Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Once upon a time I was very interested in the comic creation process. I bought books by Scott McCloud, Burne Hogarth and Gary Martin, and armed myself with a lot of basic drawing and drafting equipment. The ambition mostly petered out thanks to a lack of skill and any real purpose; but since I turned up here, browsing the step-by-step board and watching the Sensei in video demonstrations (and other Rabbit Bodyguards here!) I decided to have another try.



Deliberately aping Stan's style, obviously! As much as I'm able, that is.
I'm a little disappointed that I won't have the opportunity to even try a Koh-i-Noor artpen or old-formula FW ink with this kind of thing - I love trying different materials - but you don't miss what you never had, and I blew the dust off some brush pens, dip nibs, and an old bristol pad. I also picked up a bottle of Dr. Martin's Bombay black ink on an impulse, and I'm glad I did. All of a sudden, lines started going where I wanted and stayed there. It flows better, bleeds less, and dries quicker than the FW acrylic and especially the W&N drawing ink I bought before. Although it's not foolproof - I had to dig out that old bottle of white ink too.

Anyhoo, after all the Master studies and taming of dip pens to get here, this isn't the finished product but the jumping-off point for another little project I've planned. Should be able to get started, now.

Looks great to me, so obviously " lack of skill" means totally different things to you and me....

Yes, quite

(if you haven't guessed, Steve and I think that's pretty good!)

Mayhem wrote:Yes, quite

(if you haven't guessed, Steve and I think that's pretty good!)

Me too.

Steve Hubbell wrote:Looks great to me, so obviously " lack of skill" means totally different things to you and me....

Well, it was some time ago. Though I'm still practising and learning, and it helps to have great reference material. Thanks guys!

I've just been browsing through the comicartfans.com galleries, looking for something for Randy's coloring challenge, and stumbled across another useful reference - these character lineups from 2003. They might throw a spanner in the works, though! For this piece I've concentrated on issues from more recent years, where Usagi seemed closer to six heads tall rather than five. On further inspection, I might have got that wrong...

I think they are great too! Peace, maka

Thanks Maka.

I redrew the first part, with proportions at five and a half heads tall. Comparing the two versions in image software, the difference is negligible.



So, ready to start... One of my hobbies is figure sculpting and modelling, which comes from interests in art and gaming miniatures. (small, small sculptures) Lately I've wondered if I could sculpt some of the UY characters, and how well. This turnaround is a guide for my first attempt.

Cheating a bit: since this is a piece of fanart I've bumped the scale up from 28mm gaming scale (1/48-1/56) to 54mm (1/32) - more of a 'display' scale. The tweaked art was photocopied at 50%, reducing it to the right size as a guide for the wire armature. Making and posing a pair of armatures for Usagi's ears was a learning curve!



I cracked up a brand new packet of Milliput epoxy putty and covered most of the armature. This stuff gives you a couple of hours of modelling time, and then cures rock-hard. A good base to work on. Now the hard part begins...

Looking very interesting, and I have to say that I am looking forward to your next post.
Am I correct in saying that 54mm (1/32) will be approximately 2 1/4 inches tall?

Warren wrote:Thanks Maka.

I redrew the first part, with proportions at five and a half heads tall. Comparing the two versions in image software, the difference is negligible.

I love the expression on Usagi's face in the first drawing above!

That's awesome! There are so many talented fan here. Awesome! Peace, maka

Thanks again!

Steve Hubbell wrote:Looking very interesting, and I have to say that I am looking forward to your next post.

I edited the topic title, to avoid any... false advertising. It might be a while before that next post is up.

Am I correct in saying that 54mm (1/32) will be approximately 2 1/4 inches tall?

About that, yes. Although I'm using the convention of measuring to the eye, which is about 58mm to the crown, but still 2 1/4". And trying to come up with a concise explanation of how and why is making me go cross-eyed. Best I can come up with: scale in all kinds of miniature figures is a hot mess.

I love the expression on Usagi's face in the first drawing above!

The way I was feeling at the time - "What, you didn't get it right the first time?"

Steve Hubbell wrote:I love the expression on Usagi's face in the first drawing above!

Reminded me of this cover. Very cool.

Too cool. Looking forward to watching this progress.

Pretty cool, and nice to find another mini sculptor in the dojo (I started my own line at www.facebook.com/spacebunnyarts earlier this year). I've also started a scifi miniatures group page. If you'd like to share your work there, it's a great way to connect with other sculptors and painters. I'm looking forward to seeing how your sculpt progresses.

Wow! It looks great! Can't wait to see how it will be.
When I see posts like this, I become aware of how talentless I am.

Thanks again, all!

Gaffey: that's a coincidence, because that's the cover I used as reference.

Thanks PJaensch. Another reason to finally get on facebook!

Eltanin: in my experience talent is a little bit of interest, motivation, or obsession, backed up by observation, practise, and a lot of trial and error. Not always easy, but far from unattainable. I'd recommend anyone to give something a try.

In my case, it sometimes feels like more error than trial. Case in point: after a long wait I don't have a lot to show off. When I tried explaining scale I thought "Well, why am I measuring to the eye?" I wasn't happy with the slightly botched job on the ears, too, so I whipped up a new armature at 'proper' 54mm, to the head.

Next, I thought I'd finish this off with milliput, but if I'm trying to translate Stan's 2D style into 3D (and scared of messing it up), maybe I'd need something where I can scrape back the inevitable mistakes more easily. Out comes the oven-bake polymer clay. I don't have much experience with it compared to epoxy putty, but here I'm using Uro Hot Set - a polymer clay produced here in Britain. It's quite firm (something that's useful when sculpting tiny details at these scales, IMO) but it's also a bit more elastic than other polymer clays like sculpey or fimo. A wee bit more like the consistency of epoxy putty.

That said, the ability to cut away came in handy right away, when I decided I'd need more of a solid base to sculpt over. Especially with those wide hakama wobbling every time I tried to blend in more clay! What I have here are some rough shapes and proportions, with some space to add more layers after this stage is baked. It's not very interesting to look at; but hopefully to make up for that, I couldn't help getting ahead of myself and doodling Usagi's face on it:



Or, considering the date yesterday, breaking out another classic cover reference: