This is my latest attempt at sculpting a flat – a Steampunk Pinup. The idea was to take some Steampunk and Victorian elements and combine them into a 1940s – 1950s style pinup. Think Jules Verne meets Gil Elvgren… I wanted enough elements to convey the Steampunk genre, but not go over the top. This is my first torso (or extended bust), so the KISS principle prevailed. Baby steps y’know… I found a web pic that had a nice pinup pose (and fully-clothed no less) and redrew it from there. The top hat and obligatory goggles were added, the hair altered, the corset redesigned with metal and leather fittings, while a small ruffled skirt, short bloomers, garters, and stockings were added to round out the (or her) bottom. I resisted the temptation to make her topless. The drawing was scaled to be 90mm tall from the bottom of the legs to the top of the hat.
This one started out a bit differently in that I used a sheet of .030 white styrene plastic instead of sculpting on glass or waxed paper. The drawing was transferred to the plastic using a pencil and the outline was cut out using scissors and a hobby knife. Owing to the thickness of the plastic, the scissors were less effective than I thought they might be; especially in tighter areas and inside curves. The hobby knife proved to be a better choice, but a bit tedious owing to the need to score a line several times before the pieces would come away. Once cut out, the plastic needed a lot of dressing around the edges to get the shapes right and smooth things out. I used small files and sanding twigs for this task. In hindsight, I should be able to use thinner plastic in the future.
The next job was to refine the drawing and make it less prone to smearing. I used a small fine line marker, then started laying down Aves Apoxie Sculpt putty. As in other projects, I started at the top, then did a portion in the middle, then a portion at the bottom. The idea is keep me from dragging fingers or tools through fresh putty. Once the putty is cured – about 3-4 hours – I can work on other sections. The soft putty was worked with a variety of carved toothpicks, metal dental/sculpting tools, and small rubber-tipped clay shapers. Cured putty was worked with a variety of small hobby knife blades, scribers, and sandpaper. This is all pretty standard stuff. The goggles were made with thin rings of plastic tubing to depict the leather pads and metal bezels. Wine bottle foil, flat strip and half-round strip styrene were used for the corset fittings. Wine bottle foil was also used for the garters. The eyes, mouth, and corset stays were scribed.
Painting started with a base coat of Floquil Model Railroad Primer, cut with a lacquer thinner, brushed on and allowed to cure for 24 hours. All of the paints are Reaper acrylics and I stuck to the traditional (it seems) Steampunk colors of warm whites, yellow to light brown tans, leather browns, and yellow metals. I know that other colors are used, but these seemed to be most common. I also altered my painting style a bit. In the past, I painted rounds and my limited selection of flats the same way, but I found that what works for rounds doesn’t necessarily work for flats. Rounds have their own three-dimensionality and ambient light can work for you when it comes to defining areas of highlight and shade. I’m finding things are different with flats, so I’m trying to treat a flat as more like a painting on canvas. I’ve been looking at Gil Elvgren’s pinups. He painted in oils on canvas that was roughly 36x24 inches (some larger, some smaller). What looks like fine lace detail or strands of hair from a distance becomes little more than strokes (or smears) of paint ranging from opaque to transparent streaks. This was not new to me, but it did serve as a reminder and an inspiration to try something different. More experimentation is necessary…
As always, questions and comments are welcomed.
Cheers,
Glen
