the difference in lighting helps reveal further details. . . .

Besides the above mentioned challenges, the most critical part of this was that the blinker shells be perfectly positioned ever each eyeball! Success! At the time, I was hoping to get some kind of award or something for all this, but alas I was the only one in the shop and the only one who noticed. (grin) The other dummies in the shop didn't say a word! But the unit worked flawlessly and I was excited about it at any rate.

So was it practical? Yes, I proved I could do it, but was it useful? I did put that unit in a figure that a customer had ordered with one-control tandem blinkers. Here's a pic inside the head and a couple pics of the finished figure (customer wanted a Goth figure). . . .

It really worked sweet! I also have a figure that I'm building for a customer that is a replica of a vintage figure that like Jerry Mahoney, has very limited space for winker pivot frames, and I will be installing something based on the single pivot blinker unit above. I will most likely simplify it somewhat however. Yes, I know you can fit leather winkers easier in tight spaces, but I again want rigid shell blinkers for that project. I really like the look and the satisfaction when its all done. A bit more work and precision for sure, but that's what rigid shell winker and blinkers are all about! (grin)