Shapely arms

Bigger horns and more defined arms.
P.S please ignore the left ear sliding off. Must address this tomorrow.

Bull Nostrels

Disaster struck again this week as the belly collapsed like the bum did last week. Another fixing sesh with ally, chicken wire and poly and more butterflies.  The stomach feels sturdy now. After this I decided to take a break from the body and work on the head. Using anatomy books to help. 'Animal Anatomy for the Artist' has brilliant drawings. The head always looks like it has something missing from the profile shot, I think he needed more on top of his head and he still needs bigger horns. Want to copy the bull's horns in Drake/Rihanna's Take Care video. Will need to extend the armature here. I will just attach another length of ally with a jubilee clip. Pleased with the nostrils.

progress

 The clay on the back side fell off last friday morning, two days work on the floor. The clay was too heavy and wet and it didn't have enough to grip onto. To recover this I added a bulk of polystyrene wrapped in chicken wire to the back and tightened the chicken wire already there around the thighs.  Then I attached lots of butterflies around the whole area to support the clay.

Ive been working on the stomach today and the front legs which needed an additional piece of ally and polystyrene and chicken wire (as seen above). Trying also to make the frog legs look strong enough to support the bull. Cant seem to bulk them up enough.

Given him a flat frog bum and some more bumpy bull areas on the bod. And even got carried away enough to mark out the beginnings of a saddle. Looking forward to refining him.

sculpting bull frog

 This weeks sculpt so far. Needed extra support armature wise in areas that were going to be bulky.  I made lots of 'butterflies' (wooden crosses) attached to the main armature with 1.25mm wire twisted. I put these on the shoulders and on his cheeks. Wanted to get the head making sense first. Moving onto the back end now as he is very top heavy and leaning forward then need to figure out the shapes within the body. 5 bags of clay gone.

Bull Frog Armature for Sculpting

1. Cut BOX STEEL lengths to make the core structure.  To make the shape, I cut some pieces at a 45 degree angle.  I tacked them first and then welded them together.  Next I welded the structure to the back iron at the angle my BULLFROG will be 'jumping' at. This will be completely rigid and take the weight of the clay.
2. Onto this I welded 10mm steel legs and 6mm steel curves and a sort of silhouette.  The 6mm is flexible enough to adjust slightly later with a hammer.
3. Stuffed the armature with polystyrene blocks and wrapped it in chicken wire. Stitched this up tightly with wire and stuffed more poly in any holes.
4. For the front legs, tail and head I have added aluminium wire onto the armature attached with jubilee clips.  These areas will be very flexible so I can develop them later, they don't need to be rigid because they won't have much weight to take in clay.
5. Now Im beginning to cover it in clay which is a steady process as it is so big. Someone thought it was a lion today so NOT going GREAT yet apparently.