Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Good Old Dragon Maquette



Plasticine maquette for book cover project

I built this plasticine maquette in order to understand how light would fall on a dragon.  I started with a thick armature, wrapped tin foil around it, wrapped smaller wires around the tin foil so the plasticine wouldn't slip and then started adding the plasticine.  The wings are wires, hot glue and fabric (and my hands).  As I was working I realized that it became too heavy for my Styrofoam pyramid to sustain.  I went into the basement and pulled out a pasta drying rack and disassembled the horizontal rods in order to use the main pole as a base.

When I lit it I got some lovely lights and shadows that I never could have made up.  It didn't take too long (about 2 and 1/2 movies) and saved me loads of time in the long run.  I'll be posting the final illustration upon it's book release date which is in about a week or so.

Everything maquette I learned from James Gurney's blog and Joe Devito's Illuxcon lecture.  Masters I tell you!

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