Hobbits - miniature and otherwise
My Visit to the LotR movies exhibition in Berlin has encouraged me to finally pick up the idea again to make some LotR miniature dolls. Or rather, the merchandising booth at the entrance did it, which sold, among other things, a wide range of figurines which I mostly found easy to resist buying.
While admiring perfection is wonderful, but also intimidating, mediocre quality always triggers that 'I can do that! And better!' button in me. Which doesn't mean that the result will be objectively better, but at least it will be more to my personal taste.
So I dug up my sculpting materials again and started on Frodo and Sam. And now, for the first time ever I begin to suspect that choosing the 1:12 size (doll's house size) wasn't the best idea I ever had. It's fine for houses and horses and elves and men, because you can still work detailed, but things don't get too big, so they don't eat up too much space in your room. Also, you have the advantage that lots of props in fitting size are available.
But on the down side - I find sculpting a hobbit head in 1:12 incredibly, eye-hurting fiddly. To give you an impression: Frodo's face from brow to chin is 10 millimeters long and 10 mm wide. One eye is 2 mm wide. I want not only to get eyes, mouth and nose roughly in the right places, but I want them to be individual traits that form a distinct personality. So you can imagine, a microscopic amount of modelling clay more or less on fine details like eyelids or lips can change the whole face visibly. I have done some children's heads before, but children's faces are softer and therefore easier to do and I wasn't as ambitious then with fine details. As it is, the difference in size betwen a 1:12 adult human and a 1:12 hobbit is the one step over the borderline from working comfortably to working cramped. I can only admire the sculptors of gaming miniatures like GamesWorkshop figures, who work in an even smaller size. I'm aware they use a different set of equipment than I do, but I am frequently amazed about the detail they achieve in their figure.
Rather than scanning the half finished doll's heads, which don't scan well, I'll give you one of the sketches I use for reference. It's Frodo smiling. The finished head will have a more serious expression, but I like this sketch to pieces, although the hair should be more curly. Unlike Glorfindel's in my other post, this smile is genuine. Odd how you sometimes achieve something easily with a ten minutes sketch and another time, two days of work won't get you there.
Talking of hobbits, where have they all disappeared? I was checking my folder of links to hobbit-themed websites, and at least half of the links were dead. Of the remaining rest, some have changed to actor fansites, which are of no interest to me.
I'm aware that the big wave after the movies has died down by now, but still I wonder, because it seems to me that in comparison, the elven side of the fandom is still more active. If someone can give me links to still active hobbit sites, with art or fanfiction, I would be ever so thankful.
While admiring perfection is wonderful, but also intimidating, mediocre quality always triggers that 'I can do that! And better!' button in me. Which doesn't mean that the result will be objectively better, but at least it will be more to my personal taste.
So I dug up my sculpting materials again and started on Frodo and Sam. And now, for the first time ever I begin to suspect that choosing the 1:12 size (doll's house size) wasn't the best idea I ever had. It's fine for houses and horses and elves and men, because you can still work detailed, but things don't get too big, so they don't eat up too much space in your room. Also, you have the advantage that lots of props in fitting size are available.
But on the down side - I find sculpting a hobbit head in 1:12 incredibly, eye-hurting fiddly. To give you an impression: Frodo's face from brow to chin is 10 millimeters long and 10 mm wide. One eye is 2 mm wide. I want not only to get eyes, mouth and nose roughly in the right places, but I want them to be individual traits that form a distinct personality. So you can imagine, a microscopic amount of modelling clay more or less on fine details like eyelids or lips can change the whole face visibly. I have done some children's heads before, but children's faces are softer and therefore easier to do and I wasn't as ambitious then with fine details. As it is, the difference in size betwen a 1:12 adult human and a 1:12 hobbit is the one step over the borderline from working comfortably to working cramped. I can only admire the sculptors of gaming miniatures like GamesWorkshop figures, who work in an even smaller size. I'm aware they use a different set of equipment than I do, but I am frequently amazed about the detail they achieve in their figure.
Rather than scanning the half finished doll's heads, which don't scan well, I'll give you one of the sketches I use for reference. It's Frodo smiling. The finished head will have a more serious expression, but I like this sketch to pieces, although the hair should be more curly. Unlike Glorfindel's in my other post, this smile is genuine. Odd how you sometimes achieve something easily with a ten minutes sketch and another time, two days of work won't get you there.
Talking of hobbits, where have they all disappeared? I was checking my folder of links to hobbit-themed websites, and at least half of the links were dead. Of the remaining rest, some have changed to actor fansites, which are of no interest to me.
I'm aware that the big wave after the movies has died down by now, but still I wonder, because it seems to me that in comparison, the elven side of the fandom is still more active. If someone can give me links to still active hobbit sites, with art or fanfiction, I would be ever so thankful.