Walking Fish
The walking fish grew out of a sketch I worked on during a fairly dry reading a few months back. Unfortunately, I washed the paper with the jeans it was in, but I held onto the idea.
The first stage was an armature built out of fairly thick-gauge wire coated in a mix of old-formula brown stuff mixed with green stuff. The head area (to the right :) is a large open loop, and the tail is just one end of a piece of wire, the very end of which is visible. . . .
Not much to discuss as far as technique goes here. I just built the armature, tacked down the feet, covered the body, and smoothed as much as possible. The upper legs are different lengths, but I hope to disguise that.
Next I added on a few head scales, an eye, and a lower jaw. I want a fairly armored look, and I'm still leery of sculpting scales. I've heard horror stories.
I want it to look something like a piranha, so I tried to make the lower jaw jut a bit.
After that, I added on a few more scales and an upper jaw with the same mix. Later, I got my hands on some new-formula brown stuff, which has a much darker appearance, maybe because there's no longer any aluminum powder in to make it shiny -- that's the material for the tail, in any case.
I finally got brave enough to try scales. Everybody was right -- even the sort of lumpy scales above took quite a while to finish (most of the Johnny Cash True Hollywood Story, as I recall).
I tried to match the two sides -- they've got the same number of scales in vaguely the same positions -- but no dice. I'm consoled by the fact that people viewing the mini in person won't see both sides at once.
Next up, work on the legs. I was worried about the fact that I'd misjudged the length of the leg armatures, but I think the camouflage worked reasonably well. The feet are vaguely chickenish, so I'm going to add more substantial claws and bird-style lower legs. I think I'll add scales to the upper legs, as well.
At some point, the armature got bent into a forward-leaning position. I kind of like it -- gives him a sense of urgency.
Just added in the chickenish upper legs -- forgot how complete the previous scan was, to be quite honest. :) I like how they've turned out. They're slightly irregular, but look reasonably round and proportional to one another.
The next update consists of me finally buckling down and deciding what to do about the face and the tail.
I added in some striations along the tail, then added a scale at the front of the fish. I also added on some muscles to make the legs look a bit more active (and disgusting). I think more muscles will follow, with sort of a scalloped design at the tail. The facial plate looks a little flat, but so it goes.