The Sandman's Helm (Pt.5)

Well, it took a long time fixing the mistakes and un-evenness, but I got to place where I felt safe to press on, and learned a valuable lesson. I was also getting used to working in the clay, and found that busting out shapes, removing and adding chunks quickly, worked a lot better than putting something on an area and then agonising over it.

Also, after talking to a few of my arty friends, and getting some feedback, I decided that in my initial shape was too face heavy, and looking at the art in the graphics novels, the face is generally small, while the back of the head sweeps to a more bulbous shape. A strong 'Silhouette' is one of the cornerstones of art in making something instantly recognisable, if you don't know much about it, I'd advise reading up, it might change your direction, like it did mine.

I reformed it with that in mind, check it out...

Now that that was over with, and I was pretty sure I had the right 'base shape', I started working on the detail. Basing the concept on the 'old god' theme, I knew I wanted something supernatural and evil looking, so I thought perhaps some kind of reptilian scale or bone would look suitably creepy. The eyebrows seemed like a good place to start...

Once I was done with that, I moved onto continuing up the forehead ridge.

At this point, it's still important to note that I was feeling more confident about experimenting, cutting bits out and having a look at it was feeling less and less worrisome for me, and undo-ing problem or aesthetically displeasing parts was getting easier. After roughing out the basic shape, I decided I'd continue the 'spine' feel along the sides of the head, so I started gouging out bits near the temple to see how it would turn out.

Work work. As I left this, I was really looking forward to coming back for more.