Our next puppet project was to make a new model with plasticine. I decided to create a character based on one of my favourite drag artists, creating a punk look which would give them lots of personality. I had a bit of a rocky start with this one as I tried to understand the best method of sculpting. I intuitively created a base and then added details on top of this, but I now realise it is better to sculpt the details out of the clay.
I really felt I could do a lot better with this model, and as I was creating a character based on a real person I wanted to do them justice. I decided to restart the head and face to make it neater and more drag-like and was so much happier with the result. I also added details like jewellery, a braid and some elf ears (because why not?) and fixed the body so it would stand better.
Once I was happy with the design of the model I began to think about practicalities for animating. I wanted to use this puppet for a lip sync animation so I needed to create hands and various mouth shapes. When creating the mouth shapes I realised that the oversized lips I had created were difficult to mould into different shapes, so I adapted more of an Aardman style for the more extreme shapes.
For the hands and arms, I decided to make the puppet more butch to give it more substance. I really wanted to create more muscular arms but ended up being a bit pressed for time so this was my final result:
I made the hands using the same method as I did previously – wire, hot glue and then the plasticine on top. I attached them using Milliput placed so the arms would bend in the right places.
I added some more colour into the hair to make it stand out more and I am now ready for animation! Even though I spent a long time creating this model there was still more I wanted to perfect – I have had to make myself come away from this one because I might have gone on forever! I think this is because I found the plasticine quite frustrating to work with because things can get messed up so easily and don’t stay put! But overall I still really enjoyed creating Sasha.