Mutant Serf

[greenstuff_gav]

so, i'm torn between two crews for the GT so here's a wee run through of one of my potential candidates

now, Lord Inquisitor Ro Hymunin of the Ordo Hereticus has been a character of mine for a long while and has had a few incarnations and a few retinues.
Now, Lord Hymunin is somewhat bolshy and as a test he's been assigned a new serf; a penitent mutant
given his simple, puritan outlook on things they've ensured his new charge is somewhat durable and assigned a hunched, regenerating mutant

so, i've had a head/armless Slick knocking about for a long time and decided it was time to do something with him

so, out came some blue-tac and a variety of bits from the bits box.. from 2nd edition metal tyranid parts, new plastics (a carnifex claw was entertained for a while ) and even Ork stuff.
but in the end i settled on the arm from Magos Rownes' Servitor, some demon arm and a hand from the old Rackham Black Troll


surprisingly, once i'd found the bits he flew together pretty easily  

the head is a cast from my attempt to make a bits pack (which failed horribly ) but maybe coming off for a gimp-mask
i may cut the normal arms' sleeve to be tidy; this should help emphasise the bigger one is torn and stitched to fit
wanna add a sign to his chest saying "UNCLEAN" forced apon him by Ro and possibly a massive load of stuff for him to carry.. but that may require the normal arm reposing to be grabbing the inevitable strap across his chest...

so, alot still in the air but i'm hoping to get more done (work is crazy busy atm)... oh, and his general gaming role will look like this:

"Come on! Emperor help me. Why you are so useless?"
"'rry m'lor'..."

[Myriad]

Well, compared to that tank most minions would look fairly useless!

Love the mutant serf though, you can never have too many of those guys.

[MarcoSkoll]

so, i'm torn between two crews for the GT so here's a wee run through of one of my potential candidates

I had that exact problem. My recommendation for any apparent dilemma is to just flip a coin.
The beauty of this is that with the decision made for you, you will either be happy with it (in which case it's either the right choice, or it didn't matter), or unhappy with it - in which case, you know it's not the right choice and you should go with the other one.

It worked brilliantly for me.

[axiom]

Nice looking figure - it would be great to see the head painted as the pic doesn't show the details that well. He must find buying gloves a real nightmare with that oversized hand

[greenstuff_gav]

well, that head was a resin cast of a GW one, i've been pushing putty about but failing to get a head i like



failing that, could always convert malicants....

[kierkegaard]

I like it with Malicant's head. The resin head is too small (not enough head above the eye holes.) I really like the massive arm idea, and the whole mutant serf vibe has me reconsidering my plans for my scribe's servitor (I might make him into a cyborg/mutant.)

I'm looking forward to seeing it finished.

[MarcoSkoll]

I've been pushing putty about but failing to get a head I like

I usually find the problem with sculpting heads is not a lack of technical skill (although not being hamhanded does help), but a lack of understanding of the structures of the skull and proportions of the head.

While a mutant will allow some deviation from the norm and some scrappy work, it does however need to share a lot with a normal human head or it won't be a believable sub-human.

As far as I can see, the main issues here are:
- The face is very large for the skull, which also leaves him with a very small forehead and cranium (well, technically "Neurocranium", but I think you know what I mean).
- A complete lack of cheek bones
- A very wide, very straight mouth with no lips
- And a pretty square facial shape.

