Campe

I have started thinking about my next sculpture. Her name is Campe (or Kampê). I would give an explanation about why I chose her however I don't feel that it is necessary after I give the description of what she is. Campe is a dragon that has the head and torso of a woman, and the tail of a scorpion! Need I say more? This is pure awesomeness I cannot wait to get started.

When I was reading up on her, in my excitement I exclaimed "Oh this is awesome, who invented this stuff?" As I gazed upon my mother's concerned face I could see that she was wondering where I inherited my lack of common sense from as she pointed out that it was in fact the Greeks.

The thought process



So far I have decided on her basic position. I will sculpt her looking over her shoulder with her back and wings towards you as her body kind of wraps around her in a snake-like manner and her tail will be raised up above her.

I have finally decided on the position of her hands. One will be holding her hair over her shoulder and the other will be down by her hips holding her scales as if she is holding the rim of her pants.

I want to make her hair a long plait that ends in a scorpion sting shape.

I will have the scales from her dragon element covering her up a bit so she isn't completely nude. They will be kind of like an armour bikini of scales.

I am also considering her colouring. I had the idea of going out of the ordinary and maybe making her dragon and scorpion elements a pearly white however I am still considering blacks, purples, and maybe even a hint of yellow somewhere. I saw this really interesting reference picture of a real scorpion that is black with a yellowish amber sting. This looked really cool, I'm seriously considering this for the painting.

Research


I have done my research. Now I just have to play around with the skeletal systems of each and see how to connect them. I will be looking at the anatomy of a snake rather than a dragon because I want her dragon body to be more of a snake-like dragon with wings.

Connecting the human to the snake will be easy enough. The part I will have to really think about is the scorpion snake connection. I will have to consider the length of the snake body compared to the scorpion tail. I also have to consider the roundness of the snake and how it connects to the slightly flatter scorpion tail. I also have to consider at which point it becomes thinner in order to connect to the tail.

Something about me and my method of sculpting is I never draw my character first. Most people will say that drawing first is a rule and that it is a necessity however my brain just doesn't work that way. I struggle to draw a 3D image from my mind onto paper and get it to look anything like I want it to which just frustrates me. Instead I just begin sculpting what I see in my mind and it works for me.

Sculpting


Yay, really excited that I got to start sculpting today! First step as usual is building the wire armature. I was very careful this time and obtained only a few minor scratches and completely avoided my eyes this time. I started with her head and worked my way down twisting the wires. I added small blobs of clay on the ends of the wires to protect my eyes in case I got too close.

I was not 100% sure on how the curve of her dragon body would look so I decided to add some clay over this part so that I can view the thickness of the body in relation to how tightly it curls and curves. I usually leave the wire a bit longer than needed for moments like this. I rearranged the body and just chopped off the excess wire.

Once I was satisfied with her shape I began on her anatomy. I started with the pelvis and the ribcage and then did the rest of the bones. I then began placing the muscles. The first muscles I did where the ones over her pelvis in order to connect her to her dragon body and give her some stability. It was rather amusing seeing a dragon/scorpion body with tight human butt cheeks. I giggled immaturely. I then began adding the abdominal muscles and the back muscles.

Tomorrow I plan to finish off the anatomy of her human parts.

So today I worked on the human anatomy. This went really well. I decided that with Campe I could get away with giving her decent cleavage. I can get away with this looking realistic due to the fact that I am going to sculpt her having the armour of scales which will essentially push them together resulting in cleavage. I couldn't  do this with my Medusa sculpture however because she was naked and has snakes sliding over her breasts pushing them down.

After completing her body I moved onto sculpting her face. This was very interesting as faces tend to be. I built her skull and started placing the muscles over it. I got to the mouth and as soon as I added her lips she looked like some disfigured zombie creature. In order to fix this I went straight back to her cheeks and brow! This may seem odd but as soon as I fleshed out her cheeks a bit and added a more prominent brow, she looked human and pretty. Now she just appeared very surprised. To fix her surprised expression I still didn't touch the lips and instead worked on the angle of her brow and the muscles around her eyes. This helped a lot and made her look much calmer. I still have some minor work left around the eyes and then I will get to the lips to perfect the expression I'm after.

Next I will perfect her face, add her hair and perfect her arms.

Okay so due to the recent Medusa disaster I have decided to alter my armature for Campe. In her wings and back I will secure some square tubing so that they are detachable and fit securely back into position. This will assist in the moulding process and prevent further disasters.

Since I have to improve the armature for Campe and I don't have the equipment yet I will be switching over to Hylonome for now.

(more coming soon, busy sculpting Hylonome)