Sculpting Comic Book and Game Characters: PREPARATION

GATHERING REFERENCE MATERIAL

The very first thing you will need before you can begin any sculpture is a clear idea of what you would like to sculpt. Without a clear idea of what you would like to end up with it won’t be clear to you where to begin. A good idea is to gather information, pictures, videos, drawing etc. that has to do with the subject matter you are interested in creating.

"Cable" reference art

As an example let’s assume you would like to create a figure of a comic book character:

• What does he/she look like?
• What kind of weapons does he/she use?
• From what country are they?
• Etc….

"Cable" Marvel Character interpretation

In this case doing a bit of research and gathering as much information as possible will really add credibility and insight into how you want your figure to look and act (in the case of a fixed pose statue). If you just try to make it up in your head then more often then not it will lead to unsatisfactory results and frustration. 

Of course if you are making a figure of something you invent that doesn’t exist that is fine also but it is a good idea to still do research that can relate to your subject as it will cement your concepts according to real world experiences and realities allowing your audience to relate to them better making it more believable.

Other resources that can be very helpful are anatomy books or fitness magazines that have pictures showing how the muscles flex and move. You can also find really good anatomical models out on the market that show you how the muscles are laid out and intertwined in a three dimensional fashion as opposed to looking at 2D pictures that tend to flatten out the forms.