Hoggle Statuette part 1 (2014)

Something I like to do it make statuettes from clay. The only problem is that I only have 1 finished product and I'd like to have more. Therefor I'm learning about making molds and concrete statues.
For this project I needed an idea; some sort of garden gnome. A friend of mine came up with the idea to make a Hoggle from the movie Labyrinth. I thought that was great so I started to make one out of Plasticine; a clay that doesn't harden and can be reused after casting.

End result of the clay sculpture

Before I started I searched for pictures of him. I used screencaps I made from the movie + some pictures I found only of the figurine version.

What I liked about Hoggle was that he uses a toxic sprayer to spray down biting fairies. I needed a posture where he didn't have a lot of pointing out arms/ fingers, because that is a level harder to make a mold of. Instead I made him carry the sprayer against his body as if it is a gun.

To make a clay sculpture you start of with a frame and cover it with paper/aluminum to get some volume. This you cover with clay and start sculpting. I forgot to make pictures of this process, but you can find examples on Youtube.

With the clay you make a basic shape and then you add detail. I like to start with the face, because if the head fails it has no point to finish the rest.

Details done in the face.

Side view of the face.

Some more detail in his hands, torso.

This sculpture didn't happen over night. It took a lot of hours. The benefits of Plasticine is that it doesn't harden like air drying clay will. This means that you can put it aside for the next day, month or even leave it on a shelf to finish it a few months later (Be sure it stands dust free). The clay reacts to warmth. It gets softer when it gets warmer. I had to quit the project in the summer, because my room was to warm and the clay became to soft to continue.
Also small parts seem to be a difficulty, due to body heat. Your fingers are warm, which quickly warms up the clay with small parts. Maybe it's an idea to make little details (f.e. the bags on his belt) of polymer clay. But I haven't worked with that yet, so I don't know.

Finished Hoggle front side

Finished Hoggle right side.

Finished Hoggle left side

Finished Hoggle back side

Detailed view of his belt.

Because the dark color of the clay It might not be 100% Hoggle, but I thought it was pretty close. I like how he looks. Next thing is to make a mold. I wanted to make an easier sculpture to do a 1st attempt, but Hoggle had some trouble staying up right, due to the soft clay/ bad framing, which meant I had to quickly make some sort of mold of him before he fell over and all the work had been for nothing.

That's where I am at the moment. He is covered with several layers of latex, but I will show those steps when I'm completely done. Thanks to this latex shell he keeps his position and I can do a polyester shell when temperatures go up a bit more. (This has to be done outside, due to the awful stench)