The first issue can fall under mutant deformity, but the lack of facial contours and introduction of straight lines will always make a face seem out of place.

~~~~~

Let's start with some reference. I'm using my face for this, as it's available - although not exactly a prime example of standard dimensions.
#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6.
Sorry about my general scruffiness, I seldom bother to shave and my hair has not been washed today because I was arguing with a microwave.

Despite it being explainable for a mutant, we'll address the first issue to begin with, as it does apply to other faces. Start with picture #6, and get out a ruler.

Now, I have a fairly narrow head which isn't quite at the normal ratio of approximately 2 units wide to 3 units high. But what it doesn't have is any hard corners or straight lines in the shape - while faces might often be described as "square", they're still pretty round overall.

Major proportions:  The eyes are approximately halfway up the head, with the mouth/eye-level distance is approximately 1/3rd of the face and the dorsum of the nose is approximately halfway between.
The eyes are about a fifth of the width of the head (not counting the tear duct) with one eye's width between them. (And the bridge of the nose fitted in between, obviously). Eyes are about 40% as tall as they are wide. The mouth is about two eye widths between the corners of the lips.
The nose varies quite a lot between faces, but usually between one, and one and a half eye widths across the wings.

While we're here, note that the mouth is not a straight line. Take your ruler and check. It's actually pretty wiggly, and bends quite sharply at the ends. (Although, do not over-exaggerate this curve on a sculpt!)

That covers the basic size and placement of most features. Bear in mind, that firstly, those are "standard" proportions - they change in small ways that give you new and different faces. Secondly, women tend to have smaller, narrower features.

Now, cheekbones. Picture #5.
As you can see, the face is not flat from this angle. You've got the curve of the chin, then a slight curve around the mouth, further widening as you go up, then curves around the cheekbone into the eye socket, and finally up and over the brow.
The other thing you can see here is the brow is not a ridge between the eye and the forehead - it leads in to the forehead.

Ears, picture #4. I'm looking down slightly in this shot, but you can see the top of the join between ear and head is about the same as eye level, the bottom around the same level as the tip or base of the nose.

This shot also shows how the lips shapes around the philtrum (groove between nose and lips) and curves back more smoothly into the rest of the face. Also, bear in mind the shape of the lips, particularly the flattened "M" of the upper lip.
Also, pay attention to the join between the back corner of the jaw and neck - it's not hugely pronounced.

Contours from the side, pictures #2 and #3.
See how much the chin and lips curve out of the face. I still occasionally still have the remnants of an overbite from when I was younger (I had really unpleasant braces that mostly fixed it, but if I'm holding my jaw wrong, it can still show up) and it's kinda bad in picture #2, so bear in mind, the jaw will not normally be set that far back.

Take a look at the forehead too - it's not smooth, but it is kinda flat. It doesn't suddenly curve backwards after the face is done. There's got to be room for the brain.

You can also see here how much a nose can vary in shape by angle - here the ridge is mostly straight, but look back at picture #4, and you can see it undulate from that angle.
On the matter of noses, they are not flat - the dorsum protrudes more than the "wings".

The neck, picture #1. It curves gradually up the back from the shoulders to meet with the rear of the cranium, and is about twice as wide as the chin's protrusion.
There's not much muscle definition on my neck, but on a particularly bulky character, there may well be.
Also note that the ear is halfway between the front and back of the head.

~~~~~

That's quite a lot, but it's trying to encourage a closer look at the shape of the face. Too many people rush into drawing or sculpting thinking they know what people look like, they know how a face is, etc, etc, when they've never actually looked properly at how people are shaped.

What they end up with is something that's wrong, they don't know how it's wrong, tell themselves it's because it must be really fiddly, then stop trying. This isn't true.

I managed Kai's head on literally my second attempt ever at a human face because I already knew how a human head was from my drawing.

The reason you're finding heads hard (I recall you had trouble with Annika as well) is not because of a lack of technical skill. You've easily got the technical skill, but what you've not ever done is sit and take a really close look at how a face actually is.

There's a book called "Drawing on the Right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards. You don't have to rush out and buy it (although it's not expensive - you can have it from Amazon for less than a tenner - and talks very interestingly about how art works in the brain and how to train your brain to do art), but I'll sum up some of the basics.

The brain is two halves. The analytical left half, and the creative right half. However, the problem for people trying learn art is that the left half is quicker and isn't developed for art.
It provides the wrong answer quicker than the right half can provide the correct answer. It works in simplified symbols - which is why if you ask most people to draw an eye... well, here's the difference between a line-art eye drawn by both the left brain and the right brain:


(Yes, I did put a lot more care and attention into one of those than the other... can you tell which one?)

The left brain reduces the eye to the basic symbol it thinks it is. The right brain can see the shapes and lines that are actually there. And that's the trick - you need to learn to see what is there, not what you think is there. Easier said than done, but it's done with a lot of looking really closely and carefully.
It also breaks your brain forever, I'd add. Once you've learnt how to see the world as seen by your right brain, you'll keep suddenly seeing things that now look weird and then wonder how you never noticed before. (And it's really annoying when you liked it up until then.)

In short, what you need is some pictures to study and learn the shapes of the face. Find references, and take in every single curve, line, bump and shape - use my pictures above if you can stomach looking at me for that long. But whatever you do, the last thing you want to be doing when you're doing a face is "guessing" what you think a face is like.

[DapperAnarchist]

Useful stuff there... though know I know what you look like, and can never again pretend you are some kind of very geeky wolf-man.

[greenstuff_gav]

well, i'm working on a couple of sculpted heads i thought i'd do a backup in case
not alot of work on the mutant (as the NPC for my GT Scenario requires alot of work) but slight update


hard to see, but he's having a handkerchief tied across his mouth to cover him up

also, thanks Marco; well useful read

[greenstuff_gav]

so, in a fit of insomnia, i've ended up with this;



and decided i don't like the conversion at all 

looks like Liwet and Stein will be partaking in the GT :lol:

[MarcoSkoll]

and decided i don't like the conversion at all

Pray tell why? I rather like it.

[kierkegaard]

I rather like it too. There is nothing wrong with it at all from my point of view. I really like the sign.

[Shannow]

I have to agree I think the conversion works very well, really gives the feeling that the large arms weighs a LOT

[judge-minos]

I add my voice to the others, it's good, love especially the giant arm

[precinctomega]

I, too, love the mini.  You need to finish the base, but apart from that, he looks like he'd make a great character.

R.