mars2williambulmer

[mars2williambulmer]

This robot looks like something straight out of an old sci-fi movie. It looks a little creepy, but otherwise it's impressive how this man turned a standard Amazon Alexa into a head with moving and tracking eyes.

It also reminds me of what people thought robots would look like in the future, especially because of the semi-realistic eyes.

[mars2williambulmer]

The design looks cool and the method behind it's creation can likely be used for other mundane objects to turn them into sci-fi creations.

[mars2williambulmer]

All of the ships in Star Wars were all hand-made by model makers using polystyrene sheets and random bits from other model kits and the way they designed them has inspired later generations of sci-fi artists and model makers.

[mars2williambulmer]

This actually looks really cool. I like how they used magnets to create a modular design, which allows the maker to take away and work on individual segments without harming the overall sculpture and even uses this aspect to play into the design by inferring moving parts.

I would definitely expect to see this in a fish tank as decoration and replacement for a real goldfish or as a toy for children in bathtubs in some far-future reality.

[mars2williambulmer]

Dan Dare Comics - Mekon and the parallels to Mars Attacks!

The first, very obvious common trait, is their appearance. Although the Martians in Mars Attacks! have no skin and are ghoulish in appearance, they share the same massive head and brain as the Mekon from Dan Dare, as well as their feeble appearance.

Appearance aside, the Mekon comes from a warfaring race called the Treens, which are commonly more physically gifted than the Mekon, which is genetically engineered to be a super genius and strategist, prioritising brains over brawn. Aside from the genetic engineering, the Martians also appear to be a warfaring race of aliens that came to Earth to raze it all to the ground and conquer the world without regard for loss of human life.

Based on these similarities, it is possible that Tim Burton took some inspiration from the Dan Dare comics for his own film, although most of it seemed to come from the Topps trading card game of the same name.

[mars2williambulmer]

Prompts

Azazel - Taught humanity forbidden knowledge and is the scapegoat for all sin humanity has committed (these vary based on faith).

Whip Spider - A unique type of spider that has hands. It's allegedly pretty harmless, it just looks a lot scarier than it actually is.

Hyperbolic Polyhedron - This is more like a classification of a shape instead of it being any one shape. Below is a 'right-angled hyperbolic polyhedron'.

[mars2williambulmer]

Variety of ceramics artists

Andile Dyalvane, 'Nkcokocha (Mountain Peak)', 2016

Katie Spragg, 'Wilderness', 2016

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran and Brian Rochefort

The pieces by Katie Spragg and Andile Dyalvane both look interesting and as if they could have an intriguing story behind them, but the sculptures by Ramesh and Brian both look absolutely terrible. They likely have a story behind it in the same way as the others, but I can't get past the ghastly appearance.

[mars2williambulmer]

Philippe Faraut

Philippe's work is high quality and highly detailed and despite me being very new to sculpting with clay, I can see that he has used some similar techniques and methodology, especially when looking at the hair. It's more about the overall impression and shape than it is defining every single strand, yet somehow it gives a very realistic impression.

I also just really like his style. His work is obviously grounded in realism but, in some pieces more than others, you can see he's taken some creative liberties and kind of "stretched reality".

[mars2williambulmer]

Fallen angels

A range of angels from Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons - they vary but each include a human element or form with some kind of wings. The wings vary - bat or feather - they vary from actual descriptions in the bible. Fallen angels often look more like devils or have charred/blackened wings to signify their fall.

We often depict angels as humanoid creatures although they're anything but. They're described as spiritual beings that can take many forms, often human with a bronze/gemstone glow or radiance, though there are some passages in the bible that describe a form like the image above. The bible also states that whatever form an angel takes, they strike fear into any human, especially if they're showing their more otherworldly forms.

This otherworldly, incomprehensible form of theirs and how it strikes a supernatural fear into us, was likely one of the earliest inspirations for eldritch horror.

[mars2williambulmer]

More ideas for bony/decrepit wings

Flaming Fist Marcus, corrupted by Myrkul the god of death (Baldur's Gate 3)

Death Rite Bird (Elden Ring) - Keepers of Death from a forgotten age, before Death itself was sealed away

[mars2williambulmer]

Skellig

In order to sell the fact that my sculpture is that of an angel, I was told it needed some sort of indication, like the top of a wing unfurling. However, the angel in question is at least based off of Azazel, a fallen angel who taught humanity forbidden knowledge and sin, so instead of a normal wing I thought about adding something more decrepit and bony, similar to the owl man from Skellig.

[mars2williambulmer]

More "final outcome" pictures.

[mars2williambulmer]

Showcasing the "final" outcome, in case what I do next causes the entire thing to collapse.

[mars2williambulmer]

Some progress pictures and more messing around with Snapchat filters..

It also no longer looks like Daniel Craig, which is a success for me.

[mars2williambulmer]

Clay model head references

After being advised to take this as an opportunity to change the way I work and the material I would work with, I solely focused on Azazel, the Fallen Angel, from my prompt and looked up some androgynous male models. This is, in part, to create a sense of "otherness" and ambiguity. In a lot of different media, angels are depicted as ethereal figures with gender being a concept that didn't necessarily apply to the servants of God and I wanted to capture that.

[mars2williambulmer]

Before starting the sculpture, I watched half of this video to gain a general understanding of the initial process, though it's hard for me to directly reference while I'm working. It was easy to watch and he had some very clear guidance, I'll likely look for more videos on his channel for when I decide to work with clay again.

[mars2williambulmer]

Added some extra width to the neck and messed around with adding some hair with the intention to remove it later.