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revenant-99 β Indian Rhinoceros
Published: 2011-04-18 19:26:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 9385; Favourites: 143; Downloads: 236
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Description
Sculpted in water based clay and kiln fired.Painted with acrylics.
This sculpt is about 10" from heaad to tail.
I love the almost armor plated look of these magnificent creatures and wanted to try my hand at capturing all the folds and textures of their skin.
This sculpt is a few years old now but overall I'm still happy with how it turned out.
Thanks for looking,
Terry
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Comments: 40
Incredible work! 
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Thanks a lot!
I have sold a few of my original sculpts in the past, but there are also a few originals that I just don't want to let go.
Mostly these days I tend to mould and cast up copies in the form of resin kits, like my Nile Crocodile for example.
I will take on commission work if I think I can do a good job on whatever the client has in mind......I need good high quality reference materials and a clear idea of what the finished piece should consist of. If you have an idea for a commission, I'll be happy to discuss this with you.....but please note that it's a long involved process to create works like these and the cost of any final piece has to reflect that.
Thanks again for your interest in my work,Β
Terry.
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whaaat! your sculptures are amazing! This one and the Nile crocodile one blew my mind! all of the deatils and textures are amazing!!!Β
great job! 
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Hey I think your sculptures are amazing. Β I am very inspired and want to start learning how to sculpt. Β Can you recommend a good book or dvd for a starting point? Β Also, how do you determine whether to use the super sculptey or water based clay for your sculptures? Β Thanks.
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Thanks a lot.
I don't have any specific books or DVD's to recommend, but I would say that to start with you should try to get hold of a decent book of human anatomy for artists. To sculpt any figure whether human, animal or fantasy based, you need to understand what's going on under the surface, the skeleton, the muscles, tendons etc....
What clay you use is normally determined by what you want from the finished piece as well as what size of sculpture you are planning.
Sculpey is good for small to medium sized projects and can be baked in a standard oven to produce permanent finished pieces. It is fairly expensive compared to water based clay so if I'm doing a large sculpt I prefer to use water based. However with water based clay, if I want to have a sturdy finished sculpt that I can then paint or add patina to I then have to either kiln fire the finished sculpt ( this requires the sculpt to be built in a specific way that will enable the firing to be take place safely and without faults) or mould it and cast up a copy in resin.
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Congratulations! Is Amazing. I want to learn how to paint like this. Did you use an airbrush for this job?
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Thanks a lot.
I don't use an airbrush although I know that may folks do.
I just use normal artists paint brushes and acrylic paint.
The technique I use is to paint on a base coat first and then gradually build up the textures and details with washes and dry brushing.
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wow thanks for the info, you're super talented. Congratulations!
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amazing sculpt again. So did you build it without an armature, or did you pull the armature out before firing? And the body is hollow? Looks great and seamless, cracks are always an issue with sculpts like these!
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Thanks a lot.
I built this with a single horizontal bar inserted in the rear of the rhino and extending the full length of the body. This bar was fixed to a vertical post and was then taking the weight of the sculpt off the legs which enabled me to sculpt those without any supports inside them.
I worked on the sculpt until it was at the stage where I was ready to start adding fine details and textures. I then stopped working on it and allowed it to dry out uncovered for a few days until the clay had become "cheese hard". Using a cheese wire I sliced the top of the sculpt off from just behind the head all the way back to the rump of the rhino. This gave me access to the interior of the sculpt and I could then hollow out the sculpture.
At this stage the legs were hard enough to support the weight of the now much lighter sculpt so I was able to remove the supporting rod. Using slip to help the clay stick together I then reassembled the parts of the sculpt leaving a small hole for any air/gasses to escape from the body cavity during firing.
I could now get down to adding all the textures and details to
the sculpt, which is also easier to accomplish with the now much firmer partially dried out clay. When finished the sculpt was allowed to dry out very slowly over a period of several weeks to prevent cracking and then fired in the kiln.
I have not had any serious problems with cracks during firing, mostly the cracks seem to develop on the inside of the pieces with just a few very fine cracks on the surface of the sculpts and these are easily filled with putty prior to painting.
The clay used for all of my fired pieces was just a standard grey stoneware, called smooth buff...when fired the clay becomes a very pale yellow/cream colour. I like fine detail in my sculpts so I just asked my local pottery which clay would be best for my purposes and that's the clay they suggested. Any clay with very fine grain should work though.
I hope this has helped you with your own efforts, please feel free to ask more questions if you think I can help at all.
Cheers,
Terry
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Thanks for the explanation! It would be cool to show in-progress pics... I think the average viewer would not assume it is such a different process when using ceramic clay...
I have had success building mine hollow as I go along...fine cracks usually develop in the greenware stage which I putty-fill with slip. I will grab some of that grey stoneware, it looks really nice. My favorite so far has been "L&R cone 6 deep red stoneware"... it's also very smooth and cooporative.
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No problem I was glad to help, good luck with your next piece!
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Brilliant!! How did you do the texturing of the skin? How long did it take you?
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Thanks.
The textures were all by hand using various sculpting tools and brushes.....I don't use texture stamps.
This sculpt probably took around 40 to 50 hours of work to complete.
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I 've looked at some of your other pieces and like WOW! this is so amazing, all the little details and texture. Amazing.
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Thank a lot...glad you like my work!
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Thanks, I'm glad you like him
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