Canine Tracker gets his nose sculpted

Today turned out to be a dog nose day. I spent a couple of hours proportioning and detailing the canine’s nose.

The teeth will be introduced after the interior of the mouth is completed. I inserted eyes, but they still need work.

I will add more hair towards the upper section of the nose.

From this image I noticed, I need to build the snout area to give it a fluffier look. The ears need direction.

Poodle head armature clay-up begins

The first application of the hard NSP Chavant Clay. To get started I inserted two bricks of clay into the small crock-pot. The crock-pots are very inexpensive at your local Walmart or Target. The clay was brought to its melting point slowly in order not to destroy the clay's properties. It took about 3-4 hours to get the clay into a melted chocolate like texture. The temp dial on the crock-pot was left on “low” the entire time.

My beloved crock-pot... how my wife misses her kitchen tools... LOL

Here I used a paint brush to apply the clay. A small spatula was also utilized.

The goal was to first apply a complete coat of clay on the entire surface before I began to build up the features.

The face coat is just about complete. It is basically the same size and shape as the Styrofoam armature.

Profile of the poodle head.

Here I added plastic temporary eyes and a temporary nose. I also opened the mouth in order to match my reference image.

Here is Tracker (poodle) after the first clay application. Many more layers are to come within the next few days

I slanted the head to get an idea of what areas I need to focus on in the next few days. I will have family members critique the sculpt at this stage. My middle son is ruthless with his critiques. He takes no prisoners, he reminds me of a Simon Cow with his criticism. But that is what I need complete honesty, the goal is to capture the poodle’s likeness.

Preparing poodle head for tilt table and clay application

Today I removed the head from the foam sculpt. The head was removed in order to mount it on a sculptor's tilt table. The tilt table gives me greater leverage. Tomorrow I will begin the clay-up process.

Rear view of the poodle's head as it sits on the tilt table.

Front image of the dog's head.

Here is a bird's eye view. Notice I removed a section of the nose. I will sculpt the nose and attach later.

Note how nicely the table tilts.

Here is the headless poodle. The head was removed using a hot-wire tool.


Another view of the tilt table at work.