The Far Side Plaque/ flat humour sculpt

[Jamie Stokes]

Hi All,
more putty practice and play.

Inspired by Gary Larson's single panel comic "The Far Side" here is my effort to copy one of my more favourite pieces(as a study & practice piece)

The caption is "I told you guys to slow down and take it easy or something like this would happen"

The situation is some soldiers in a castle are under siege. They are manning a catapult; Oops, too quick, you can see one guy has been launched by the catapult, and the Man at Arms is telling them off.

Legal stuff; all rights of the original artist reserved, only for study and practice by me. No commercial reproduction of this piece intended.

Working notes; learning to smooth putty trying water, isoproponal alcohol (rubbing alcohol), soft brushes and smooth putty tools.

I know the edges aren't square yet, haven't baked it yet, so if you have some corrections or suggestions, I still have a chance before baking and painting.

thanks for looking

cheers

 

[unknown01]

Hello, Jamie.
That's interesting!
It's a flat figure, isn't it?
Is it painted?

Mitsutaka

 

[Jamie Stokes]

Hi Mitsutaka-san,
no, not painted yet. Yes, its a flat figure.

Will be painted later

Cheers

 

[tonydawe]

Hi Jamie,

Very wierd but also very funny.

I'd make the catapult a bit longer, as in the cartoon.

 

[Gellso]

cool

I love Gary Larson, this flat is a great idea. I agree you should elongate the catapult, the rest is pretty awesome.

 

[falela]

kewl! made me chucke

 

[DEL]

What a great idea
I'm tempted to get out my Far Side books and might have a go at a 3D version of something as a gift for my oldest boy who's a real fan of LarsOn.
Thanks for the spark
Derek

 

[Ray]

Jamie,
That's a pretty neat flat, and interesting exercise in sculpting. Were it mine I think I'd leave the shape as is and not square it up, the shape adds to the composition.

I have to agree with the others that the catapult arm needs lengthenning however, I wonder what that will do to the composition with the guy in flight being on a lower plan in your sculpt than in the original drawing.

Ray

 

[Jamie Stokes]

Thanks for the feedback Guys.

Yep, lengthened the catapult arm, and trimmed back the edges. Baked it this morning, as I wanted to have the option of bringing it along as a visual aid for a speaking club topic I'm doing tonight.

I will sand it to smooth out some surfaces, then apply some primer coat. trying to find this kind of image through Google generates way too many results

Tony, good observation on the catapult arm, and Gellso for the second opinion.

Ray, yep, changing the catapult arm and the position of our unfortunate airborne trooper does change the ballistics of it, I think I can fudge it though. I've shortened it slightly, so as there is less 'dead space' to try and fill in the top edges.

Derek, Falela, thanks for looking, if you convert these from drawings to putty, hope you post too!

Keeping in mind this is as much a study piece as a fun piece!

Cheers

 

[Jamie Stokes]

Smoothing of the worst divots, and adding the first few layers of colour.

Primed the piece with Vallejo grey primer via airbrush, inspected it, and found a lot of tool marks from sculpting.
Also found that rolling a piece of putty to an even thickness is not so easy, may have a way around that now though.

So added Vallejo putty (great for filling small dings, seams and other assorted flaws of a similar nature) let it set, and sanded it back.

Re-primed it, found some more dings, decided 'bugger it', and pressed on. It is a practice piece mostly, not a competition entry, so less stress and more practice!

Decided to airbrush the sky, for a smoother graduated effect. Undercoated in white to give some 'lift' to the background, then while still wet, added layers of light blue, slowly adding darker layers to the top part of the 'sky' part.
ie, added more oxford blue to the very light eggshell blue I used.

Let that dry, then deployed the brushes, using some GW foundation paints (great covering power) as base layers.

Not completely happy with the white undercoat, used Andrea white & GW skull white, a few more coats should fix that.

I want to add a few more visual details to the piece; Red crosses to the uniforms, metallic to the helmets, some patterns imply texture to the walkway, stone walls, arrows, catapult.

Retouch the skin tones too.
Plus a general tidy up over all

Comments & critiques welcome

Cheers

 

[Joe Hudson]

Jamie,

That is really cool.

Joe

 

[unknown01]

Hello, Jamie.
Your work is very nice.
I think it's very humorous.
I'm for the first time for seeing such work.
Very wonderful.

Mitsutaka

 

[pmfs]

Hello Janus,


Gourgeous
The painting as also very well done.

Regards from Portugal
Pedro

 

[Jamie Stokes]

Joe, Mitsutaka, & Pedro,
thank you for your comments.

Last night, went back and painted some details onto the piece, to 'imply' details that aren't actually there.

plus it helps break up some of the flatness of the base colours.

Painted fine lines where the boards go, added some planking effects to the catapult. Hints of shading to the figures, didn't push it too far though. It is a cartoon piece after all, so I can 'cheat' a little bit.

Some of the paint work was also on the stonework for the wall, and that I did seem to get mostly right. Does help add to the three dimensional effect, which it partly is, and mostly isn't.

Leagues away from the likes of Roger Newsome's (aka BillyTurnip) flat work, but how he does his helped inform me how to do mine. Thumbs up, Roger!

Still, after that shameless piece of self flattery, it has its flaws.

Posted three pics of what I regard as "Finished", now I am going to give it a coat of matte varnish, mount to a wooden plaque with an engraved title underneath, as in photo 3. Two different backgrounds to allow for comparison.

Critiques and comments, as always, welcome!

Cheers

 

[Ray]

Jamie,
There's more life in this with the paint, and more depth as well. Nicely done.
Noting the depressions around the guy in fight I'd suggest a different approach on your next one; Roll out the background as flat as possible, bake, and if necessary follow up with a light sanding before beginning the layered on sculpted pieces. Just a thought, hope you don't take it amiss.



Ray

 

[Jamie Stokes]

Thanks Ray;
some Guys use pasta making machines to roll putty to consistent thickness.
Not for me, at this point.

To that end, I've invested about $6.00 Aus in a kids play dough roller (basically a small rolling pin). To keep an even thickness, I'll just prop the rolling pin up on some plastic shims at either end.( pic later to illustrate)

Baking then sanding, yep, good thinking. The wavy effect does, unfortunately, translate up into the catapult arm and around the airborne soldier (Early Dark Ages experiment in para trooping fails). So having a solid base is very sensible, and a sandpapering will allow some 'tooth' for wet putty on dry.

Better approach then what I had thought up!

As for painting it, thanks for the comment. Hopefully others can see how easy it is to add dimensions to a flat figure.

Cheers

 

[gothicgeek]

he he he....

well done on this piece was interesting watching the development....

Mark

 

[billyturnip]

Very good Jamie.

I take it as you've invested $$$$ on a roller we'll be seeing some more of these? Looking forward to seeing more

Roger

 

[busso_boy]

love ya work Jamie.........Kim is impressed too

 

[tonydawe]

Excellent work Jamie. A very unqiue and individual piece of sculpting and painting.