SBS: Sculpting Al-Bazar, The Arab Merchant

The Arab Merchant

by  Daniele "Found" Trovato

"Good morning " :-)

"As-salam alaykom" in Arabic :-) :-)

This article is about the sculpting process of my last commission: Al-Bazar from Aradia Miniatures.

The concept is by Stefano Moroni, a talented artist that has already drawn most Character by Aradia Miniatures.

"Day" version by Mirko Cavalloni

The concept

As you can see, the concept is absolutely original.

Stefano can express his imagination and creativity with a bit of humour with his exaggerated proportions and quick sketching signs.

Aradia suggested Stefano to draw the Character deliberately rough.

This choice was made just to give to the sculptor more opportunity and possibility to put his own interpretation and customization into the sculpture.

And obviously I said thank for that :-)

When character is drawn from 3/4 angle, I suggest you to horizontal flip the images, just to have a global view of the character (be careful to not symmetrical features)

Every Sculpture Has Its Own Way

This sculpture has a special feature: Aradia wants to create a special choices for final customers, indeed this sculpture has 2 choices for feet (normal feet vs arabic trousers), two choices for the backpack (locker vs jar), and two choice for the headgear.

This looks Amazing: every painter could personalize his model by his own desire.

This changed my total approach for sculpting this model.

Here I use copper aluminium, real flexible metal.

Normally I use the same feet as a support for the armature.
 In this case I create a total different skeleton, in order to preserve the stability of the armature.

So I create a fake leg, in order to make the armature more firm.

I will cut that leg, after baking and polishing process. It needs me only while I sculpting.

I create the armature with 0.8mm iron wire.

For the base I use a little piece of Balsa Wood, stabilized with brass upholsterer buttons.

You can see my simple process to create the armature.

I put the wire throuth the balsa wood, then in a piece of cork

Than I create the fake leg, to give it more stability.

fixed all on cork base

First layer of Magic sculpt, only on head

Usually I cover first layer with some Green Stuff. It's perfect for that purpose:  sticky, elastic, and sufficiently firm (my top master Jacques Alexandre Gillois (JAG) do the same, but also Allan Carrasco and many other sculptors)

First masses.

The putty I'm using is Beesputty (50%) + FIMO Professional (50%) (Valentin Zak's Mix :-) )

Often I add some Mix-Quick Staedtler to make it more sticky.

This depends a lot by the external temperature: the more cold is your room.

The more firm will be your clay, so less sticky. (I live in Sicily, so cold actually doesn't exist :-) )

Alternatively, you can add a little drops of Baby Oil, this works very well with Super Sculpey but not very well with FIMO.
Use cautiously.

As you can see, in this stage I work very rough

I prefer to put some masses on, then cut it with a good blade the excess clay

Started to work on face. This face wasn't simple to make it in 3D

I add little cape made with Magic Sculpt.

 I decided to use MagicSculpt there because I'll use it as a support to put some things on

As you can see, the arms made with aluminium copper, real simple to cut (for mold purposes)

I fixed the left arm on the base, to have more stability.
I sculpt the ears by put a little wire inside the head and sculpting them with a little piece of clay.

Firstly I sculpted a Pipe as character suggests me. But It doesn't convince me, so I decided to creare my own Arabic Pipe.


I found some references on Google:

I created some stuff separately in Magic Sculpt.

I assembled all pieces (with a little hole on center of every one's and a little wire, did with Dremel 0.1 mm point).

I put the arabian pipe on left hand with a little drop of ciano-glue

To create micro texture on the nose I often use...

...transparent paper on surface.

This allows me to create texture without any scratch on surface using a sharp tool.

I covered the cloak made in Magic Sculpt with some Fresh Clay
(using a some drops of Fimo Liquid, to help me more sticky)

To create alternative hat, I covered the sculpture with transparent sheet, then put a piece of fresh Magic Sculpt in order to keep the shape of the head

Base of hat, some attempts

Little cabinet-pack first alternative. Full of some stuffs

He starts to have a sense :-)

Created the tube of the Arab Pipe with a sausage of Magic Sculpt

I carver first hat with a piece of Magic turned out with my Dremel and 

I added some FIMO on it, then modelled it

For the turban I did the same way

Created some clay sausages then put on Magic sculpt turban (using FIMO liquid to attach it)

Then I modelled it

As you can see, Magic Sculpt is always visible

It seems fit very good :-)

Al-Bazar, The Arab Merchant

60mm

FIMO+Beesputty

Magic Sculpt

Concept by Stefano Moroni

Boxart by Mirko Cavalloni

Sculpted by Daniele "Found" Trovato

Released by Aradia Miniatures

"Day" version by Mirko Cavalloni

"Night" version by Mirko Cavalloni

This miniature is available on Aradia Miniatures

Link and resources:
-Aradia Miniatures
-Found Miniatures
-My Fb Page

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